Content Marketing
Content Marketing
Content Marketing
Written word
Audio
Video
Images
We mainly talk about writing, audio, and video here on
Copyblogger, so we’ll go through each of those different
kinds of content later in this post.
Now you need to step into their shoes and walk through
their customer journey.
The better you know your audience, the easier this will be to
determine.
Building an audience
That’s exactly what Brian Clark did in the early days to build
Copyblogger.
You may have heard that people today have lower than
average attention spans, but I agreed with Copyblogger’s
Editor-in-Chief, Stefanie Flaxman, when she said:
Written word
Blogging
Posts
Tags
Categories
The post is your actual written text. Think of it as a single
episode or unit of content. There’s usually one topic that
gets explored throughout the length of the post.
SEO
I’m not talking about tricking the system here. That used to
work back in the day, but as search engines have improved,
those kinds of “black hat” techniques have all but
disappeared.
Now, it works much better to work with the search engine,
and in order to do that, you need to first understand how
search engines work and what their motives are.
That’s why you often see millions of results when you search
on Google. They’re literally showing you every webpage in
existence that mentions the thing you typed in.
Now let’s talk about the art of engaging your readers with
the written word. I’m talking about copywriting.
Copywriting
Have you ever read one of those long ads on Facebook all
the way through? Or watched a hilarious commercial, like
the one for the Squatty Potty or Dollar Shave Club?
But what does that have to do with you and your content
marketing?
After all, you’re just writing a blog. You don’t need to know
anything about writing good copy do you?
Wrong.
That’s not what you want. So keep your writing simple and
to-the-point.
Recap
Email might sound old school, but it’s still one of the most
effective and powerful forms of marketing that exist.
List building
That might sound like a bold statement (and it is) but it’s
also true.
The truth is, the number of people who read and share your
content simply doesn’t matter if your bottom line doesn’t
change.
There are a few ways you can do this, but the most effective
is to offer something of value in exchange for their email
address.
Use that to create a piece of content you can offer for free.
A PDF checklist
A mini-course
A free video or lesson from a course
A free sample
A free call or consultation
A free quote
The list is endless. It’s really only limited by your
imagination.
Automation
The only catch is that you need email software to make this
happen. Most of the options are either far too complex and
difficult to use, or too simple and limit what you’re able to
do.
Newsletters
Recap
Let’s look at the key things you need to know about starting
a podcast.
But if that’s a bit too much for right now, Pat Flynn, host of
the Smart Passive Income and Ask Pat
podcasts, recommends a $60 mic that he says is just as
good as his $400 mic. So you can get pro-level audio for
under $100.
That’s a mistake.
Video marketing
Vlogging
Start with the things you talk about over and over again and
build from there.
Whiteboard videos
The same goes for animating and editing the video. If you
don’t have the skills to do that yourself or in-house, you can
easily find a freelancer to help you out on those same
platforms.
Product reviews
This might surprise you, but product reviews are one of the
most common types of video content.
Physical products, software, apps, you name it. If it exists,
people want to see a review of it so they can feel confident in
their buying decision.
You want to attract people who are likely to be a good fit for
your business.
But the content has to be great. The advice you’re giving, the
information you’re sharing, needs to be well-planned and
well-executed.
Offer them your free content, so you can get their email
address and continue to build a relationship.
Recap
And it’s a great way to build the know, like, and trust factor
that helps people feel comfortable doing business with you.
Shareability
Consistency
Engagement
Shareability
Consistency
Engagement
There are real people on the other end of the line, viewing
your content, liking it, commenting on it, and sharing with
friends.
It’s an unbelievably powerful way to directly connect with
your audience and build a tribe. A group of people who
believe the same things and come together around a
common purpose.
Through social media, you can build that. But it starts with
creating content your ideal customer wants to interact with,
and then responding to each and every single comment you
get.
It’s easy to think that with more traffic, your problems will
be solved. It begins this mad chase to get more traffic at all
costs that can cost a lot of money and end up taking more
time and energy than it’s worth.
Here’s an example:
It might seem small, but these tiny little details can make or
break your sale.
The speed that your page loads plays another important role
in your conversion rate.
To test your page speed, you can use this tool from Google.
Recap
With just a few simple CRO tweaks, you can double or even
triple your conversion rate.