I’ve been writing and editing content for business websites for over fifteen years now, and I’ve seen so many brands get it right and wrong when it comes to what they offer on their sites.
One of the most common mistakes people make is focusing on quantity over quality: they churn out blog posts like crazy and end up with a site that has hundreds of pages of unremarkable stuff, hardly any of which is relevant or useful to visitors.
I know, because I’m the one who had to write those posts, trying to keep up with a client’s unrealistic expectations while also banging my head against the wall when no one would read what I’d written.
To be successful online these days, you’ve got to serve your visitors great content that helps them do their job better or live their lives more easily. As a result, you’ll attract loyal readers who will hang around to learn from your content offerings again and again. Here’s how:
| Takeaways |
|---|
| 1. Define your target audience and their preferences. |
| 2. Create a content calendar for consistent posting. |
| 3. Develop a mix of content formats for variety. |
| 4. Optimize content for SEO to improve visibility. |
| 5. Leverage social media for content promotion. |
| 6. Monitor analytics to refine your content strategy. |
| 7. Build backlinks to establish authority. |
| 8. Stay adaptable and update your strategy as needed. |
Define Your Brand’s Persona
Now that you know what content is and why you need it, it’s time to build your content platform. The first step in this process is defining your brand’s persona. This involves answering some important questions about who your audience is, what they want and how best to reach them.
To start with: define your brand’s goals. This will help inform the types of content you create moving forward and provide a framework for measuring success or failure when evaluating an individual piece of content’s performance.
Once again, there are no hard-and-fast rules here just be sure to keep things realistic! Remember that your goal shouldn’t be “1 million YouTube subscribers” or “a million blog visitors every month.”
It should be something achievable that makes sense for the size and capabilities of your business (and isn’t just a vague aspiration).
Next comes values or more specifically, core values: what defines and separates you from other businesses in your industry?
How do these values translate into actionable items such as mission statements, product features, or marketing campaigns? Once again there are no wrong answers here!
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Establish Your Customer’s Journey
The first step in building your content platform is to establish the customer’s journey. You need to know where they are at any given point in their life and what steps they have taken up until that point, so you can map out exactly how your content will fit into their day-to-day lives.
For example, if someone has never bought from you before but is interested in your product and knows they want it, they might do a bit of research online before deciding on a purchase (this could be through Google or YouTube).
They may then visit your website or social media channels where they find more information about what you offer and make an informed decision on whether to proceed with the purchase process; this would be considered one stage of their journey toward buying from you.
Understanding how people move through each stage of their journey enables us as marketers to create the right content at each stage – this ensures our audience finds us when they’re ready for us!
Evaluate Your Current Content
Now that you have a clear picture of what your content can become, let’s take one last look at the existing assets you have.
Ask yourself: What are the best pieces of content I have? What is the most interesting and helpful piece of content I have? How can I improve these pieces of content so that they are even better than they currently are?
Next, ask yourself: What do I need to add to my website to make it more valuable for my audience? Do I need an ebook or whitepaper on this topic?
Do I need an infographic or video series to help explain things more clearly? Is there any new information that my audience could benefit from hearing about now but hasn’t been shared yet on our blog site (or elsewhere online)?
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Featured Customer Stories
When it comes to building your brand, customer stories are a great way to build trust with potential customers and current customers alike. People like hearing about other people’s experiences and how they were helped by your product or service.
It helps them understand that you truly care about helping others, which builds the reputation of your company as well as its products in their minds.
Customers love telling stories about their experiences with companies because it makes them feel important and appreciated.
These types of stories can also be used on social media channels like Facebook or Instagram to attract new leads by showing off how happy existing customers are with the service they received from you!
Create Interactive Content
One way to build your content platform is by creating interactive content. By incorporating quizzes, polls, and surveys into your site, you can engage readers in ways that are both fun and informative.
Whether it’s about a new product or service you’re offering or an upcoming event, interactive content is a great way for readers to communicate their feedback with you.
You can also use these types of posts as opportunities to build buzz around products or events they’re interested in attending.
