If you follow video marketing trends, you might have noticed an increase in animated videos starring anime-style avatars. This content is created by VTubers, and it’s taking content creation by storm.
Top VTubers have millions of followers and earn hundreds of thousands of dollars a month.
According to experts, the industry is on the rise. HyperSense shared that the number of total VTuber subscribers increased by 28 percent in 2019, while the total views of Vtuber content increased by 99 percent.
At first glance, this might not seem like a serious trend. However, marketers and brands like Mattel and KFC are leveraging virtual YouTubers to drive serious engagement.
What exactly are VTubers, and why should you care? Here is what you need to know to become a Vtuber or use this new trend to grow your business.
What Are VTubers?
VTubers (short for virtual YouTubers) are content creators who use animated avatars and stop motion graphics in their videos, rather than their physical likeness. Like most vloggers, they talk to the camera and share their thoughts on a wide range of topics and products.
Some of the top virtual YouTubers include Kaguya Luna, Kizuna AI, The Omega Sisters, and Kiryu Coco.
The trend has exploded in popularity in recent years, with top content creators earning millions of dollars. VTuber Kiryu Coco, for example, earns approximately $134,000 per month.
What Do VTubers Do?
VTubers use animated likenesses to share music videos, gaming tips, impressions, live streams, and even product ads. Many use manga-styled avatars, often with large eyes, small mouths, and brilliant hair colors. Despite being animated, the avatars are often strikingly life-like.
Here’s an example of one of the original VTubers, Kizuna AI.
While the personality, voice, and physical likeness vary by creator, most are high-energy, fun-loving, animated personalities.
VTubers, like other YouTubers, create a wide range of content. Some play video games, model clothing, share their thoughts on political situations, review movies, or even release their own music videos.
Many also partner with brands to promote products and services.
The History of VTubers
In 2011, Japanese YouTuber Ami Yamato created a 3D avatar to share her feelings about moving back to London after spending several years in Tokyo. Her avatar is slightly more subdued than the anime versions many VTubers use, but her avatar is influenced by Japanese culture and graphic novels.
While that first video was more of a journal entry, later videos take on a more humorous angle. For example, Ami imagines herself on a blind date with the Mandalorian in the Star Wars universe, or interviewing Godzilla.
In 2016, the Kizuna AI channel launched and has racked up more than 4 million subscribers. Unlike Ami Yamato, Kizuna AI is a fully AI, fully autonomous digital celebrity. The channel was originally managed by the company Activ8, which later built an entire company for managing the character and created several spin-off versions.
Since then, hundreds of other virtual avatars have launched channels, including more controversial YouTube celebrities, such as Pewdiepie.
VTuber Tech Requirements
The Vtuber videos might look complicated to create, but the format is becoming increasingly accessible thanks to advances in digital technology and software.
Here’s a quick rundown of the tech you’ll need to become a VTuber. You may want additional accessories, like a boom mic or phone holder, but those are not necessary.
Webcam: Ideally, you’ll want a high-quality webcam, not just a laptop camera. However, as camera technology improves, you may be able to use a standard built-in webcam.
Microphone: Use a separate microphone to ensure high-quality sound. Blue Yeti and Hyper Ex both sell higher-end microphones for less than $200.
Mobile phone: If you plan to record videos or edit on the go, you’ll want a smartphone with a high-quality camera and recording capabilities. Alternatively, you can rely on your at-home setup and skip this requirement.
Avatar creation software: This is editing software that turns your recorded videos into an animation. Different platforms offer a range of features, including shortcuts for specific facial expressions, motion capture, background settings, and more. Popular options include VDraw, VSeeFace, and VMagicMirror.
While you can spend hundreds of dollars (or even thousands of dollars) on high-end tech, you may be able to use the camera and computer you already have.
Before dropping a lot of money on new tech, try out free avatar creation software with your current setup and see how it works. You’ll get a feel for how the software works, and you can always upgrade later.
How Can Marketers Use VTubers?
Marketers can use VTube creators as part of their influencer marketing campaigns. Though the characters are animated, creators often have thousands or even millions of followers. Those large audiences can be used to promote music, fashion lines, movies, and even increase tourism.
For example, popular VTuber Kizuna AI partnered with Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) to promote a “Come to Japan” campaign aimed at attracting US tourists to Japan.
Here are a few other ways to use VTubers in marketing:
Partner with a popular VTuber to review your product or software: This is ideal for games, apparel, and other products that target younger audiences.
