What You Absolutely Need To Know About Content Marketing

Even though we started out as a social media agency, we’ve slowly transitioned into an agency that provides traditional marketing and content marketing services as well [rebrand coming soon! 🙂].

It’s not that we’re being greedy. We noticed a disturbing trend with our clients: They had little or no marketing strategy, which led to having no original content, which made providing social media services very difficult for us.

As we taught our clients why MARKETING >> CONTENT MARKETING >> SOCIAL MEDIA all folded into one another, it became clear we were on to something that people really need — and want — to understand.

When getting started with content marketing, there are three, must-know points we review with our clients.

You will find the crux of each point listed below, and if you want the intense version, contact us for a consultation.

Critical Content Marketing Must-Knows

Must-Know #1: Content Marketing Always Starts With A Strategy

Call me crazy but everything starts with a why. Why are we creating this blog post / eBook / status update? What do we want people to do with this piece of content; what’s the purpose?

Things to consider:

• How often will you create content?
• How can you ensure your content is ALWAYS relevant to your audience(s)
• Who will create your content?
• What will your content “buckets” be? (AKA: What areas are you a thought leader in?)
• Which content should be absolutely free and which pieces warrant a cost? (Cost can = email, share [use Pay With a Tweet], or money)
• Can you repurpose old content for use in the future?
• How will you integrate this content across all of your marketing channels?

Must-Know #2: What Are We Lacking When It Comes To Content?

Be honest with yourself: What’s missing with your brand/company when it comes to content?

Things to consider:

• Do you know what content marketing is?
• Do have a content marketing strategy?
• Do you have someone who can develop content?
• Do you have money to spend on creating content? (Yes, content costs. Time = money, so it’s never truly “free”)
• Does upper management understand the value of content marketing?

Must-Know #3: In What Ways Do We Already ROCK At Content Marketing?

You might be more ready to tackle content marketing at your company than you think.

Things to consider:

• Does your website have a high volume of daily / monthly / weekly traffic?
• Does your blog receive many shares and comments?
• Do you have content  — even if it’s one piece — that has gained a lot of traction? (content = case studies, white papers, eBooks, infographics, reports, checklists, cheat sheets, etc.)

If you answered yes to one, or all, of the above here are my suggestions:

1. Use Google Analytics or another metrics platform to assess which pages on your website are receiving the most views and/or most time spent.
   • This is information you KNOW is useful.
   • People are telling you it’s important to them.
   • This is consumable content!
   • Start writing blog posts based on this info.
   • Create a report or case study with the info.
   • Make an infographic as a way to showcase the info visually.
   • Create a tip sheet or cheat sheet with the information and have it available for download. (*Decide if you will gate this content or if it will be available for free)
2. Consider writing more! Studies by HubSpot indicate that 92% of companies who blogged multiple times a day acquired a customer through their blog.
   • Write more but keep the value. Quality over quantity is the Golden Rule with content.
   • Consider a strategy for creating more in-depth content with blog posts. For instance, check out our four-part blog series on measuring your social media ROI.
   • Make sure you have a way to integrate your blog posts across all of your online platforms. Take the most successful posts and break them down into mini chunks; post them as tips on your social media sites.
   • Create pins for Pinterest from your blog posts – Pinterest in the 4th largest traffic driver in the world! [Tweet this stat]
   • Share your popular / most shared posts in your newsletters.
3. If you already have a piece of content that is successful, go back to asking WHY it worked so well.
   • Create similarly valuable pieces of content that compliment your successful piece.
   • Make it into a series.
   • Break it down into manageable chunks and create blog posts; then break that down and create tips for your social media sites.

Are You Ready?

After reading this you should have a pretty good idea on where your company stands when it comes to content marketing.

You’re either not ready or ready.

And if you’re ready, you should have some good ideas about how to move forward and GET TO IT! So … GO GET IT!

See you in the social sphere!

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Brooke B. Sellas

Brooke B. Sellas is the in-the-trenches Founder & CEO of @HelloBSquared, an award-winning social media, advertising, and social media customer care agency. She's also the author of Conversations That Connect -- a book all about social listening and social media customer care. Brooke's marketing mantra is “Think Conversation, Not Campaign” so be sure to give her a shout on the socials!

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