Who is a content marketer? A story-teller? A marketer? A writer?
The right answer is ALL OF THESE – and a lot more!
A content marketer is a jack of all trades. Ze is at marketer who not only sells Zir products by creating and promoting content but educates the viewers in the process. He is a strategist, a researcher, a social media pro. Ze also has sound knowledge of technology.
The kind of content that Ze creates is as diverse as the skill sets required for becoming a successful content marketer. Content is published in a multitude of formats. Formats ranging from photos and infographics to videos and podcasts, from blogs to quizzes, from question-answer articles and how-to guides to email newsletters. It is as varied as you make it.
Andrea Fryrear described what a content marketer does during her Agile marketing workshop at ICC.
“Our job is not to create content. Our job is to change the world of the people who consume it.”
– Andrea Fryrear
Let’s take the 8-step journey of becoming a content marketer. (Psst… It doesn’t end here!)
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Picking the right topic
First and foremost, you continuously need to come up with topics of interest to people. Look at old topics that continue to fascinate minds with a fresh perspective. And needless to mention, these topics should be in line with the product or service that you are aiming to sell. If you are promoting your cupcake store, ideally, you should be conducting online about what new flavor(s) to introduce and not what sunscreen your customers use.
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Choosing Keyword(s)
Find keywords which are widely used by people related to your business. Use free tools like Google or Keyword Planner. Aim for a keyword which has low competition and higher search volume. Build your content around that primary keyword. Everything from the title to the basic content should revolve around that keyword.
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Grabbing eyeballs
A title can make or break your career in content marketing. Thus, choose or rather coming up with a good title as it is crucial, yet (sadly) understated task. Your title is responsible for generating a high, or low, CTR and hence it deserves to be treated as a whole step on its own.
So how do you make a killer heading?
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Keep it short. According to HubSpot, headlines consisting of 11 or 14 words are shared the most across social media. Keep your heading short enough to be retweeted and make sure it doesn’t get cut off in search engine results.
Read: Make your Content Visible – Search Engine Optimization tutorial for beginners
- Keep it accurate. Always write a title that is consistent with your content. If you set high expectations and fail to fulfill them through your content, you’ll definitely end up losing your readers’ trust. The same goes for using accurate data and proper grammar.
- Keep it innovative. Once you have gauged your buyers’ persona, use that information to the hilt to curate the most engaging title. Using strong phrases like “Things People Hate” and words like “who” along with literary devices like alliteration.
Attract. Engage. Convert.
~ Lee Odden, TopRank Marketing
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Creating solid content
Content forms the meat of your entire promotion strategy. It needs to live up to the expectations set by your magnetic heading. How to set your content apart from the crowd?
- Research your customer’s interests, demographic etc.
- Identify your competitors, their position and learn from their mistakes.
- Align your content with your company’s products and don’t forget to use the keywords! (see step 3)
- Use numbers to add credibility to your content. Data-driven posts garner more shares on the internet.
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Make a distribution strategy
Creating the right content is just one process. Putting it in front of the right people in the right manner at the right time is another. Neil Patel says, ’Professional content marketers plan a year’s worth of blog posts in advance and follow a strict publishing schedule.’. So devise a consistent publishing strategy, set realistic deadlines and reach your goals.
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Promote, promote and promote!
Make the most of your social media to promote your work.
- One size does NOT fit all. Tailor your content according to the platform you are using. Just like your profile picture on LinkedIn and Snapchat aren’t exactly similar, the same goes for what you’re selling. If you run a café, you can post a picture of a steaming hot cuppa every morning on Instagram. Along with that share an article about “10 Reasons Why You Should Be Drinking Coffee” on your blog.
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There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Going completely ‘organic‘ might not be the best approach to promote your content. It’s never bad to use well-targeted paid placements to get outside your usual social sphere.
Read: The Ten Commandments of Social Media Marketing to make your Content Viral
- Get the timing right! Timing is everything, be it setting up a date or marketing your brand. Buzzfeed has found that smaller pieces do well during the day while people are on mobile or taking breaks at work but that longer content gets a better response during 6-10 PM, when they can relax into it.
“Content is fire. Social media is gasoline.”
~ Jay Baer
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Repurpose, reuse and recycle
Creating fresh content is often time-consuming. Not to worry. It is time to dig up the old content and give it a fresh lease of life. You can transform your articles into podcasts or e-books or rewrite old blogs so that they rank higher. Don’t shy away from re-inventing.
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Stepping into the customers’ shoes.
A good content marketer gradually nurtures a viewer into a customer. Remember Ze? Ze educates and adds value to the buyer. Hence, understanding the buyers’ conscience is of utmost importance. Know their fears, their needs. Reach out to them with a handy solution. Make them feel special. Because your growth is intimately linked with that of your customers.
Your goal should be to own quality time in your customer’s inbox.
~ Drew Davis, Brandscaping
Conclusion
There’s no hush-hush secret about how to become a content marketer and definitely not about becoming a good one too! A good content marketer combines all these 8 steps along with their company’s requirements and goes one step ahead. If you think you can be one, then hop on the exciting road of content marketing. Think out of the box. Enthrall your audience with your skills but at the same time juggle all the balls carefully.
I’ll see you there (hopefully). Bon voyage!