8 Quick Tips to Help Your Content Marketing Efforts Succeed

Putting together an email marketing campaign and hitting inboxes is no longer enough, and it hasn’t been for quite some time. Today, consumers are much more cautious and selective with their spending dollars and are significantly less loyal to any one brand. As a result, marketing strategies have shifted to rely on interactive marketing solutions to deliver the right message to the right person at precisely the right time. The key to improve customer relationships is to understand your audience and learn more about what they as a consumer want to know from your brand. Instead of viewing customers as basic groups, all with the same wants, needs and interests, consider how all those things might differ between each, and develop content to engage each group appropriately. Use email to get to know customers better, and then deliver relevant content based on what you learn. After learning more about your audience, use these 8 tips below to help make your content marketing efforts succeed:

1. Ensure all content passes the “So what?” test

What should the reader take away? Where is the benefit? Why should we listen to you? Especially if you’re in B2B – the goal of content marketing is usually to inspire trust, grow your reputation and influence your market. Throw-away content accomplishes none of these things.

2. Create remarkable content, take chances

With some 900,000 blog posts published every 24 hours, and more than 20 hours of video uploaded every minute to YouTube, how do you expect to stand out with “vanilla” content? If you’re going to play it safe or regurgitate what is being done by others you’ve got almost no chance to succeed. Strive to consistently break the mold, be an unmissable resource or in some way stand out to make your content heard.

3. Personality is essential

It’s always easier to connect with content that has a voice and personality behind it. Personality and emotion are lacking in most corporate and business communications, and this has carried over into the content marketing efforts of many. But, infusing these elements within your content marketing strategy can be a powerful way to not just speak to prospects but connect with them.

4. Content should forge connections

Your content marketing can also accomplish another valuable goal: building connections and relationships. Connections can help build inbound links, increase shares in social channels and ultimately help your content gain visibility. Incorporation of these connections should be worked into the content artfully and naturally. Readers may not even realize what is happening, but those you are trying to forge connections with will.

5. Worry less about perfection, more about tone

Be less concerned with being perfect and more concerned with being earnest, thoughtful and genuine. Perfection is severely overrated and minor flaws are forgivable, we’re all human!

6. Make content scan-able (and attractive)

Make no mistake, your prospects are busy. By making your content scan-able, you increase the propensity they will not just scan that content, but if the parts that catch their eye during the scan are worthwhile they will go back to read it. Use headlines, bold text, get creative with your formatting, get designers involved – do whatever it takes to make content attractive and scan-able.

7. Draft sticky headlines

Follow basic headline writing tips and work to create headlines that entice potential visitors to your content in the first place. Without an enticing email subject line, your email your spent all that time crafting won’t even get opened.

8. Consistency and quality

As we’ve noted here before, every company is now in essence a media company. The quality of your content is how prospects will imagine your service or product to be, and the consistency you produce that content is a signal to how dedicated you are. Both are required.

What content marketing tips have you found most helpful?