The Ultimate Content Marketing Guide for 2020 – A How-To Tutorial for Every Business

Content is marketing’s secret sauce. It’s why people click. It’s how new brands establish themselves. It’s how existing brands sell more product than the competition. All industries are reliant on quality of content.

Content marketing is increasing in value. Even as consumer behaviour changes, content is something every business needs to learn to specialize in. Here are the best content marketing strategies and guide on how to do content marketing.

What is content marketing?

Content marketing is your best form of advertising. It’s an ‘ad in disguise’, in a way. The vast majority of Internet users are using some sort of ad blocking software. Your traditional Internet marketing PPC ads no longer work.

Why content marketing is great advertising is because you’re giving value to your customers without selling or pretense. It’s genuine communication. Blogs, articles, podcasts, infographics, and videos all fit the definition of what content marketing is. Create this content correctly and they will form the bedrock of your marketing campaign.

How content marketing changed the sales and marketing game

For years, marketing was classically done by building a short-term relationship with a customer. You’d start with creating awareness, qualifying the interest of the customer, and eventually, completing a sale based on this short-term relationship.

Content marketing isn’t short-term. It’s an ongoing effort. The relationship you cultivate is long-game. Why content marketing works is because it doesn’t treat the customer like a number or some sale. It’s constantly providing value to the user in a long-term relationship.

How do I get customers to click on my content?

Content must be valuable to your target audience. ‘Fluff’ pieces and filler have no place in content marketing.

Algorithms have also become smarter about how they classify content. Search engines are looking past keyword optimization and at how content is written. If you’re putting out nonsensical keyword-dense writing, there’s no value in that. It will rank low or not at all. You won’t get the attention you want or generate awareness.

There are three ways to get customers to click on your content marketing. Be useful. Be informative. Be entertaining.

Is my content marketing useful to my target audience?

Millions of users are on search engines and social media to find useful content. That is, content that assists a user in some way. If they are reading and your content is helping them achieve a goal, they will remember you. Make it useful. Think a how-to guide, a step-by-step tutorial, or something similar. This isn’t direct selling. It’s a value-contribution that will ultimately generate awareness and trust from the user to your brand.

Is my content marketing informative to my audience?

Some content is more informative than helpful. Information-based content marketing is educational and generates awareness through information rather than selling. Informative content has got to teach readers something, contribute information that’s new or interesting, and/or should have a value that will last long-term.

Is my content marketing fun and entertaining?

Some of the most memorable content online is pure entertainment. Clever. Funny. Engaging. Memes have been made famous based around this content marketing approach. For entertainment-based content to be successful, you must know your audience. Content like this should be delivered in the tone and feel of the audience.

How do I share my content?

Once you create the most amazing content marketing you can, the next step is getting it attention. Where do you use your content – pretty much everywhere. Post your link to social media, attach it in emails, and feature it on your website.

If you make your content easy for customers to find, they will find it. Content doesn’t get its spotlight without having earned it first. You’ve got to get the word out. Combine your content marketing with other aspects of your digital marketing including social media, email, SEO efforts, and more.

How do I build long-term momentum with my content pieces?

Your content marketing shouldn’t burn out in a week. It should have some lasting value. ‘Evergreen’ content is that which continues to attract clicks for weeks, months, and sometimes years after it is posted. Aim to write blogs, articles, and content that fits this definition.

Content doesn’t have to grow old. It can keep paying off for a long time to come. You will get customers clicking on articles because of their usefulness and over time, as you add to your collection of blogs, this will mean more and more views, clicks, likes, shares, and sales.

What does the future of content marketing look like?

‘Content is king’. You’ve probably heard this before. Marketers love saying it. It’s not untrue. However, if content is indeed considered ‘king’, whole future kingdoms will be built from video.

The future of content marketing is video. More than 85 percent of Internet traffic is related to videos. It is the preferred content type of many users. Video, like other forms of content, are designed to either be useful, informative, or entertaining, or a combination of the three.