Pay to have a VTuber show your logo on their stream: For example, on their shirt, coffee mug, or even in the background.
Partner your own avatar with a well-known VTuber: Popular VTuber Subaru (not the car company) shared their excitement at being reshared by KFC’s Twitter. While this video might not have been sponsored, it was a boost for the brand:
How Can Businesses Use VTubers?
Businesses can use virtual YouTube creators in a number of ways. For example, they can create a brand avatar or partner with popular creators through influencer marketing.
It might sound weird, but it works.
In fact, one of the most popular virtual YouTubers in the world is KFC’s avatar:
In addition to marketing, businesses can use VTubers in other ways. Here are a few ideas to consider:
Create fun or quirky help videos using an avatar.
Animate customer reviews.
Use avatars for your employees to create behind-the-scenes videos.
Create short clips to use in television or social media ads.
Record a webinar with your VTuber avatar.
Create shopping videos to showcase your product in a virtual environment.
As a business, VTubers can help you connect with a younger audience. However, don’t think you are just limited to marketing content. Using VTuber technology can make any type of content you create more entertaining.
How to Become a VTuber
Considering becoming a VTuber? You might be surprised to know you don’t need much to get started creating content. Here is a step-by-step process for becoming a VTuber.
Get your tech set up: Make sure you have a quality camera, microphone, and computer to record and edit your videos. You don’t need to invest thousands of dollars. If you can, start with what you have and then invest in better video equipment as you learn more.
Choose an avatar software: There are dozens of software platforms available, so I recommend testing a few out before settling on one. A few of the more popular platforms to consider are VRChat, Wakaru, and PrprLive. Many of these offer free versions, though you may need to pay for advanced features.
Create your avatar: One of the most interesting parts of becoming a VTuber is creating your avatar. Using avatar software, you can create your avatar from scratch or use a sample avatar and change the skin color, eyes, eyelashes, etc. As you design your avatar, think about the long-term goal of your VTube content. Are you targeting teens, adults, or even professional software users? Make sure your avatar is appealing to your target audience. Remember, it doesn’t have to look like you at all.
Set up your channel: Where will you share your VTube creations? While most VTube content is on YouTube, you can share videos on your website, Instagram, TikTok, or other social media platforms. Consider uploading and hosting videos on YouTube, then sharing those links on other platforms. Make sure to optimize your YouTube channel if that is the route you go.
Create a content calendar: Once you have your avatar created and your channel set up, decide what type of content you will create. While you don’t need to post new content every day, you should post consistently. What will you talk about? Will you interview experts, play video games, or share your thoughts on industry news? Consider your marketing goals when designing your content calendar.
Record your first video: Now is your time to shine. Record your first video, convert it to your avatar in your avatar software, and send your video live. Don’t expect overnight success; building a YouTube following can take months.
VTuber Frequently Asked Questions
How Much Does It Cost to Become a VTuber?
If you already have a computer or smartphone, it costs virtually nothing to become a VTuber. All you need is a computer or smartphone and avatar creation software. There are several free or freemium software options to help you get started.
How Much Do VTubers Make?
Like regular YouTubers, the amount VTubers make can vary drastically. The highest-earning creators earn more than $4.8 million annually in Super Chats alone.
Who Are Some Popular VTubers?
Some of the most popular VTubers include Kizuna AI, Yousa, Lil Miquela, KFC, AI Games, and Momo.
Are VTubers All Anime-Style Characters?
No. Although the vast majority use anime or anime-style characters, some like Ai Angel are more realistic. However, since most avatar creation software uses anime styles, creating other style animations may require a mocap suit and more expensive software.
Do I Need a Mocap Suit to Be a VTuber?
No. A motion capture suit can help you create extremely high-end, realistic videos, but it’s not necessary. Most VTuber software platforms allow you to create your avatar and design movements through editing.
How Do VTubers Make Money?
VTubers can earn an income by showing ads on their channel, hosting Super Chats, partnering with businesses or brands to promote their products, or selling their own products or services.
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VTubers Conclusion
VTubers are taking video marketing to new levels. These animated content creators are becoming celebrities in their own right, with top creators earning millions of dollars and attracting huge groups of followers.
Are they the future of video content creation? Only time will tell. However, brands and marketing professionals should consider adding VTube content to their digital marketing strategies.
Are you considering partnering with VTubers? What is holding you back?
