6 Content Marketing Strategies for Beginners

I am sure you would have heard the term “Content Marketing Strategy”. This is indeed a buzzword of 2012, but what exactly is it? A content marketing strategy is a kind of marketing technique that allows you to create and distribute valuable and relevant content to attract users, with the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Creating valuable content and promoting it online is certainly an excellent way for businesses to establish their brand, advertise their products and services, establish dexterity and aid in Search Engine Optimization through link building. Nowadays, you can see numerous companies implementing content marketing strategies not only to build long term relationships with their customers but to generate more traffic to their websites or blogs as well.

Here are some actionable tips on how to build a solid foundation for your content marketing strategy.

  • Nail down your specific marketing need: As a beginner, your first step should be to create incredible content that meets the needs and desires of your prospective target audience. Identifying your target demographic is the most important step in any content marketing strategy. You will end up delivering your content to the wrong audience and ultimately waste your time and efforts if you fail in this step. So ensure that you provide valuable content that piques the interest of those who receive it.

  • Sharpen your key talking points: Your next step should be to identify and sharpen your key talking points. When it comes to writing, hundreds of things that you have experienced or heard of will come to your mind, but you can’t write about all of them. Your goal is to focus on the specific things that will grab the attention of your target audience.

  • Publish authority content: If you publish your content on your website or blog, you will receive only limited exposure. Create global exposure by reaching different communities through different content portals. For this, you may have to research on the channels and formats that your customers prefer and accordingly decide on how and where to publish your content to extend your reach. There are many industry publications and blogs where you can publish your content in a variety of formats. Some of them are Biznik, IdeaMarketers, Evan Carmichael, Scribd, Hubpages, Slideshare, YouTube and Online PR Media.

  • Create a content calendar: Creating a content calendar is one of the most important elements in any content marketing strategy. Your company might have plenty of content to publish based on real-time news and activities in your industry. Hence for an effective content marketing program you need a well-planned content calendar. A content calendar enables you to stay focused and adds structure to your content marketing efforts. It also helps you to save time and makes the content development process successful. With a content calendar, you can create a tentative outline of the days you have published content in a week. You can also keep track of the dates of publication, platforms, the social channels in which it will be distributed and so on.

  • Diversify your content for global reach: It’s now the right time to start thinking of how to make use of existing content in an effective way, so that it receives global exposure. Fear not! A single piece of content can be made available in different formats which will be appreciated by different people across the globe. This multiplies the sharing possibilities for your content. You can diversify your content into videos, research guides, podcasts, blogs, slideshow presentations, webinars, infographics, eBooks, press releases and much more.

  • Monitor, engage and gauge your performance: Finally, you have to monitor, engage and gauge your performance. Allow your users to speak and listen to them. Use opportunities to interact with them and get to know what they expect from you. Respond to their comments and try to get their feedback so that you can utilize it to enhance your efforts. Monitoring and measuring results is the only way to know what’s working and what needs tuning.

With these tips, you can start creating an efficient content marketing strategy for your business. Your content should not just grab the attention of your audience, but should encourage them to learn more about you and eventually, do business with you. Remember that you are a marketer and not a journalist.

Image Credit:zeldman

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9 comments

Karan December 26, 2012 - 3:40 pm
Nice tips for beginners. Thank You
Quality Seo Services December 28, 2012 - 12:23 am
A content marketing strategy is a necessary component of any businesses marketing mix. You must have a strategy that will take you from where your business is currently to your goal.
Au Pair December 28, 2012 - 7:09 am
Thank you for good information . This information is very helpful to me because I am Beginner in the this internet marketing.
cheap web development india December 28, 2012 - 7:24 am
Good tips, One should keep in mind certain basics while writing a content 1. Lucid Language 2. Proper use of Punctuation 3. Proper Grammar 4. No keyword stuffing 5. Proper use of Keyword density and keyword volume 6. Killing Titles 7. Proper formatting etc
Ti Roberts January 1, 2013 - 1:45 pm
What a thorough post, Brian. You covered a lot of the key points to devising an effective content marketing strategy. I especially like what you said about creating a content calendar. It's extremely important to plan out your content releases, including your blog posts, newsletter emails and even promo emails you want to send to your customer list. I also liked what you mentioned about diversifying your global reach. Doing this is a great way to tap into new audiences and open up an entirely new traffic source for your blog. I plan on doing that this year and focusing on video creation on YouTube. This will help me expand my reach even further and do wonders for building up my brand. Thanks for sharing your insights on marketing strategies. I'm glad to have found this post on bizsugar.com. Ti
Content Optimization Services January 3, 2013 - 8:18 am
Yeah, Awesome Post. Content is the most important part of SEO and it is the key to reach success. If the content is high quality and informative then it provide great directions to reach customers quickly.
Nick Stamoulis January 3, 2013 - 9:44 am
Look for guest posting opportunities in your niche. In addition to building inbound links to your site it will generate visibility among target audience members and traffic to your site.
Kristina Gallegos January 7, 2013 - 8:29 am
Even by doing all of that you are not guaranteed to succeed. Although, I agree that you odds are greatly increased.
muscle pain relief January 15, 2013 - 12:10 am
Really a great Post . Content is the most important part of SEO and it is the key to touch the heights of sky. If the content is high quality and informative then it provide great directions to reach customers quickly and making your site fantastic.
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