What is Content Marketing

The 4 key elements to content marketing.

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Content

Develop a library of content. Content with information that your target market wants to know about. Content can be in many forms the most popular are video, written, and photographic. Content needs to be created and published on a regular basis, to have a noticeable effect on your business.

Tips

Keep a journal with ideas for content.
Create entire campaigns around a set of content. For example an auto mechanic can write a series of blog posts that talk about odd noises a car can make and what they may indicate. The mechanic may call this series “Odd Noises”. When you set up a series your audience will develop an expectation. If you meet that expectation your online presence will grow. Another example from work we have done with an Oncology Practice is a series of video interviews with cancer patients. We post the video interviews to Facebook once a month under the title “Cancer Survivor Stories Every Day”.
Create a library of content and put together a calendar that pre-determines where the content is going to get published and when you will publish it.

Social Network & Distribution Channels

Claim and brand multiple, popular social directory sites. This includes Google Local, business Facebook page, personal and business LinkedIn pages, YouTube Channel, Instagram, Twitter and any others you will publish content on. Build up your fans and friends and ask people to review you at those sites. Be sure to include a link in all your profiles to your website. Consider making that link go to your about or services pages rather than your home page.

Tips

The artwork you upload, for your cover photos and avatars should all look similar and be visual representation of your brand. Keep in mind you will need a logo that can be sized to fit the various social media profile photo dimensions. A good logo has a transparent background.
On all your profiles take the time to write an engaging description of your business that is clear and to the point. Use words that people may search for that are related to your business. For example an auto mechanic may describe his business mentioning some specifics like the type of repairs they door add the word trusted to their profile.

Communication

You communicate with your audience by posting information that they will feel compelled to respond to, which means you need to evaluate what your audience needs are at any given time. If winter is approaching an auto mechanic shop might want to talk about ski season and getting over the mountain passes with your car. Content needs to be genuine. Do not hire a marketing company that posts cookie cutter social media on your newsfeed and uses the same blog content for you and all your competitors, who are also their clients. This malfeasance is common in industry specific marketing companies, especially dental marketing companies. Communication needs to be real, unique and empathetic.

To help people find your content make sure to tag posts with descriptive words, add hashtags, and mark the location. Take the step to include other people, or companies, in your post description by adding the @ symbol before their name. The @symbol alerts those people that they are mentioned in a post and in return will, likely, share your content with their network. Proliferation is key.

Tips

Post a compelling photo with comment, on Facebook, and ask people their opinion. A yoga studio may show a student tumbling while doing a handstand and ask, “Show us your handstand?”. The post should link to a blog article on their website about challenging yoga poses. The blog should have a form and a call to action “We’ll have you standing on your hands in no time! Join today for $99 a month!”
Promote your blog at Facebook and in professional networks like LinkedIn. Give your blog post titles like 4 simple habits to do every day for immediate weight loss.

Call to Action

All content must have an end goal. The immediate goal in internet marketing is to draw qualified leads to your website where they can contact you via form, email, or phone call. Understand the needs of your customers and communicate the solutions you provide clearly. All content that finds a home on social media, directories and anywhere else on the web should link to where more information is found (preferably at your website) and provide an easy way for the user to contact you.

Tips

Offer a free consultation when person fills out your website form.
Offer a deal that will get people in your door rather than the competition’s door. Valued, repeat business can be attracted with an introductory offer. For example: Free teeth whitening trays with your first cleaning.
Communicate an issue your target audience may have and include a photo. For example, PROBLEM: “Ski Season is Here. Getting to the Slopes Can Be Challenging.” CALL TO ACTION: “Cruise, worry free, up the pass with New Snow Tires. Shop Early & Save” PHOTO: A shot of a vehicle stuck in the snow and the sad driver.

In Summary

Spend time on developing your content concepts and outline a strategy ahead of time. Set Up Your Social Media Networks. Post and interact on social media sites on a regular basis. Have a content plan around your social media and follow through. Modify your plan as you evaluate the results you get and in between interact with other people’s related posts. Make sure all your content has a purpose and is compelling enough to draw your audience’s attention and let them know exactly what you want them to do ie; fill out a form or call you.

Can You Do This in House?

Content marketing can be done in house if you have resources. One way is to designate media savvy staff who enjoy using social media and would like an additional fun, component to their existing position. Of course, most of us work pretty hard and have a full plate. Content marketing works and any company serious about getting results from their online presence should consider hiring a content marketing specialist like See Spot. Many marketing companies charge a hefty monthly charge to manage your internet marketing but do not produce results. The lack of results is for many reasons. Be cautious of marketing companies with an assembly line mentality and a generic process for publishing content to the web. These companies also neglect your brand identity and commonly publish the same content to every client, they have, who is in a similar industry.

At See Spot Run your marketing is personal to us. Every client owns their uniquely created, brand specific content. We also monitor and report on analytics and metrics to demonstrate how well the marketing is working and your ROI.