Harnessing the Power of Effective Content Marketing - It’s Not What You Think
Content is king, quality content rules, but integrity content reigns supreme. Learn how to genuinely connect with your audience online to grow your business.
If you’re a successful business owner and already have an effective and measurable content marketing strategy in place, this post is not for you. If, however, you’re unsure of exactly what content marketing is, let alone how to use it effectively to grow your business, I invite you to read on.
As a digital media consultant, I’m often asked about shortcuts to generate business buzz to build a successful brand and subsequently how to use brand awareness to grow a profitable business. It is my hope that the following provides a few tips to understand and create a digital marketing strategy that harnesses the power of targeted Content Marketing, but not in the traditional ways we’ve come to know.
From nearly a decade of digital media experience I have learned that media apps and strategies come and go, however, the one element of digital marketing that reigns supreme is cultivating and nurturing genuine relationships with your audience using authentic Content Marketing.
What is authentic content marketing?
When you share and promote yourself as your brand persona rather than simply as an abstract vehicle selling a product or service online, you allow your customers to connect with you because they learn to care about you and by extension, your product or service. Strive to create genuine connections to build lasting relationships with your clients and customers.
Do you want to build a reputation that people trust, support and recommend?
Do you want to build a loyal following who then become loyal repeat customers?
Do you want genuine audience engagement with your blog and social media accounts?
Vulnerability sells.
No matter what, you are your business; you are your brand.
We are by nature social creatures and instinctively we crave connection with like-minds. By sharing relatable stories and messages with your audience you allow your customers to have behind-the-scenes access and these types of relationships make a lasting impact. Don’t be afraid to be yourself, allow your personality to shine through your brand’s messaging.
How do you measure your content marketing efforts? How do you know if your efforts are successful?
Consistent and increased conversion of passive readers and fans from “likes” to shares and thoughtful comments on your blog and social accounts are your first indicators of success.
When engagement leads to sales, recommends, downloads and subscriptions without the benefit of paid advertising, you’ve successfully crossed the lead generation/conversion threshold and that is the key success metric.
Let’s recap:
Effective Content Marketing connects you to your audience who care about your product or service because they care about you and the very best way to get your customers to care about you is to share personable and relatable content with them.
Part 2 - What is relatable content?
Part 3 - How do we find our audience? Let’s develop your reader persona.
Part 4 - How to create a strategy to reach your audience.