B2B and B2C content marketing require entirely different strategies. However, whether you’re targeting businesses or individual consumers, one point remains the same: Content matters.
Content is how you boost brand awareness, build trust in your company, and empower your customers to solve their problems. However, you can’t just create the occasional blog post or paid ad and hope to generate results.
Instead, you need a targeted B2B content marketing strategy to reach your marketing goals.
Let me show you why a strategy is so important and help you figure out how to reach those valuable business prospects.
Why Do You Need a B2B Content Marketing Strategy?
A content marketing strategy is like a roadmap or a blueprint. While it’s not set in stone, a marketing strategy is a set of guidelines to help you get from point A to point B.
Without a roadmap, you’re more likely to get lost. There’s a higher chance you’ll lose sight of your business goals, and you might struggle to get back on track.
A marketing strategy, then, is key to helping you create the right content at the right time to reach your target clients in the shortest time possible.
You can’t just use any old content marketing strategy, though.
As mentioned, B2B content marketing presents different challenges from B2C content marketing. With B2B, you’re targeting other businesses, whereas, with B2C, you’re targeting individual consumers.
While consumers might be impressed by influencer marketing and emotive product launch campaigns, businesses won’t be swayed by these tactics. Instead, businesses want authoritative content.
They want useful, actionable information to help them solve real commercial challenges and grow their organizations. A clear, methodical marketing strategy can help you create the content needed to impress this audience.
How to Create a B2B Content Marketing Strategy
Every B2B content marketing strategy is unique. However, successful content marketing campaigns typically start with well-defined objectives and a clear understanding of your long-term goals.
Remember, don’t let the whole idea of a marketing “strategy” intimidate you. It’s surprisingly simple to get started once you understand what’s involved, so if you’re ready to build a successful content marketing campaign, here’s where to begin.
1. Identify Your Audience and Their Needs
There’s nothing more important than your user base.
Remember, the whole point of creating content is to convert your audience into paying clients, so your content must meet their specific demands and needs. If your content doesn’t resonate with your audience, they won’t move through your sales funnel.
Then, segment your prospective audience into subgroups based on, for example, buyer behavior.
Decide whether you’ll target all these subgroups or if you want to focus on one or two specific segments.
Once you’ve identified your audience, you can tailor your content to match their specific demands.
Ultimately, what matters to your core audience should matter to you, so you must first identify their problems and then consider how you can solve them through your content.
2. Use Micro-Targeting to Narrow Down Your Focus
You’ve identified your target audience, you know what matters to them, and you’re ready to give them a great user experience.
Now, it’s time to actually find those businesses online and generate brand awareness. How do you ensure that your content reaches the right audience, though? It’s all about using the right short and longtail keywords.
Start by using microtargeting. Through microtargeting, you use analytics data to reveal key information such as buyer behavior, preferences, and popular search terms or keywords. Then, you can use a variety of popular keywords in your content to help your audience find you through Google and other search engines.
Check out Ubersuggest for your keyword research. Enter a primary keyword, such as “health insurance,” and scroll through the “keyword ideas” for inspiration:
Carefully chosen keywords can help you reach the businesses most likely to require your services.
3. Research Competitors in Your Niche
Unless you’re in a super unique niche, chances are you have numerous competitors vying for your audience’s business.
Look at what makes them successful and research what they’re offering your target customers. What can you offer that sets you apart from your competition?
You need a unique selling point (USP) to draw customers, so consider what you could do better than your competitors and highlight what makes you unique when you’re selling your goods and services to prospects. Here are some tips for doing just that:
Identify your competitors.
Evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
Clarify what makes your business unique and build your USP around your strengths.
Not sure where to get started? Look to your target audience. Who else are they following? What other businesses are they interested in? Go back to your audience research and see what it reveals.
4. Define Your Goals
Every great marketing strategy needs clearly defined goals to help you stay on track and measure your progress.
How do you choose the right goals? By following the SMART objective. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.
In other words, you’re setting a clear, realistic goal that you can achieve in a certain amount of time. The results are measurable, meaning there’s some quantifiable way you can measure your success and track whether you achieved the goal.
To set SMART goals, ask yourself the right questions. For example, what are you trying to achieve? What steps will you take to reach your objective? Finally, how will you know if you achieved your goal?
If you don’t have the answers to questions like these, your goals need a little more work before you’re ready to develop your marketing strategy.
5. Create Multi-Layered Content
Sure, words are great. After all, you’re trying to impress your audience and demonstrate your industry expertise.
