Content marketing can be an effective tool for any company looking to grow in the digital age. Content Marketing is a great way to generate leads and sales, but you have to do it right. But does content marketing really work? Yes, and let’s see how!
What Is Content Marketing?
Before we get into it, let’s quickly discuss what is content marketing? Content marketing is the use of content to attract customers, inform prospects, and ultimately drive revenue. It’s includes blogging, video, podcasting, infographics, and a lot more.
Now let’s find out how you can effectively use this powerful marketing strategy with these 5 easy steps.
1. Create Relevant, Valuable Content
This is an important step so that your content marketing will work.
You must create relevant and valuable content. If you don’t, then it’s very likely that your potential customers will not find your content in the first place. You want to give them what they’re looking for so that they can find you!
If people are searching for specific information on just about any topic — whether it’s health, entertainment, cooking, or travel — you want to be in a position where they can find your content.
If it’s on a topic that interests them and it answers their questions at least partially (or better yet completely), then they’re likely going to stick around.
Content Marketing is a long-term investment, and so you need to be in it for the long haul. This includes producing quality content regularly that will engage your readers, attract new ones, and help build trust with them — which means building up their loyalty!
Doing this will help you build up your reputation and visibility on the internet, which in turn should increase your website’s ranking.
2. Share It in a Variety of Formats and on Different Channels to Maximize Reach
Another effective way so your content marketing will work is to share it in a variety of formats and on different channels.
One way that you can do this is by having your blog posts go out as an email newsletter or through social media, too. This helps ensure that people have the chance to see what you’re publishing even if they don’t visit your website every day.
And posting your content on social media also provides the opportunity to get likes and shares, which can have a positive impact on your SEO.
Another option is to repurpose content in different formats that are more accessible for specific audiences. For example, you might create an infographic or video-based off of one blog post to reach out to those who prefer visual information over words or create a podcast for those who like to listen over-read.
In addition, you should include links back to your blog posts into other content that you publish on the same topic so that people can find it easily.
This cross-referencing helps ensure new readers can quickly catch up with what they’ve missed and revisits return readers with fresh content to explore.
3. Learn How to Measure Your Content Marketing Success
This is a very important step to find out if your content marketing is working.
We all know the value of content marketing, but how do we measure its success? Is it in increased traffic to our website and social media accounts or is it by increasing conversion rates on leads generated from those channels?
The answer lies within your data. We will look at three key metrics that are important for measuring the effectiveness of your content marketing efforts.
Traffic in Your Website and Social Media Accounts
The first metric is traffic to your website and social media accounts. We will measure this by comparing the average monthly page views, likes, tweet impressions, or any other engagement we have on our various channels pre-post-content campaign period.
Conversion Rates
Next up are conversion rates from leads generated through those channels such as a form request, click-through, and even purchase. We will compare the rate of these actions both pre and post content campaigns to see if we have increased engagement on our various channels or not.
Revenue Generated
The last metric is revenue generated from those leads or any other monetary conversion concerning your content marketing efforts. It’s an important one because you’re looking for ROI on your content.
4. Be Consistent With Publishing Times
Being consistent with what you publish is a great way to build an audience and engage them. People are more likely to bookmark your blog post if they know when you will be publishing it, especially if the time intervals are short such as daily or weekly updates.
The best content marketing campaigns often have consistent publication times that consumers can count on coming from the company every day, every week.
Consumers know what to expect and when they can find it again whether that is a blog post or an article — even if it’s something as simple as asking for feedback on your latest product release!
This helps build the relationship between your company and the consumer.
If you are looking for ways to build an engaged audience, and if your content marketing is working, consistency is a good place to start!
If you’re finding it difficult to constantly push out new content, consider using something like AI copywriting to help you out.
5. Use Content to Promote Your Products and Services
Content marketing is a viable form of advertising that offers many benefits. It provides potential customers with information and content to help them make informed decisions about their purchases, as well as provides businesses with more than one way to advertise their products or services.
With the rise in popularity of social media channels such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter, it’s easier than ever to share your content with a large audience.
Content marketing is more effective for some businesses than others and should be used in conjunction with other forms of advertising when appropriate.
For example, if you have a website that sells clothing or shoes, it’s important to also use social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter as well as your website to share blog posts and other types of content.
If you have a restaurant, then it might be more effective to use social media channels (such as Facebook) for the majority of advertising and save your website content exclusively for information about hours or reservations.
Doing this will prove that content marketing really works.
Does Content Marketing Really Work – Conclusion
So, does content marketing really work? Yes, it does. If you do your research and work hard to create quality content that people want to read, then the chances are high that you will be successful.
The key is not giving up. If something doesn’t seem to bring in traffic or leads at first, keep trying different approaches until one of them works for you!