Part I: Tips that will get you liked, read, commented on and followed
The New Year is almost here. That means moms are preparing for the holidays, kids are excited about presents and you are thinking about your marketing strategy for this coming year. Hopefully, every year we learn and discover something new we want to implement into our marketing strategy. In the marketing world gaining new skills and keeping up with the times is imperative. Technology never sleeps, but once in a while you need to so if planning your content marketing strategy is keeping you up at night, perhaps we can help.
Here is a list of 5 tips that can help you start brainstorming for your top-notch 2013 content marketing campaign.
1. Before anything is written, whether it is a novel, a newspaper article or a blog, you have to take some time to think about your audience. Who are you writing to? What are they looking for? And how can your writing answer their questions and make them come back to read your words again? If you haven’t already defined your audience and know who your target market is, make that your goal in 2013: get to know your readership.
2. As a writer, this is one of my personal favorites: less is more. Slow down your content so that it is of higher quality. This will ensure that when someone gets your content, it is impressive and flawless. Anything less will just get a raise of the eyebrow and a dismissive shake of the head.
Corporate blogging and internet writing can be mentally exhausting. You are constantly pumping out a large amount of content with only one or two editing tiers, if you’re lucky. You want your copy to be clean, to flow and to make sense, so take the time to make it something that would impress you.
In 2013 think about some ways you can cut down on errors. (The problem with SEO and content is that quality is important but so is quantity. So put on your perfectionist cap and your superman cape, because you have to be quick and good to retain your readership in this business.)
3. CTA is the acronym of 2013 and it stands for Call To Action; every single piece of content you create needs to have one. Whether it is a video, an infographic, a blog, a post on Facebook or another social media site, call to actions are imperative. There are articles out there that speak about action words that provide more click-throughs, here is one of them. Basically you want the CTAs to nudge your readers to do another action, so the more interactive and unique the call to action the better.
4. You need to start counting pages instead of counting words. I know it sounds daunting, you have just figured out this blogging thing and now it is time to start creating a completely different type of content material. But white papers and eBooks are the next big thing and your company needs to be creating their own organic and informative little novelettes. The primary difference between white papers and ebooks is the length; white papers are shorter, 6-10 pages in length and ebooks are more like 20-40 pages. Also, ebooks have a longer shelf life, usually covering methodologies and practices,while white papers are more often about ideas and trends which can quickly change. (Look for Solutions 8’s eBooks which are coming soon!)
5. This one you are not going to be red hot on, but it is important. In 2012 my boss was carrying a marketing book that he purchased and read around the office; one of my project managers got a book all about Pinterest that she consumed. Both of them were able to offer the rest of our marketing team ideas and insight that they gleaned from their books. I understand that one of the last things you want to do after thinking about, reading about and talking about marketing all day in the office is to go home and leisurely read about marketing as well, but one a year isn’t so bad and you won’t regret it.
On that note, I will leave you until my next post. Look for Part 2 of: 5 Tips for Creating Content in 2013 (tip 6 is particularly good and you won’t want to miss it). Unlike most sequels, it will be equally well crafted with proper character development.
Technology is never stagnant so your content strategy from year to year can’t be either. You have a month, so think about it and sleep on it; by the time you are kicking off the New Year, you will have a steady and well defined content plan and a good idea of the direction you want to follow. You should click here or here to read more dynamic material about online and content marketing.
Image Source: http://www.propertyportalwatch.com/2012/11/call-to-action-design-websites/
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