Too much text is pretty daunting, though. If someone’s reading your article and they’re confronted by line after line of unbroken text, you could quickly lose their interest.
The answer? Multi-layered content. With multi-layered content, you’re basically using media such as text, videos, and images to create a visually engaging user experience.
We’ll use one of my own posts on visual marketing as an example. Sure, I include plenty of informative text to educate readers:
However, I also include images to illustrate my points and break up the walls of text:
Finally, I include videos for users who prefer a more interactive experience:
You’re targeting business clients. They’re busy people. Keep your content engaging and break it up with a blend of media types to hold their interest and keep your business memorable.
6. Measure Your Results
How do you know if you’re achieving those SMART goals you set earlier? By measuring your results or tracking progress using tools like Google Analytics.
Tracking metrics gives you key insights into what works and, of course, what doesn’t. Once you know what content works best, you can invest your energy into those areas and grow your business more effectively.
Try not to worry if you haven’t met some performance goals. Honestly, not everything you try will work out. Not every ad will generate leads, partnerships can fail, and some content may go unnoticed.
That’s all okay. In fact, it’s normal. Remember, you’re experimenting with different angles, so if something’s not working, just pivot and try something new.
7. Prioritize Link Building and Collaboration
Want to build brand exposure? Consider collaborating with other businesses. More specifically, make (and accept) some guest posts.
You might be wondering how letting another entrepreneur post on your website helps your own marketing goals. However, this is your opportunity to showcase your connections to your audience.
If your audience sees that other industry leaders want to collaborate with you, then guess what? They’ll immediately trust you more, which makes them more likely to explore your services.
On the other hand, say you want to make a guest post on another website. Great. Not only will the post boost your exposure and increase your authority within your niche, but it’s essentially free advertising for your brand. Sounds like a win-win, right?
Here’s an example from when I guest posted on Entrepreneur. Through this opportunity, I had the chance to reach a wider audience and help support their marketing goals:
Don’t be afraid to collaborate as part of your B2B content marketing strategy.
8. Promote Your Content Across Different Platforms
Where do your prospective customers hang out? If you researched your audience earlier, you already know the answer to this question, so your focus should now be on reaching these prospects as part of a targeted marketing campaign.
How you reach these potential clients all depends on your audience demographics, but here are some general tips.
First, improve your website’s discoverability in search engines. The goal is to secure a first-page search ranking for your chosen keywords, so optimize your pages for SEO by adding meta descriptions, including alt text with your images, and using keywords strategically.
Next, run a paid ads campaign. Paid ads ensure you shoot to the top of the search rankings for specific keywords. Monday.com, for example, is one of the first search results you see when you Google “collaboration software for businesses:”
Aside from Google Ads and LinkedIn, you could also run paid ads on popular platforms like Twitter and Facebook. It all depends on where your target audience spends their time, so do your research to generate the best ROI from your paid ad campaigns.
Do you need any advice on choosing the right keywords for paid ads or platforms to market your B2B company? Check out my consulting services to see how my team could help.
Frequently Asked Questions About B2B Content Marketing
Before you start building your own B2B content marketing strategy, here are some quick takeaways to reflect on.
What Is B2B Content Marketing?
B2B content marketing is a strategy for creating, sharing, and promoting content designed to appeal to a business audience. The goal is to use content to build brand awareness and find new clients.
How Is B2B Content Marketing Different From B2C?
With B2B marketing, you’re targeting business clients. You’re trying to demonstrate your experience, expertise, and skill to convince businesses to work with you.
On the other hand, B2C marketing involves targeting individual consumers. You’re focusing on nurturing leads, building an emotional connection with people, and convincing them to buy a specific product.
What Makes a Good B2B Content Marketing Campaign?
A good B2B content marketing campaign should help build trust in your company, provide valuable information to your audience, and inspire companies to choose your products and services.
Above all, a great content marketing strategy should establish you as an industry leader or innovator in your chosen niche.
Research your target audience to understand what challenges they face, and create content designed to help solve those problems. You should also check out competitors for content ideas and keep an eye on news channels. Aim for a blend of evergreen and timely content to keep your articles, videos, and podcasts varied and fresh.
B2B content marketing is a strategy for creating, sharing, and promoting content designed to appeal to a business audience. The goal is to use content to build brand awareness and find new clients.