There are evergreen content-style videos hosted on YouTube, Facebook, and other platforms. These are very high-quality, professionally-produced. You also have ephemeral content, i.e. videos only accessible for a brief time. There are more live video opportunities on Instagram, Facebook, and other platforms.

When discussing content marketing, do not think we are just talking about writing blogs and articles. Images and video matter – arguably, more than text.

A great strategy is implementing video into your blog. This gives users the chance to consume different forms of content while keeping them engaged.

What’s the most effective video marketing strategy?

The best video marketing are tutorials or demos. A close second are videos which are fun and entertaining. Every video in a campaign, ideally, fits into one of these categories.

If you have a product or service that requires some explanation, make a video. If you want to teach something new to your customers, make a video. If there’s a job a customer’s going to perform with your product, demonstrate how to do it the right way in a video tutorial.

As effective as detailed written articles can be, often it is better to use video. This way, it’s more visual. You can blend in actions, animations, some entertainment when or if appropriate, and speak from one human being to another.

SEO tactics you can use in your content marketing to maximize success

SEO is still very valuable in the landscape of content marketing. The correct keywords allow you to be found by search engines like Google, Bing, Yahoo, and other search engines. Keywords have to be in the right place.

The technical aspects – such as metadata – also have a significant influence on whether your content can be found or not. Images and video rely on it. Strong, good SEO practices are a dominating factor in determining whether content marketing succeeds or fails in various arenas.

The vast majority of your consumers are also viewing content on mobile screens. This should be taken into account when putting together a video or writing a blog. Ensure your website’s responsive. Smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices are the primary screens on which content’s going to be viewed.

More consumers are using voice search as well. Voice assisted searches are having a fundamental role in re-shaping how SEO is done and how content is written. Developing any content, trends like these and consumer behaviours must shape what you’re doing. Being adaptive is a strong recommendation in content marketing because the rules are always changing.

Content marketing holds some mighty power. If you don’t deliver high-quality content, any campaign around it will fail. Produce quality, meaningful, useful, informative content. Quality content is not something to be forgotten. Get yours today from Unlimited Exposure.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1138-the-ultimate-content-marketing-guide-for-2020-%E2%80%93-a-how-to-tutorial-for-every-business.html

How to Target A Social Media Campaign to Get You Noticed And More Money In Your Pocket!

Can social media marketing make you money – if you deliver your campaign correctly, it absolutely should.

Social media is a favourite subject of new businesses. After all, it’s free advertising. You make a post. It goes out. Potentially, thousands of users will see it and maybe way, way more. Unfortunately, to get the best results, it’s not this simple.

You have to get noticed. Dozens of brands like yours are already on social media. They have audiences feeding likes, shares, and attention. How you get your target audience locked into your brand on social media requires nothing short of strong, effective, and focused social marketing.

Who are you targeting your social media towards?

So you want to get noticed on social media. By whom? Define your target audience. Most businesses have multiple. If that’s you, you’ve got to segment your marketing choices to your demographics.

Age, gender, location, income, education, and values all separate an audience. Understand their lifestyle and habits. Furthermore, every social media platform comes with its unique audience. If you want to get noticed when you walk into a room, know who’s standing on the other side of the door before you open it.

What language does your target audience speak?

Once you know who you’re looking to connect with, you’ve got to make the content you’re offering delivered in their own language. The words chosen, style of the visual, and overall tone should reflect your audience.

The better you know your audience and their language, the more you will be rewarded in revenues and social media engagement. For example, targeting families will be different than chasing an audience of younger folks under-18 or seniors above 65.

Feature your mission and social responsibility on social media

No one wants to be ‘sold’ on social media. Users are looking for content – that’s it. If you don’t quite know what to talk about, consider your mission. What are your business values – feature them!

If you contribute or are connected to a charity, share that. Social responsibility matters to consumers. People want to support brands that are making the world a better place. If you’re doing more than selling product, publicize it.

When you’re authentic and connect on an emotional level, this makes the greatest impact. It’s almost like an anti-selling approach. You catch attention when you’re real. For a lot of brands, when you’re not selling on social media you’re selling.

How do I make money with social media marketing and my brand?

