Tom Welbourne
Helping Small and Medium Businesses Achieve Their Full Marketing Potential | Digital Marketing Expert
What Should Be In Your Content Marketing Strategy
- April 23, 2019
- , 9:19 am
There are certain steps you can take to optimise your content marketing strategy to get the most out of the content you are putting out.
People will often write anything just to say they’ve put out content for the week which isn’t the way to go.
With so much content out there now and every company publishing to their blog on a weekly basis, it is now more important than ever to make sure that your content is of a quality standard.
When planning your content marketing strategy for the month or year, you want to make sure that you are covering the 4 basics:
Educate
Entertain
Inform
Inspire
In this article, we’ll help you cover the points above so that your content is hitting all 4…
EDUCATE YOUR AUDIENCE
If you’re selling a product or service then you should know more about the industry that your product or service is in than your target audience.
People are looking for companies that know more than they do so that they can draw on the information you have learnt from trial & error.
Would you take football advice from someone who has never kicked a ball in their life?
No, and it’s the same for whatever industry you are in.
You need to be seen as a leader who has knowledge that is worth passing on in order to educate your audience.
What is an example of content that is educational?
Ebooks
Guides
How-To’s
Surveys
Research your carried out
There is so much knowledge to be passed on just from the day-to-day operations of businesses that you’d surprised what you can provide that people will find valuable.
FYI – Don’t be scared to give all your best bits of info away, thinking that people will take it and run away.
The more you give to your audience, the more they will trust you, see you as a credible source and want to do business with you.
Give as much away as you can and give people your best-kept secrets that your competitors aren’t prepared to do. Your audience will thank you and return the favour by picking your brand when they are ready to do business with you.
ENTERTAIN YOUR AUDIENCE
It’s not all education, however.
People want to be entertained, hence the rise of Netflix, Facebook & Instagram + news outlets.
As much as people want to be educated, if you analysed what most people spend their time doing, it would come down to be entertained.
Education is technically entertainment, but we want to make a clear difference between the two here at The Good Marketer.
Entertainment could account for content such as:
Day in the life videos
Funny GIFS, videos, images etc
Stories & narratives
If you go on most fitness Youtubers pages, you will find that day in the life or eating challenges rank near the top of their most viewed videos of all time.
Why?
People find these sort of topics entertaining because we are nosy and enjoy seeing what peoples daily lives are like.
This is why reality T.V shows are so popular because they give us an insight into what is going into that person’s life at a particular time.
You will also want to create content that is shareable and has the potential to go viral.
Are you part of a group chat on Whatsapp that mainly consists of your friends sharing funny videos they’ve found?
You can be the owner of content like this that gets shared by groups of people.
Think of ways to entertain people that will get them laughing and eager to share your GIF, image or video!
The other appeal reality T.V shows have is that they have a story to them, just like soap operas.
There’s a story to it that has people wanting to go straight to the next episode to find out what happened next.
Just because you’re not on T.V, doesn’t mean you can’t create your own narrative that has people on their edge of their seats waiting to see what happens next.
Plot out a storyline and document your business journey.
Small businesses and start-ups are perfect for this as they’ll be at the beginning of their story still and they’ll be plenty of plot twists that you can tell your audience about.
INFORM YOUR AUDIENCE
Similar to educating and entertaining, informing content is a mixture of the two.
Whatever industry your in will have on-going news that you can talk about to keep your audience up to date so that they are informed.
If there aren’t any news-worthy articles that you can talk about then make the news yourself.
You be the news outlet for your industry.
Sure, you might not have as much news as an industry such as football or sport, but there will be something new and exciting that your audience will find interesting.
INSPIRE YOUR AUDIENCE
People love to be inspired and if you type in motivational videos on Youtube, you’ll find a plethora of motivational content that has millions of views.
Your audience wants to be left feeling positive after reading/watching your content.
Make an effort to provide some inspiration such as:
Testimonials from happy customers
Quotes related to your industry
Stories about people in your industry who achieved success etc
You’re a personal trainer?
Show the before and after photos of how much weight one of your clients lost.
Run a business related to golf?
Talk about how Tiger Woods just made one of the greatest comebacks in history by winning the Masters.
SUMMARY
As you’ve probably realised, the 4 points above can overlap and you can create content that both educates and inspires people.
When creating content, try to cover at least one of those 4 points and you’ll be on your way in providing valuable content that leaves your audience with a smile on their face.
Don’t just create generic content that you think your audience would like, think about the golden principle in any marketing endeavour – “what’s in it for me”.
What is in it for your audience?
Need help learning how to put a content marketing strategy in place that provides on-going organic traffic for your small business?
Talk to one of our content marketing specialists here at The Good Marketer, a digital marketing agency based in London and schedule a FREE no-obligation call 🙂