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B2B Content Marketing Guide: Conclusion
Do you want to establish your company as an industry leader? Are you trying to convince businesses to choose your company over your competitors? Then a solid B2B content marketing strategy can help you stay on track.
Focus on creating useful content and cultivating a sense of trust in your company, and don’t be afraid to step back and make changes if something’s just not working. Remember, a strategy is a roadmap: It’s not set in stone. Let it guide you, but don’t let it hold you back when you’re ready to move in a new direction.
Have you tried B2B content marketing yet? How are you finding the process?
At times, it seems it’s all marketers think about. Even so, you may eventually find yourself in a content desert, desperately searching for a well of fresh content ideas.
You’ve exhausted every Google search, every whiteboard brainstorm.
However, there’s one strategy you may not have thought of.
Have you explored industry blogs in other languages with Google Translate? If not, it’s time to go international.
In this post, we break down the why and how of using Google Translate to generate content ideas.
4 Ways to Use Google Translate for Content Ideas
Google translate is an incredible resource, so it’s no wonder that in addition to having over 100 languages, we can look to the translating superpower for content ideas.
Below, we unpack the four best ways to generate new content ideas.
1. Check Out Top Blogs Around the World
Looking to broaden your content horizons? Start by broadening your search horizons. If you’ve exhausted industry content ideas in your native language, look beyond your linguistic borders to other voices in the industry.
By enabling Google Translate to translate websites, you can explore far beyond any language barriers that may exist and find troves of content to inspire you to create your own, similar asset in your language.
To begin searching for content in other languages, you must first select a different language through Chrome settings, either through the app or through your browser.
Now begin searching within your new language settings. When you encounter a page you want to be translated, simply:
Open Google Chrome
Navigate to the page you would like translated
Click “Translate” at the top of page
Et voilà! You have a fully translated page that you can borrow inspiration from for your next blog post, white paper, infographic, or graphic.
2. Explore Social Media Brand Accounts for Different Countries
Don’t stop your inspiration search at mere Googling: head to social accounts to find brands from different companies.
Let’s take Twitter, for example. You can change the language settings for your app through the browser views by visiting Settings.
After you’ve changed to the language you’d like to search, explore what top brands in the space are sharing and saying. For example, we changed our language to French and searched #digitalmarketing to see what was trending conversationally.
From there, we dug into French digital marketing corporations, exploring their social presence, websites, and blogs, all in search of content inspiration.
While we uncovered a number of topics and enviable content, we were particularly taken with this social post that shared stock images to use with a current, global event.
3. Find Globally Trending Topics
If we stay in the Twittersphere, trending topics tend to be in your country, if not in your locale. To enable all globally trending topics from your browser, simply:
Select #Explore from the left-hand column of your homepage
From there, click the gear icon in the top right of the screen
The location window will open, displaying a box ticked that reads “Show content in this location”
Untick the box, displaying more options
Select the Explore option button to find all the locations where Twitter is available
Select your desired locations to see the trending topics
By exploring topics outside of your own worldview, you can find new areas of discussion and new niches in need of filling. These hashtags can allow you to tailor your content to the larger conversation.
4. Dig Into Your Industry Internationally
While we’ve covered exploring by hashtag, you can also discover inspiring content through finding the top influencers or companies in your specific sphere.
A lot of aggregation sites provide a ranking for industry leaders in other countries. When we searched for the best digital marketing agencies in Germany, we pared down a list of 20 to a list of 10.
From there, we navigated to their websites and explored their blogs.
By exploring what other digital marketers are creating globally, we can tap into trends larger than those before us, borrow content ideas and find inspiration across borders.
5 Tips for Using Google Translate to Generate Content Topics
While finding content that relates to your field is a feat in itself, you want to ensure the content you’ve found is truly relevant. Below, we break down five tips to keep in mind as you explore international content waters.
1. Be Aware of Cultural/Linguistic Nuances
While looking for inspiration and ideas across continental divides is all well and good, if you use Google Translate, be aware of cultural and linguistic nuances that can change the meaning and interpretation of text.
For example, colloquialisms hardly ever translate across linguistic divides. In these cases, if you’re borrowing heavily from existing text, you must be sure to adjust the language to reflect terminology that makes sense for your reader. Otherwise, your work will go to waste completely.
2. Be Cognizant of Being Offensive
Wading into a larger conversation always poses a risk for the unindoctrinated. If you choose to use Google Translate to enter an ongoing discussion about an industry topic, be sure you’ve educated yourself on the nuances and realities of said topic. Regardless of intent, there is always the possibility your entrance into the conversation may not be as productive as you had hoped.