Offer Content Upgrades
Content upgrades are a great way to offer your audience something of value. You can offer your readers an ebook, checklist, video tutorial, or webinar. Or you can offer a discount on products or services.
This could be done through email sign-ups, social media posts and ads (like Facebook ads), or even pop-up offers on your website when someone lands on it for the first time.
The key is that content upgrades have the potential to increase sales by offering something valuable to people who find your content helpful in some way and then following up with them again later with an opportunity for them to purchase it if they wish.
Develop A Regular Podcast Schedule
You’ve got a great idea for a podcast. You’ve outlined the details, planned it all out, and recorded your first episode. Now what?
The next step is to develop a regular podcast schedule. Podcasting is hard work, but having an outline and schedule helps you keep track of what needs to get done and when it needs to get done.
It also gives you a chance to start marketing your show while you’re still working on existing episodes before they come out!
Here are some tips for creating your own:
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Focus On Specific Topics Of Interest
Your content needs to be focused on topics that are relevant to your audience, your business and/or brand, your industry, and/or competitors. This will help you achieve two things:
You’ll be able to build up an audience who trusts you because they know what kind of content you’re going to publish – and it’s probably not going to disappoint them!
Your followers will also likely share their insights with their communities, increasing the reach of each piece of content exponentially.
Make Ebooks And White Papers Free
You’re building a content platform, so you need to offer something for free.
You can give away an ebook, a white paper, a video or audio series, webinar recordings and slides (or even the entire presentation if you have it), a checklist template example, or a guide with step-by-step instructions that explain how to do something in great detail.
If your audience is business people who want to make more money by doing less work or having better results with less effort then consider giving away a cheat sheet infographic on how they can achieve their goals faster and easier than ever before!
Cross-Link Information From Other Resources
You can also cross-link content from your website, other websites, social media channels, and other marketing efforts. For example:
- Link to related blog posts on your site.
- Link to external articles that are relevant and helpful to readers (don’t link to just any article you find).
- Post links on social media platforms that are relevant and helpful for your audience (don’t spam people with links just because you think they’re an important part of the marketing process).
Create A Resource Center Or Library On Your Website
To build a content platform, you need to create a resource center or library on your website.
This is an organized collection of all the information you want people to know about your product or service. It’s important that it has searchable terms and is easy for users to find what they are looking for.
Improve The Usability And Navigation On Your Website
Improve the Usability and Navigation of Your Website
Your website is your content platform’s hub, so it must have a clear layout that guides readers to the information they need. Here are some tips for improving usability:
Make sure menus are visible and easy to use. If you have too many links or confusing labels, people might not know where to click or what they can find on each page.
Use hyperlinks effectively don’t just list an article without linking back to it from elsewhere on your site!
This will help visitors find more related content quickly and easily if they want more information later on down the road (and who doesn’t?). It also makes jumping around between sections extremely simple with just one click!
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Take Advantage Of Social Media And Electronic Newsletters
Social media is another great way to share your content. The beauty of social media is that it allows you to take advantage of the natural word-of-mouth marketing that occurs when people share what they like with their friends and followers.
This can be done through Facebook Live videos, Instagram photo galleries, Twitter tweets, and more.
Social media has also been shown to help increase brand awareness and build community among your customers; however, it’s important not only to create high-quality content but also to engage in conversations with users so they feel a connection with you as a brand.
Finally, social media can be used as an effective lead generation tool by providing valuable content such as eBooks or webinars that encourage visitors to opt-in on email lists so they can get more information about your business offerings in the future
Use Tools Such As Slideshare And Visual Content To Enhance Your Content Marketing Effort
Slideshare is a great tool for creating and sharing presentations. You can use it to share your ideas and expertise with a wider audience. Uploading content on Slideshare will help you get more followers, who might turn into customers.
To create a presentation, simply log onto Slideshare and select the “Create” option at the top of the page. Then choose “Select Template” and decide whether you want to make your presentation in PowerPoint or Keynote format (or both).
