Content Marketing - 10 ways to get it right

Businesses seem to be getting in an awful muddle about Content Marketing.  They may now understand that it’s a good thing to put helpful resources on their website but they're still using a  hit and miss approach.

So let’s go back to marketing basics.

1. Who is your target market?
2. What would they like to know in terms of your solution to their challenge? Remember the old saying – if you want to sell what Bill Smith buys you must look at the world through Bill Smith’s eyes.
3. We are a cynical bunch so use data and cite sources.
4. We are a time-pressed bunch so use bullet points and visuals and straightforward language so we don’t have to concentrate to get what you're saying.
5. The quality of your resources is a direct reflection of the quality of your brand so take time to create resources of which you can be rightly proud. And please – check your spelling.
6. Content Marketing is an ongoing process so try to find subjects that can be approached from many different angles.  Try to take a new view – the same old same old is unlikely to be shared.
7. Have you delivered your content in a medium that works for your target market? Don’t automatically create a lengthy white paper when you might have created a more palatable video.
8. How does your target market find new content? Where and how are you going to promote your resources?
9. What do you want your customers to do once they have read your content?  What have you put in place to give them a reason to act in order to move them along in the purchasing process?
10. Measure and Monitor your output and any results otherwise you are wasting time and – if outsourcing the function – money.

By the way there’s no coincidence that most of the above applies to all things marketing.  A new shiny marketing label doesn’t negate the usual pragmatic marketing approach 

If you would like to read more on the subject these two posts might also be useful to you:

What is Content Marketing?

How to do Content Marketing which works

How to do content marketing which works – just like the supermarkets

You are likely to see the phrase “Content Marketing” everywhere. If you haven’t quite understood what it means you might find a previous April post useful.

Many companies have already scrambled to put resources on their websites but this is not something to which you can pay lip service. I believe many businesses fail to understand the necessary thinking behind creating those useful resources.

One area that has long since sussed out Content Marketing – in fact even before it was called that – are supermarkets with their in house magazines. A recent Tesco issue provides a superb example:

For a start it is FREE – thereby overcoming any objections to look at it in the first place.

Then it is RELEVANT AND TIMELY– with a photo of a Pumpkin and “Great Halloween ideas for all the family”

Prominently at the front are the coupons – SPECIAL OFFERS – that I have only seen by picking up this magazine – and encouraging me to pick up the next one.

They are SHOWING ME OTHER WAYS OF LINKING TO THEM by talking about their updated app AND places on their website where I can find more great information.

Then the issue is packed with information which will APPEAL TO THEIR TARGET MARKET

• Recipe’s beautifully photographed in appealing lifestyle settings
• Crafts
• Health Concerns
• Saving Money
• Keeping children occupied during half term
• Hair and Make-up
• Prize Draws

They are also PROFILING NEW PRODUCTS but only here and there not in a way that feels like selling.

In step with making all companies feel more PERSONAL AND TRANSPARENT, they are sharing the stories of the people behind the products. THIS IS IN STEP WITH THEIR CURRENT MARKETING “Made by passionate people”

They are MAKING IT SUPER EASY FOR THEIR TARGET MARKET TO BUY FROM THEM - for example with a page of EMPATHETIC “meal maths” where their busy target market can whip round the supermarket to buy ingredients for meals that will take 20 minutes or less to make.

Although this is printed media, Tesco back up a lot of the information on their www. tescomagazine.com/foodandliving.html website. Click into recipes on here and you CAN EASILY SHARE THE INFORMATION WITH LIKE-MINDED PEOPLE by using the Pinterest button which appears on every recipe.

So - for all you scan readers out there - look at the words in capital letters throughout this post to make sure you are going about content marketing in a way that will actually work!

In 2012 Tesco Magazine was announced as the UK's biggest read - that's no coincidence...

Here's the info on this- appropriately enough via the Content Marketing Association.

Thanks to photosteve101 on Flickr for the image (www.planetofsuccess.com/blog)

What is content marketing?

In a nutshell, content marketing is the creation and sharing of educational content with the express purpose of attracting, engaging and acquiring potential customers. 

It’s also helpful in terms of the ongoing nurturing of existing client relationships and, done well, it acts as a ... 

The complete and updated version of this post is now here