In terms of borrowing from existing content, read the translation with an eye toward how it will be perceived by your future audience, reworking and removing anything that may not come across as intended.
3. Discover Content in Industry-Adjacent Niches
Perhaps you’ve gone through all of the search exercises noted above and still came up empty-handed. To look even deeper into your topic, explore industry-adjacent niches that can help drive even more content ideas.
Let’s stay with our digital marketing example. Rather than casting a net that wide, we can delve into email marketing, and from email marketing into email metrics, and from email metrics into strongest email calls to action (CTA).
By moving beyond the overarching umbrella of your industry, you can find more granular content that speaks to your market, providing you inspiration and guidance along the way.
4. Explore Content All Around the World
With 109 languages and counting, there’s no limit to content you can explore with Google Translate. As you get accustomed to delving into different languages, go beyond your usual searches and seek out different points of view from different individuals.
With each search, you can find more and more content inspiration and involve yourself in the global, ongoing conversation about the largest trends, topics, and issues impacting your field.
5. Keep SEO in Mind
As a marketer, you’re well aware of the importance of search engine optimization (SEO) on your content, regardless of format. When you use Google Translate to translate a content piece, you will have to reoptimize the piece for SEO to ensure that it meets your standards and drives searchability.
Be sure to include your respective keywords and adjust content as needed to reflect your goals throughout any piece that goes through Google Translate.
Frequently Asked Questions About Google Translate
Is translated content considered duplicate content?
In short, no. Translated content is not duplicate content. With different words and phrases, nuances and colloquialisms, translated content is entirely different from its origin. To learn more about this, watch this excerpt from Google’s John Mueller.
How do I get Google to automatically translate a page?
To get Google translate to translate for you, simply follow these three steps:
1. Open Google Chrome 2. Navigate to the page you would like translated 3. Click “Translate” at the top of page
How can Google Translate help me find content ideas?
By harnessing Google’s translation powers, you can find inspiring content from all over the world to recreate for your own brand. What’s more, you can join a larger conversation that is ongoing globally, widening your audience reach even further and establishing you as an international thought leader.
Is Google Translate accurate?
For everyday use, Google Translate is pretty accurate. For the specific use of searching for content inspiration, Google Translate is very accurate. With that said, be sure to read for linguistic nuance and appropriateness before sharing or replicating in total.
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Google Translate Conclusion
As the demand for quality content continues to rise in every industry, it is vital marketers identify new sources to inspire and replicate content that hasn’t been duplicated by every brand in your industry.
By looking beyond the traditional bounds of your content-sphere, you can tap into conversations and ideas that can inspire similar content creation, while simultaneously inviting you into a global conversation about your industry.
As you explore more and more languages, be sure to keep nuance and perception in mind. Don’t forget to continuously optimize any borrowed content forSEO so your version of the content can rank as high as possible.
What’s the best place you’ve found content inspiration?
If you own a small business, content marketing is a tactic you should consider to grow your audience base and increase your brand’s name recognition.
Content marketing refers to the creation and dissemination of online materials that grow traffic to your website. Content types can include blogs, infographics, and whitepapers that are geared toward creating interest in your products or offerings.
In this post, we’ll break down why business owners of every size should deploy a content marketing strategy and how to create one.
Why Should Your Small Business Do Content Marketing?
Serving up useful, timely content allows your business to become a thought leader in your industry, increasing your business’s recognition and building consumer trust, respect, and loyalty.
Content marketing also allows you to identify your consumer’s pain points and speak to how your products solve those issues. This can lead directly to sales.
Another lasting benefit of content marketing is any evergreen content you create. This refers to assets that do not become outdated, like blog posts about the history of your industry or an infographic on how to complete a process that doesn’t change.
You can also find use in content marketing when you create assets that can be used across multiple channels and marketing campaigns. For example, if you write a blog post about the needs of a certain community, you can create a YouTube video on the topic and use the video in your blog post. Then you can link to the post and/or video on your social media channels. This saves you time and money, all while firmly establishing you in your field of expertise.
Small Business Content Marketing: 7 Steps for Success
The rest of this post will break down the seven steps every business owner should undertake to build a successful small business content marketing strategy.
1. Start a Blog
Blogging is a completely free way to market your services and capabilities, while simultaneously establishing yourself as an industry expert.
