According to the Content Marketing Institute, 70 per cent of B2B marketers are creating more content than they did one year ago, even those who say they are least effective (58 per cent) and those without any type of strategy (56 per cent, 2015).
To keep up with this frantic demand for content, it is easy to become lazy in our efforts to get a blog post written, published, and distributed.
We may be subject matter experts—or have interviewed someone who is—but simply having the knowledge to write the content and the ability to put it into words does not mean we are producing great, or even good, content.
Good content doesn’t mean you can’t produce it fast. The process does not have to be time-intensive if you have these elements as your guide:
1. Have well-defined goals.
Begin with an editorial content strategy: Know why are you producing content, what you’re saying, who you’re saying it to, and where you are saying it. Once this is established, it’s time to begin producing an editorial calendar to keep track of articles to publish and where they will be distributed and when. This is an essential tool to keep content on track. Incorporate keywords into your calendar to help with SEO.
2. Know your buyer personas.
It is well worth your time to develop buyer personas, always keeping in mind who you are trying to reach. Set up interviews to determine what their goals and challenges are so that your content can display how you can meet their specific needs.
3. Create clear-cut CTAs (calls-to-action).
What do you want your reader to do at the end of reading your content? What should their next step be? Where do you want to lead them?
A call-to-action, or CTA, is a button or link that you place on your website to guide prospective customers or donors to become viable leads by filling out a form on a landing page. A CTA is the link between the initial content that attracted your potential buyer or donor and a page with a more valuable or informative offer, such as an ebook, that is both relevant and beneficial enough to entice your visitor to complete a short form with their contact information.
4. Make it easy to social share effectively.
When publishing your content, make sure that social sharing icons are readily available so that your brand advocates can re-share and re-tweet your content.
According to CMI, 94 per cent of B2B marketers used LinkedIn to distribute content, making it the most used and most effective social media platform.
5. Clean up grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
You might be an industry thought leader or a prolific writer, but if your content is not cleaned up and well presented, then your blog post, ebook, tweet, or comment will work against you instead of for you. Additionally, headlines often determine page views, so summaries and metadata must accurately describe the substance of the content.
6. Use additional resources and tools.
Other key factors to great content include fact-checking, unbroken links, and helpful data and examples to support your content. Infographics have increased in use more than 62 per cent recently, according to HubSpot and are another way to visually engage your readers.
There are a myriad of resources you can take advantage of to create effective and careful content. It is well worth your time and effort to make sure you’re creating fresh, dynamic content, so don’t let apathy creep into your content marketing.
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