We hear about digital marketing, specifically content creation, all the time and how great it is for SEO and business, but what are the actual steps you need to take to implement a cohesive content strategy?
Eric Tung started off Social Media Day and the Rocks Digital Conference with a presentation about content marketing and creating a content strategy.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is marketing. You can’t have marketing without content and there is a lot of content on the web.
Facts about Content
- 90% of all the data ever created has been created in the last 2 years
- Most people spend 15.5 hours per week consuming content
- There are more than 75 million WordPress blog
How can you use content to build your business? It starts with a well thought out, documented content strategy.
Start by thinking of the way people use the Internet. People use the Internet to search for solutions to their problems. That means you should create content based on the solutions that your customers are looking for.
Marcus Sheridan became a content marketing legend. How? As the owner of a swimming pool company, he used Google to search for popular topics. Then wrote blog posts that answered his customers questions about owning fiberglass swimming pools. How did that work for him? He credits those original blogs with earning his company more that $1.7 millions in sales!
How to Create a Content Strategy?
It is a two part process. The customer persona and the sales cycle. What are the questions your customers ask during each step of the sales cycle? Use those questions to create content that will move your customer through the sales funnel.
What type of content should you create?
- SEO blog posts
- Thought leadership
- Demand Generations
- Technical/product information
- Always have a call to action that allows you to capture a customer lead
Sweat your content
Once you have content, share it and repurpose it. Make your content work for you. You can create an informative ebook or white paper and repurpose it into:
- a series of blog posts
- an infographic
- turn sound bites into quote graphics
- make a Slideshare presentation
Once you have published your content, you will want to know if it is working for you. Tools such as Google Analytics and BuzzSumo.com can help you measure which content is most popular and effective.
What are your favorite content strategies that work for you? Comment below and share!
To learn more about Eric Tung you can read his full bio on Rocks Digital.
