Five Keys to Better Content Marketing

The June edition of The Business Review USA is now live!

By: Adam Groff

Content marketing has been around in one form or another ever since billboards became part of big city skylines.

A lot has changed since then and with the Internet, content marketing is something else entirely. Nowadays, your marketing efforts have an onslaught of other content to compete with in order to grab a customer’s attention.

In order to get your marketing to stand out like a big, attention-grabbing billboard on computer screens everywhere, here are five ways to better your business’s content marketing strategies:

1. Go Viral

Simply put, going viral happens overnight.

But, if you think uploading just any old marketing video will get you viral status, think again. A viral marketing campaign must be engaging, original, creative, and reach a wide audience, which takes time and effort.

Once you’ve created a stellar marketing video, you have to get it out there to your audience. Sites like YouTube and Vimeo are great places to start because they have massive built-in audiences. And, if your video is professional and captivating, you might just be rewarded with a viral amount of views and traffic to your site.

2. Create Quality Content

It’s common sense, but many businesses still seem to forget – in order for content marketing to be effective, the content itself must be high quality.

Customers are looking for content that’s original, informative, and unlike anything else on the Internet.

Look at it this way: your marketing is only as good as your content. So, write attention-grabbing content that not only sells your brand, but also keeps current customers engaged while generating future leads.

Read related content:

• Branding and Your Website
• Human Resources Solutions for Your Small Business
• Know How to Shop for Your Company's Marketing Software
• Is Your Networking Not Working?

3. Manage Your Content

In keeping with the idea of quality content, managing content is also a crucial step in marketing. Having a ton of fresh content is one thing, but moving that content across the Internet to the right places is another.

In other words, if your business doesn’t know where its content lives, it won’t know which audience it’s reaching. A great way to stay on top of your business’s marketing attempts is by tracking inbound and outbound links within the marketing campaigns so you know which customers you’re reaching and where.

4. Get Social

Content marketing through social media is on every business’s strategy list, so it probably goes without saying.

But, to hammer the point home a little further, any business that wants to take online content marketing seriously must use social media.

Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are an ever-present part of society and businesses that go the social route will gain their customer’s trust that much faster. Starting a Facebook fan page or tweeting on a regular basis will create a bond between your business and your audience.

5. Give Out Personalized Freebies

Customers love freebies; not only do freebies give customers an incentive to visit your website, they literally help sell your brand.

Offer your customers a little something in the form of a discount or buy one, get one through your content marketing.

And, while you’re at it, make your special offers even more special by personalizing the content. Not every sentence has to have individual customers in mind, but content that includes the name of your customer looks a lot better than “Dear Valued Customer.”

By following just a few of the tips above, your business’s content marketing can stand out among the rest and draw attention better than any billboard ever will.

About the Author: Adam Groff is a freelance writer and creator of content. He writes on a variety of topics including personal health, time tracking software, and business marketing.