The goal here is to make money. That’s what this article will help you do. Naturally, you may wonder, how you’re supposed to do that on a platform like Facebook or Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.

The goal or objective of a social media campaign is to make money. That said, making money on social media starts with generating leads and awareness, turning those into followers and shares, and fostering engagement with likes and comments.

A like isn’t money in your pocket. Neither is a share or comment. Don’t get us wrong. An action like this indicates interest. It’s that interest you spur into revenues. You’re focusing on ‘customer lifetime value’. On social media, you’re cultivating. This is how brands find strong revenues on social media marketing. They sell without selling!

What is multi-channel social media marketing?

It is unlikely you’re going to find success strictly on a single social media platform. Look at the companies that are most successful in your category. Chances are they’re on at least two or three social media sites.

Multi-channel social media marketing, sometimes referred to as ‘cross-channel marketing’, is a strategic way to create awareness. You use the social channels most beneficial to your goals. Every platform is a little different. The way you deliver your message may change slightly but consistency must be kept in the visuals and tone.

It is better to use multiple channels as well, distributing your efforts in a diversified marketing approach. This way, you’re reaching target audience who are exclusively on Instagram or whose only social media account is on Facebook.

Are images and video better than text on social media?

Make your social media marketing visual, impactful, and interactive. Images get more engagement than text posts and video gets the most engagement of any content type. Use different forms of content to keep your audience interested.

Consider a video series of short how-to tutorials. Make infographics or get some professional photography done to support a text post. The more authentic and memorable, the better.

Images and videos aren’t better than text on social media. They simply get your message out towards your audience in a different way. A successful, money-making social media marketing campaign will use a mix of text, images, videos, and more to get the job done.

What’s the best way to sell on social media? Here’s how you do it.

You don’t sell a product by manipulation. You don’t sell a product by putting down the competition. You even don’t sell a product by emphasizing its benefits. How to sell comes down to two words. “The experience.”

Look at any car ad. Sure, they might mention the benefits and other details. What the focus is, however, is on the experience of it. Think of your product and the people using it. What’s their experience with it – start there.

Make the look and feel of an experience attractive. Make it authentic, simple, lingering on emotional, and honest. Tell a story. How does someone connect with your product, service, or brand – this connection is what you can build on.

Look at it from the consumer perspective. They don’t buy something with the sole purpose of giving their money to you. They want the experience.

How important is timely content marketing on social media?

Timely, trendy social posts are important but it comes with a catch. Their relevancy is only temporary. In the moment, they generate attention. Past their expiration date, a post relying on trend and timeliness no longer serves a purpose.

Why so many social media brands use these type of posts is because they enter you into the conversation.

They also are great starting points for you to build content from. Use a holiday, a unique event, a fun news story, or a trending hashtag. You’re participating in the culture, demonstrating your brand is relevant and engaged.

How much money can social media marketing make my brand?

Social media marketing builds all around the click. You do your job and you get a click. For the present, it might just be a like or a share. Tomorrow, it could be a lot more. Clicks are how brands make money.

There are no guarantees that social media will make you money. Most brands don’t make anything, truth be told. They don’t have very unique or developed marketing. They set it on automatic, are lazy, or just plain don’t know what to do with their social media potential.

These brands take a very general approach and don’t see big results. Add to that the manipulation of social media algorithms, increased competition, and changing consumer behaviours, and it’s a recipe for failure. That is, unless you hire and have a smart social media marketing expert to rely on.

Some brands have made millions from social media marketing. It takes effort, smarts, and adaptation. But it can be done. And the effort’s more than worth it.

Learn how to use social media to make money. The results are there for the taking. Market intelligently. Tell stories. Be authentic. Be real. Focus on ‘the experience’. Hire a social media expert at Unlimited Exposure today. We provide customized social media strategies that work. Results are guaranteed. Let us take your brand and bring it to the top.

Source: https://unlimitedexposure.com/basic-digital-marketing/1137-how-to-target-a-social-media-campaign-to-get-you-noticed-and-more-money-in-your-pocket.html