So you’ve got your content strategy, editorial calendar and social media presence all in order. But how do you get people to read your articles? It turns out that getting readers interested in your content is actually much trickier than it sounds.
Fortunately, there are many ways to make your article marketing efforts more effective. When it comes to article marketing, the principles are the same as with any other type of content marketing: Content is king and Your audience is the primary focus. The only way to know what content will interest your potential readers is by doing some research first. Here are 6 steps that will help you become a great article marketer.
6 Steps to Become a Great Article Marketer
So you’ve seen the data and heard the buzz. Content marketing is a game-changing strategy that will propel your brand to new heights. But how can you make this happen for your organization? Content marketing is not exactly rocket science, but it’s not as straightforward as, say, running an ad campaign. It’s a process that involves a lot of thought and planning. So if you’re thinking of implementing content marketing at your company, here are a few things you should know first. While there are no hard and fast rules for content marketing success, we’ve noticed some trends among the most successful content marketers out there. Here are some tips from their strategies that will help you get started on the right track with your own content marketing plan.
Define your marketing objectives
The first step to content marketing success is to pinpoint your marketing objectives. You need to be clear on what you want to get out of your content efforts and have a plan to achieve them. There may be several reasons that you are implementing content marketing: – Brand awareness: You want to get your name out there to build recognition for your brand. – Customer acquisition: You want to drive more sales by acquiring new customers. – Customer retention: You want to ensure that your current customers keep buying from you. – Lead generation: You want to drive leads to your website from a variety of sources by attracting more prospects. – Lead nurturing: You want to educate prospects with your content so you can turn them into customers at the right time for your business. Marketing objectives may overlap, but you need to focus on one primary objective for your content marketing campaign. This will help you identify the types of content you should create and where you should distribute them.
Start with the content framework
As mentioned, content marketing is not a one-off activity. It’s a continuous process that will take some time to get right. While you can’t expect to change your brand’s image overnight, you can start putting the wheels in motion. A good place to start is by creating a content framework. Basically, this is the skeleton of your content strategy—the foundation on which you’ll build your content marketing efforts. The content framework can vary depending on your objectives. But the most common frameworks for content marketing include: – The problem/solution framework: This is the most common approach to content marketing. You identify a problem your target audience is facing and create content to solve that problem. – The trend/opportunity framework: You identify a popular trend that your audience would be interested in, and you create content around it. – The buyer’s journey framework: The buyer’s journey outlines the steps customers go through when making a purchase. It helps you identify the stages of the process where you can create content that will be relevant to your audience.
Find your target audience(s)
The next step in your content marketing plan is to identify your target audience(s). This is essential because you need to know who you’re creating your content for. You can’t just hope they’ll magically stumble upon it. You need to get that content in front of them. There are a few ways you can go about this: – Use your marketing objectives to identify your target audience: If you’ve identified your marketing objectives, you should have a good idea of the kind of customers you want to attract. – Conduct a content gap analysis: This will help you identify topics that are missing from your content strategy. You can either do this internally or use a tool like the Content Gap Analysis to get a birds-eye view of your situation. – Outsource the research: If you’re feeling a little stuck, you can outsource the research to a team of specialists who will do the legwork for you.
Decide on your content types
Once you’ve identified your target audiences, you can decide on your content types. This is closely related to identifying your target audiences, as you need to tailor your content to your audiences’ interests. There are a few types of content we’ve noticed among the most successful content marketers out there: – Educational content: This is content that aims to educate your audience about a specific topic. – How-to content: This is content that shows your audience how to do something. – Inspirational content: This is content that inspires your audience to take action. – Interesting content: This is content that is purely meant to entertain your audience.
Plan your editorial calendar
Your editorial calendar is the calendar you use to plan your content. It’s the document where you write down all the content you plan to create for your brand. Different kinds of content have different timelines. Your educational content, for example, may take a month to write. But your promotional content may only take a week. The trick is to create a calendar based on your team’s capacity. Whatever content you create, it should be aligned with your marketing objectives. For example, if your objective is to generate leads, then you should create content that helps your audience make a purchasing decision.
Final thoughts
Now that you know how to become a great article marketer, it’s time to put your plan into action. Implementing a content marketing strategy is a challenging process. It may not be easy—especially if you’re new to content marketing. But if you follow this 6-step guide, you’re well on your way to success.