2. Build a Social Media Presence on the Social Channels Your Audience Uses
If you’re actively involved in selling a product or service, you most likely have a social media presence of some variety.
Unfortunately, simply being present isn’t enough. You need to be active on platforms that your audience uses.
How do you choose which social media channels among the multitude of options are right for your brand?
Before you start posting anywhere, you need to identify your target audience. On social media, you’re not speaking to everyone; you’re speaking to a specific set of consumers with specific interests. After you’ve established who you’re speaking to, you must determine how to reach those individuals.
You can use a variety of strategies to determine where your audience is active.
Aggregate all existing consumer data to see where your audience is spending their online time.
Visit your competitors’ social profiles to see where they have the most active users
Use tools like Google Analytics to determine consumer online behavior.
These three steps can help you begin to identify where your target audience is active and begin delivering content to them on those particular platforms.
Resources for Building a Facebook Presence for Your Small Business
Email newsletters are an excellent way for small businesses to wade into the world of email marketing. They alert your readers to new products, upcoming events, industry-related news, and any other notable business-adjacent happenings.
With historically high return on investment (ROI), for every dollar spent on email marketing, expect an average ROI of $42. Email marketing is an excellent tool for small businesses to use. In addition to sheer ROI, email newsletters can help small businesses:
4. Create Content Corresponding to a Basic Customer Sales Funnel
Finding the right consent to correspond to your consumer’s needs is key to getting them to actually make a purchase.
With a basic customer sales funnel and an accompanying content strategy, you can identify which stage of the funnel your customer currently occupies and deliver them content that speaks toward that stage.
A marketing funnel is the process people go through to reach the conversion phase. The funnel includes everything from getting introduced to your brand until they convert. Most marketing funnels have four steps:
Attention: a would-be consumer sees your ad, social media post, or learns about you through word-of-mouth
Interest: consumer wants to learn more
Desire: consumer wants to convert
Action: consumer acts (buying your item, subscribing to your email newsletter, etc).
To align this four-step process with your content creation, be sure you’re targeting customers within the various stages of the funnel with relevant content. For example, you wouldn’t want to overburden a potential consumer in the attention phase with an in-depth content asset.
Resources for Creating a Basic Sales Funnel/Content Journey
While it’s important to do the work to establish your buyer personas and to deliver them the content they need during their respective buyer’s journey stage, it is also important to keep delivering relevant content in a cadenced fashion.
Instead of scrambling to create content in a reactionary manner, build monthly calendars that include social posts, blog posts, emails, and whatever other content you would like to create that month.
Not only does this strategy keep you organized, but it also allows your readers to get comfortable with a schedule of content and to build continued trust and familiarity with your brand.
In a competitive landscape, it’s important to stand out however you can. One way your small business can achieve this is through your content marketing strategy.
Do a deep dive into both your existing content and your competitors’ content. See what is resonating with audiences and what isn’t. Once you’ve established efficacy, it’s time to try to replicate that success with your upcoming content.
Then it’s time to get creative. Don’t be limited by what already exists. Take your latest blog post and turn it into an infographic. Take your infographic and turn it into a whitepaper. Take your white paper and make it a series of quote-centric social tiles.
97 percent of local consumers use online media, including reviews, to search for local services. If you’re a small, local business, that means your reviews are driving your business.
Make those reviews work as hard as you do by bringing them to life through social posts and testimonials on your website and blog.
By sourcing the best quotes and ascribing a face to the name, you make that review much more personal, creating a consumer-generated ad that speaks for itself.
Resources for Building Effective Customer Testimonials
Building buyer personas allows you to establish a better understanding of your audiences and their respective pain points. By determining who is purchasing your products, you can assess which content they need and when.
Identify valuable consumer content
Consumers don’t want content for content’s sake. They want content that can solve their problems. After you’ve identified buyer personas, work to identify what content assets can best serve your buyers’ unique needs.
Set business goals
Setting business goals that align with your marketing strategy can feel overwhelming at first. Use the principle of SMART goals to make your benchmarks reasonable and reachable.
Solidify distribution channels
You’ve got your content ready to go and your goals ready to measure. It’s finally time to start sharing your content. While it would be nice if every piece of content performed well on every channel, that’s sadly not the case. Determine which pieces of content are appropriate for which channel to ensure success and reach.
Establish cadence
It’s not good enough to deliver one piece of content and rest on your laurels. You must establish a cadence that regularly delivers quality content to your consumers.
