How to attract & engage your audience with effective content marketing.

marketing
Written By Petra Geiger

Wondering what content marketing is? Well, you’re reading an example of content marketing right now! Content marketing is the planning, crafting, and distribution of information, expertise, and knowledge that is both relevant and engaging for your audience with the purpose of building brand awareness, leads, and loyalty.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, in 2023 “content marketing continues to be a significant driver in demand generation. When asked, most marketers (83%) put content marketing as one of the top three most effective marketing strategies to generate demand across the buyer’s journey.” Content marketing is a very effective way to generate new leads, especially when your content effectively answers the questions your audience is asking and is optimized for SEO.

In addition, there are a variety of content types to consider including;

• Blog posts
• White papers and guides
• Research studies
• Case studies
• Infographics

• Checklists & templates
• Videos
• Podcasts
• Newsletters

It’s very important that you tailor the type of content to your specific audience. For instance, Gen Z might be more more likely to engage with your content if it’s in video format whereas a Boomer is more likely to consume a written article. Regardless of the type, effective content requires a significant amount of due diligence. It’s simply not enough to throw up a short piece of content and expect it to generate leads.

There are 5 important things to consider when developing effective content marketing for demand generation.

1. Strategy

Once you commit to developing content for your business, it’s important that you develop a strategy or roadmap for your efforts. Without this guide, you run the risk of spending time and money investing in content that falls flat. Content marketing takes time, so spend it wisely! Ask yourself these questions before you even start, then create a simple strategic plan.

  • Why am I developing content marketing?
    What are your marketing and business goals, what do you hope to achieve?

  • Who is my audience?
    You must deeply understand the audience you are trying to reach. What are their pain points? What questions are they asking? What is their customer journey and where will they find and engage with your content?

  • How is my content different and how will it set me apart?
    There are millions of pieces of content out there, how will yours differ and what unique expertise or experience or knowledge can you bring to the table?

  • What can invest in terms of time and budget?
    How much time and energy can you devote to your content marketing? Quality and consistency are important factors in the success of a content marketing strategy so create a schedule that is achievable.

2. Content Development

In general, consumers prefer to learn about a product or service through a piece of content as opposed to an Ad. So, taking the time to develop content that is helpful, shares your expertise, and provides useful insight is critical.

Once you’ve identified your audience, it’s important to understand their pain points, the questions they’re asking, and what interests them as a cohort. At this point in your planning, it’s important to do some research.

  • Poll or send a questionnaire to your existing audience.

  • Look on a search engine like Google to discover popular queries related to your industry.

  • Read reviews or Reddit threads.

  • Conduct keyword research.

As you develop your content topics, think about subdividing them into broad categories or pillars and then create a content and editorial calendar to help you stay on track over the long haul.

In addition, it’s important that your content is high quality and detailed, shoot for around 1,200 words without any fluff. Better to write one comprehensive article than two short post that lack substance. It also helps to have a consistent tone, vary your sentence length, write in short paragraphs, and proof! Lastly, always include compelling visuals that support your content – for example, infographics can be helpful to illustrate the point you are trying to make.

3. SEO

Without a strong keyword embedded in your content, it’s unlikely that your content will get any traction. The majority of traffic to your blog or other piece of content comes from organic search. So it pays to do your SEO research and optimize your piece of content correctly.

“96.55% of Content Gets No Traffic From Google”.

Before you start writing or producing a video or podcast, make sure your topic has these three things; significant search demand (I like 200+ US searches per month), it not overly competitive (under 50), and that the information you present accurately matches the search query you are shooting for.

Some basics for optimizing your content’s SEO include;

  • Create a logical structure for your piece using headlines, sub-heads, and bullets.

  • Choose one keyword phrase to optimize each piece of content.

  • Write your title for SEO optimization NOT for humor or creativity.

  • Embed your keywords in your H1 title tag, H2 tag, paragraph (2-3 times) as well as in your URL, meta title, and meta description without over stuffing – meaning do not unnecessarily repeat keywords and when you use them integrate them organically.

  • Add internal and external links to your content.

  • Add calls-to-action. Without being salesy, find ways to encourage your readers to take the next step. That can be to read another relevant article, email you with questions, or join your email list.

4. DISTRIBUTION

Once a piece of rich content is published, it can be distributed across a variety of channels! Don’t just post it to your blog and forget about it. You’ve done the hard work of researching, writing, and sharing your insight so make sure it gets seen! Think about harnessing these channels to distribute it;

• Email marketing / Newsletter
• Social media
• Paid Ads
• Press Release
• Guest posts on another blog
• Editorial post (Medium, Forbes etc…)
• Videos
• Podcasts

In addition, decide whether your content is proprietary or strong enough to be gated. This simply means that you ask for an email or specific data points from your prospect in order to release the content. This is particularly important when content is research driven and/or includes a valuable template.

5. METRICS

Once a piece of rich content has been published and distributed, it’s critical that you track its performance. If you neglect this step then you won’t learn; you won’t understand why a piece of content is performing well or poorly and you won’t be able to harness the power of your content marketing. In a nutshell, you want to use your website platform’s analytics tool or Google Analytics to track;

1. Brand Awareness. Traffic, Impressions, Page Views

2. Engagement. Bounce Rate, Time on Page, Time on Site, Inbound links

3. Lead Generation. Email Sign-ups, Click Through Rates (for instance email to website), Conversions

3. Sales. Sales attributed to specific content. Using a CMS along with a CRM can help track a prospect from their initial contact through sales.

5. SEO. Domain Authority, Keyword Rankings

Deep breath. As you can see, there’s alot to consider when attracting and engaging your audience using effective content marketing. But, done well and consistently, over time content marketing is a highly effective way to grow your business, build trust, and become an expert in your field. Think of it as a long-term investment, slow and steady wins the race! If you approach it in a methodical and consistent way, you will generate new leads and grow your business organically.

Petra Geiger
Next

15 Websites that defy expectations.