Marketing content exists for only one purpose - to get conversions. Content marketers spend hours of time and energy ensuring that their content is creative, compelling, shared, and spread all over the place. And, given the constant changes in search engine algorithms, the fickleness of target audiences, the changing in popularity of devices, and so on, content marketing is like a giant race to keep up, a race that's not going away anytime soon. To ensure you're maximizing your efforts in this regard, here are 10 things that can help a marketer keep pace of the content evolution.
1. Be Mindful of Generation "C"
This is the "connected" generation, those 18-34 year olds who are now responsible for $500 billion in internet spending each year. And in just a few more years, they will make up 75% of the workforce. Here are a few characteristics of this group that should impact your marketing strategies:
- They're connected all the time
- They're disconnected from traditional attempts of businesses to reach them, even via content marketing
- They rely on friends for recommendations
- They don't want to be "pushed"
- They want reasons to read and share - they're amused, they're entertained, they're asked to participate, they see cleverness, they see authenticity, and they see social responsibility
Many of the 9 following considerations relate directly to this audience and what they find appealing.
2. Focus on Your Brand as Genuine
The current and future generation of your target market is looking for truth, not glitz. They want to know who you are and who they're purchasing from. They want to know the people behind the brand. This, of course, is a large part of the relationship building effort of which most content marketers are aware. Upping this element of your campaign, however, will be vital. Videos, photos, and human interest stories related to your team will become increasingly important over time.
Interesting: What Is the Personality Type of Your Brand?
3. Get a Cause
Sales of Tom's shoes are soaring because the company found a cause - putting shoes on the feet of deprived people all over the world. For every pair of shoes they sell, a pair is donated.
Today's customer is not as concerned about the price of their individual pair of shoes. The value of being a part of a cause is equally important.
4. Readability
We already know that writing to an 8th-9th grade reading level is ideal. But readability also means that people can "get" your content on any device. Developing a mobile first strategy must happen now. Content strategy design must cater to mobile devices first and foremost, and more can be added for PC's as a secondary consideration, considering that PC usage will continue to decline.
5. Constant Invitations to Participate
Hold contests as often as possible; invite your viewers to "vote" on your new logo design; put out surveys that are meaningful and make people feel their opinions are valued. Let viewers have some fun - Jack Daniels invited its followers to submit pictures of the weirdest bars in the world, with the winner featured in an ad.
6. Honor Your Customers
Feature a customer of the week through a photo and human interest story. Keep it up until viewers are connecting just to get the next story in the series.
7. Use Visuals More Than Text
Visitors want to "see" what you have to say, not read it. Every time you have a new idea for content, think first about how you can visually represent it - video, podcast, infographic, photo, etc.
8. Have a Plan for Generating Content Ideas
You must have a full file of content ideas at all times, and all of your team members should participate in this. Listen to customers and potential customers, come up with questions they might ask, seek to have at least 50 questions in your file at all times. Do this and you'll never have to go looking for the next topic for a post.
9. Focus on CTA's that Generate Email Addresses
Most of the time, traffic to your site, your blog, or your social media pages is controlled by someone other than you - a search engine, shares by others, etc. You need to have some control over the distribution and spread of your content, and one way to get that is to maintain a constantly growing email base. Give viewers plenty of opportunities to provide their email addresses, then get really creative with the titles of your emails so they'll actually open them. Put share buttons in those emails too.
10. Use a Combination of Sales Psychology and Current Neuroscience
85% of purchasing is emotional; only 15% is logical. Get into the research that neuroscience is now providing regarding which parts of the brain are stimulated by what. There's quite a marriage now between psychology and neuroscience, using that in your content marketing is a great strategy.
Photos by: www.sitebuilderreport.com.