Once your template is loaded, start adding images from either document camera capture or from files that are already saved on your computer. Selecting an image will take you through three steps: crop selection;
Cropping; and sizing options for each slide’s text box (you can adjust how much space there should be between lines of text). Once done, click “Done” at the bottom right-hand corner once done edit all slides’ text boxes individually with their respective cropping options selected!
Optimize Your Content For Search Engines
When it comes to optimizing your content for search engines, you want to make sure you’re using keywords in the following places:
Your title is the most important part of your webpage.
Meta description, the meta description is what shows up in search engine results when people are looking at your page. It’s also used by Google to create snippets that appear on social media sites like Twitter or Facebook.
Image alt tags, these help with SEO and give context to an image if someone can’t see it (like if they screen-readers).
URL structure and internal links, all of these things are used by Google as a way for them to crawl through your website quickly and find what they need before returning that information to users who may be searching for relevant content related to their query.
Create Shareable Infographics And Graphics
One of the best ways to build your content platform is by creating shareable infographics and graphics.
These images are not only easy to share on social media, but they also give you a chance to demonstrate your expertise on a specific subject while doing so.
To create these graphics yourself, I recommend using Canva or Snappa. These tools allow you to quickly create professional-looking designs without having any design skills of your own.
You can also use Piktochart if you’re looking for more advanced features such as charts and other types of data visualization.
You May Not Be Able To Do All Of These Things, But You Probably Can Do Some Of Them, So Pick One Or Two Ideas That Seem Like A Good Fit For You
Your platform will be more successful if you focus on one or two strategies that work for you. Don’t try to do everything at once, as this will likely overwhelm you and make it impossible to create a cohesive strategy.
Instead, pick one or two ideas from this list (or from your list) that seem like a good fit for your brand and go with it! It’s also important not to worry about what other people are doing; everyone has their unique strengths and weaknesses, so focus on what works best for you.
Finally, don’t be afraid of starting small even if your content marketing plan seems ambitious now, there’s no reason why it can’t grow into something bigger over time by implementing new ideas into its structure as needed.
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Conclusion
The content marketing landscape is a competitive one, and businesses must find ways to differentiate themselves to stand out.
If you are looking for additional information on how to improve your content marketing efforts.
The Content Marketing Institute has published several articles that cover topics such as developing a content marketing plan, measuring your results, and using content strategy to attract new customers.
Further Reading
Creating an Effective Content Marketing Plan Short Description: Learn how to craft a content marketing plan that drives results and engages your target audience.
Building a Strong Content Platform: A Comprehensive Guide Short Description: Dive into a comprehensive guide on building a robust content platform to establish your online presence and connect with your audience.
Content Planning Strategies for Successful Marketing Short Description: Discover effective content planning strategies that can supercharge your marketing efforts and help you achieve your goals.
And here’s the FAQs section with semantic-based questions and answers:
FAQs
What is Content Marketing and Why is it Important?
Content marketing involves creating and distributing valuable content to attract and engage a target audience. It’s important because it builds brand awareness, establishes authority, and drives customer engagement.
How Can I Develop a Content Marketing Strategy?
Developing a content marketing strategy involves defining your goals, understanding your audience, creating relevant and valuable content, selecting the right distribution channels, and measuring success.
What Are the Key Elements of a Content Platform?
A content platform typically includes a well-defined target audience, a content calendar, a mix of content formats (e.g., articles, videos, infographics), SEO optimization, and a plan for content distribution and promotion.
How Can I Plan Content for SEO Success?
To plan content for SEO success, perform keyword research, identify relevant topics, create high-quality and engaging content, optimize for target keywords, and build authoritative backlinks to your content.
How Do I Measure the Effectiveness of my Content Marketing?
You can measure the effectiveness of your content marketing by tracking metrics such as website traffic, engagement rates (likes, shares, comments), conversion rates, lead generation, and ROI from your content campaigns.
Costantine Edward is a digital marketing expert, freelance writer, and entrepreneur who helps people attain financial freedom. I’ve been working in marketing since I was 18 years old and have managed to build a successful career doing what I love.