One of the leading providers of omnichannel marketing analytics, Beckon, stated that only 5% of branded content garners 90% of total consumer engagement.
Yes, the brand-generated content volume is increasing up 300% year-over-year, but it doesn’t guarantees ‘effectiveness’. Hence, if you have been creating swarms of content, there are chances that you are not reaching up to the desired success level.
Don’t worry! Here you will find your solution. Keep reading…
- Need to bring in new customers?
- Want to educate your users?
- Looking forward to drive better revenue?
- Or want to build a powerful brand name for your business?
For all your needs, the solution is in the power of a content marketing strategy. And it is not just we saying that, stats have the same story to share.
70% of B2B marketers surveyed say that they created more content in 2017 as compared to what they did back in 2016. Certainly, the trend is showing no signs of getting on the down scale in 2018 too. The reason is quite simple; your content strategy involves creation, publication, and distribution of content which entices your target audience, bring new traffic, and of course, new customers to your business. This is what every business eventually needs, right? But still you won’t be able to get the desired traffic on your blog post or website, why?
So far, you might have heard how vital content creation is, but it is equally important to know that it has evolved immensely with each passing year. Do you know 94% of B2B small businesses use content marketing?
But how many of these small businesses are successful?
Not many! Actually, in the struggle of creating more and more content, marketers often forget to focus on some major attributes, which leads to their failure or lagging behind their contenders. So, it is not about just creating ‘any’ content.
It includes much more;
- How unique it will be?
- For whom you’re creating it?
- What format do you follow?
- What problem it’s going to solve for your audience?
- Where you will publish it?
- What about the sharing strategy?
The list can be really long!
Hence, before your dive in to create your content strategy, don’t forget to check for those 5 majorly ignored attributes:
Missing out on Your PERSONA
Have you been producing content for a longer time and receiving zilch engagement?
Then probably you have been doing it for wrong people! Working on a strategy without comprehending where the audience is interacting, and what it needs, will be like selling shoes in a lingerie shop. Sounds funny?
Well, you can laugh; but you seriously need to think on it!
From where your customers are hanging out to what sought of information they seek, there is a lot in between to determine your persona. The simplest format to adopt right now can be something like this:
So, if your target is middle-age New Yorkers, looking for house repair, you must share something like DIYS or How-to stuff, going well with the present weather condition. Writing on ‘How to hire a handyman’ won’t be much helpful.
Missing out the VITALITY OF VISUALS
To understand the significance of visual content, just have a look at the two pictures below:
You can’t assess the quality of content clearly, but even then you can judge which one would be easy to understand, right?
Visuals add up to your content quality. However, adding an image to an article doesn’t ensure higher engagement. Today, it is about sharing more visual content. Hence, to enhance engagement you must incorporate;
- Infographic: These make your content go from bland to awesome.
- Charts and graphs: Boost user’s engagement and trust level.
- SlideShare: Being woefully underutilized, this platform caters content in slide form.
Missing out READABLE AND HILARIOUS stuff
Even if you content is really well-written, there are chances of it not going so viral. Wondering why?
BuzzSumo, one of the best platforms to analyze content performance, analyzed 100 million articles. They concluded some of the attributes which make an article go viral. These were;
- Long form content, i.e. 3,000 to 10,000 words
- How-to and listicle
- Trustworthy piece
- At least one image
- Invoke awe or amusement
- Having an influencer
- Promoted over a couple of times
So, now you can analyze your strategy, and if you have been deliberately breaking rules of viral-prone articles, you know the reason why you are away from success.
Missing out the other TYPES OF CONTENT
With blogging serving to be an entry barrier for content marketing, it sometimes becomes the sole way out to publish content.
Don’t be among those marketers who consider content marketing to begin and end with a blog. Blogging is not the only strategy. It is one method in your arsenal. You must experiment with different types of content. And in case, you aren’t sure which types to give a try, checkout:
Spend some time, think about what will serve your business, and get started!
Missing out the SHARING
Sharing is caring, right? But here it is about caring for you, your brand name, and business.
Usually, it is found that business starts a blog and starts producing content, but they don’t share it. And the excuse they give is… waiting for search traffic.
Yes, it is the problem. Creating an ideal content is the first part, the other and equally important includes sharing of the same. In the former part, where we discussed about the conclusion of BuzzSumo’s analysis, ‘having an influencer’ helped contents go viral.
How do some contents go viral?
It’s not just because they’re there, it is because they’re shared. Yes, these are promoted for several days, weeks, and even months.
Please don’t confuse sharing with tossing a content out on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. It has to be well-planned.
So, whether you’re just starting out with content marketing or you’ve been into the same for few years now, it will be a smart move to revisit your content strategy plan.
Ensure it is innovative and strong. In case, you need some professional assistance, feel free to discuss your thoughts and queries with us.
Started working as a digital marketing expert, Varun Sharma is now also a well-known digital marketing speaker – a speaker on performance development, and a trusted mentor to businesses in the digital world. His keynote expositions are based on the digital marketing theories, which provide a fascinating insight into the secrets of high performance.