3 Content Marketing Tactics to Try Today

Content Marketing Tactics

With content marketing continuing to forge ahead as a concept and a force within the business world, it’s unlikely your company doesn’t have some opinion around it. Maybe you dabble in putting out blog posts when you get around to it, or perhaps it’s your sole marketing strategy. Whether you’re just going through the motions so you don’t miss out on the trend or if you’re completely sold on the idea and attacking it full throttle, you can probably use a little extra help.

Do you want to see some big results for your business today? Try giving your content marketing efforts the following three tweaks.

Make it Easy to Get Social

While social media falls under the marketing and PR umbrella for most businesses, it can sometimes take on a life—and separate strategy—all on its own. That’s fine, as long as you don’t forget that social platforms can help maximize your content. To give your written pieces some social love (and extra mileage), make sure you’re including sharing buttons within the content so your readers can click one button to pass it along to their own followings. And don’t stop there.

Consider embedding your Facebook posts into your blog posts, so that social engagement is increased. Evaluate every piece of content that goes out the door, and think about how you can capitalize upon it through your various social mediums. Maybe point to your brand’s Pinterest page within a contributed article if it ties to an example you give. Or when you’re about to release some exciting news about your company, send your employees some previously crafted Tweets they can quickly shoot off from their personal accounts to spread the word. It’ll be easy for them, and will increase the number of eyes on your company.

Give them Something to See and Feel

The average attention span at the turn of the century was 12 seconds, but now it’s dropped to a mere eight seconds, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine. What does this mean for your content marketing? You have barely any time at all to grab the attention of your target audience. And you know the old adage about a picture being worth a thousand words? Yes, it’s trite, but the idea holds some serious weight. After all, articles that include images within them have been shown to get 94 percent more views than those that are lacking a visual element, according to Skyword.

Try incorporating a picture that complements your text, whether it’s in a social media post, blog post, or article. If you don’t have the time or resources to have your own photo shoots, you can quickly get a variety of royalty-free material from a stock photo site like Shutterstock. And don’t count out the impact of videos as well. Even a short video can give your readers a little extra incentive to check out your content. Look for photos and videos that tap into your audience’s pain points, frustrations, or sentimental sides. By playing to emotions with an accompanying visual element, you’ll see a bigger return on your content efforts.

Long Live the White Paper

When companies think of content, the usual suspects considered often include blog posts, social media, and articles. For some reason, the white paper is often an afterthought—if it even gets thought of at all. You want to increase the power your content has? It’s time to write some white papers. Of course you’ll want to be sure the topics you choose are aligned with your business’ overall content strategy and value propositions. But other than that, these long-form pieces of content should focus on going in-depth into hot topics customers want to know about. Stumped for ideas? Ask your sales team what prospects’ most frequent objections to your product or service are. Is it a perceived lack of benefits for the cost of your software? Write a white paper with stats and figures that show the overall ROI customers can get by using your software.

Beyond proactively answering questions customers (and prospects) have, and using white papers as a channel to give them further information on your product or service, this is also a great way to build your brand. You can use white papers to position your company’s differentiators, show how forward-thinking you are, and establish that you’re a resource to anyone who has questions in your field.

So if you’re a whole-hearted believer in content marketing, or if you’re still dragging your feet a little, consider these tips. By offering your audience an easy way to be social with your content, including visual elements and giving white papers a chance, you can discover for yourself why there’s so much fuss about content marketing. And you may even enjoy a deeper connection with your customers and prospects. What’s not to love?

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