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Mega phone displaying need to use social icons
Marketing & Consulting, Marcom & Content, Digital Marketing, Video & Photography

6 Rules of Content Marketing

Whether we know it or not, we consume huge amounts of content every single day. People around the world consume 463 minutes, or over 7.5 hours, per day consuming media content. Content casts a wide net and comes in an ever-expanding variety of forms. We encounter content in the form of YouTube videos, blog posts and news articles, email communications, and in social posts on venues like Tik Tok and Instagram, to name a few. Because of modern society’s prolific consumption of content on a mass scale, content creation is considered the proverbial “meat and potatoes” of any successful marketing strategy. Here are some keys to remember when you’re thinking about content in relation to marketing.

1. Know Your Audience

The most effective content is content that is catered towards a specific type of consumer. You can create all the content you want but if it isn’t curated with a particular kind of end-user in mind, it can be ineffective. The ultimate goal of content creation is driving sales – and if the audience doesn’t identify with your content in a meaningful way, you’ll have a tough time achieving that goal.

2. Utilize Multiple Forms

Think about the way you consume content. You typically shy away from huge blocks of text without any images or videos, right? In order to keep your audience engaged, you need to keep their attention – and a great way of doing that is by incorporating multiple content format types into your strategy. Don’t post one type or another too heavily. For example, if your company posts a lot of informational articles on your website, consider using an infographic to simplify your message for your next post. Also, don’t be afraid of combining different formats within the same post – use pictures and videos to supplement the information you are trying to convey.

3. Keep It Fresh with Evergreen Principles

Evergreen content is defined as content that does not have an expiration date – it is always relevant and is centered around topics that do not change with seasons or events. Evergreen content is essential to your content strategy because you get a lot of bang for your buck out of reusable content. Quality evergreen content can serve as key web traffic drivers for years if executed correctly, making them valuable by nature. Think of it this way – why produce 12 pieces of content that can bring in the same amount of traffic as 1 quality evergreen content piece? Keep them in mind as you develop content.

4. Use Calls to Action…

Keep the ultimate goal in mind: converting sales. Research has shown that less calls to action result in less sales, and that’s an evergreen trend (see what I did there?). It can’t hurt to throw a promotional link into an article, blog post, or social media post. Don’t be afraid of guiding your potential customers to a desired endpoint – that is, after all, is a key goal of marketing.

5. …But Don’t Oversell!

With that being said, don’t turn your content pieces into lit-up promotional billboards. While the goal is to drive sales, it’s a much better look for your brand to do so in an educational way that will lead consumers to make an informed decision rather than offering them a blatant hard sell that can potentially turn them off.

6. Promote Your Content

Content development takes hard work and a lot of effort. In order to make the best use of your investment, you need to promote it and share it across multiple platforms. Link the articles in any and all newsletters you publish, use paid advertising on social media, post the articles on all company social media accounts, and optimize your articles for SEO so that it ranks when its topic is being searched on Google. Your content is only as good as how well you promote it – in order to maximize its full potential, it needs to be shared with others across as many channels as possible.

Quality content marketing is absolutely vital to an effective marketing strategy. With the amount of time consumers spend time engaging with media content, it is a very clear path to get your message across to your target audience.

Did we miss anything about content marketing? Need more information on incorporating quality content pieces into your marketing strategy? Let’s talk. Feel free to contact our team at MA1440.

MA1440 is a marketing consulting and digital agency located in Glenview, IL – serving small and mid-sized businesses locally and nationally.

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