Small Business Content Marketing Frequently Asked Questions
Why do small businesses need content marketing?
Even though you’re a small business, you most likely have big competition. To make your business stand out among the crowd and grow your audience, you need a content marketing strategy that allows you to demonstrate your value to future and current consumers.
What are some examles of content marketing?
Examples of content marketing include blog posts, infographics, social media campaigns, podcasts, white papers, ebooks, downloadable PDFs, and YouTube videos. Any type of media that is free to access and brings in leads to your website is content marketing.
What is the best content marketing strategy for a small business?
Having clearly delineated buyer personas is vital for a strong, small business content marketing strategy. Without these personas, your content won’t have clear direction or purpose, resulting in low audience interaction.
How should small businesses create content for their content marketing strategy?
Small business content marketing is all about solving for the buyer’s pain point. After you’ve identified personas, all created content should center both around the respective pain points and what point the buyer is within the funnel.
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Small Business Content Marketing Conclusion
While your small business content marketing may be minuscule, it doesn’t mean that you can’t undertake most, if not all, of the above eight strategies.
After successfully defining your buyer personas, you’re well on your way to developing a winning content marketing strategy that can grow your audience and increase overall sales.
What’s the most effective strategy you’ve seen for small business content marketing?
However, not all marketers understand how to implement a content strategy correctly. When you don’t start with the basics, you could be making content production more complicated than necessary.
To be successful, your content plan must be actionable, and you need to publish content consistently.
That’s where an editorial calendar comes in.
We’re going to cover the basics, including how to create and manage your editorial calendar, and how it can help your content strategy grow
4 Reasons to Use an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar enables content publishers to plan, create, publish, and promote their content in an organized manner. Many bloggers and businesses use editorial or content calendars to streamline content production.
In many ways, an editorial calendar is a lifesaver for creatives and business owners. Whether you’re a blogger, freelance writer, business owner, or creative director at a marketing firm, an editorial content calendar can help you stay on track and keep you sane—while ensuring a consistent flow of content.
Others use an editorial calendar to improve focus, because an organized approach can also limit writer’s block and keep content evergreen.
There are other ways you can benefit from an editorial content calendar, including:
1. Better Organization and Delegation
With an editorial calendar, you can see articles that need writing at a glance. From there, you can delegate the articles to your writing team, ready for them to get to work. No more scrambling to send writers topics at the last minute or wondering if you’ll even get around to writing this month.
With a calendar, it’s all right in front of you.
Ultimately, this level of organization saves time, keeps the content coming, and ensures every member of your content creation team knows what they’re doing.
2. Improved Planning
The better you plan your articles, the better the writing tends to be. When you know what you want to write, you don’t waste time with last-minute research or trying to find the sources you need to support your article.
In fact, some consider planning to be more important than the content production itself. Planning content is essential for:
Creating the kind of content most suited to your audience.
Writing the in-depth content your audience wants—and needs
Publishing exactly when and where your customers hang out.
3. Helps Achieve Your Goals
Your editorial calendar is part of your content strategy. Ideally, you’ve developed your content strategy around the goals you’re trying to achieve with your product, your blog, or your company overall.
Whatever your goals are for your business, your editorial calendar has a vital role in allowing you to achieve them.
4. Sticking to Deadlines
According to Mark Twain, “deadlines are the greatest source of inspiration.”
However, that doesn’t mean you want to do a rush job.
To avoid rushing content creation, every team member needs to be clear on their deadlines to keep reaching your goals and your audience engaged.
Further, keeping up with these deadlines is especially important when you’re publishing new content that’s a part of your business strategy. For example, if you are publishing blogs to support a new launch or annual sale.
How to Create an Editorial Calendar
Don’t let the thought of creating an editorial calendar stress you out—I promise it’s not that complicated once you create a plan. This next section takes you through how to create an effective calendar, step-by-step. This is just an outline, so feel free to adjust these steps to meet the needs of your business.
1. Determine Which Tools to Use
Your first step is deciding which tools to use. This varies from team to team, and content managers may need a combination of tools for best results.
If you want free options for getting started, Google Docs, Excel, or Trello are popular choices. For paid tools, there are several worth considering, including:
Airtable
Asana
Monday
BrightPod
Airtable, Asana, and HubSpot offer free content calendar templates to get you started, and there are plenty of others available, too.
Whichever tool you use, make sure it meets everyone’s needs. As Buffer’s editorial director, Ash Read, told HubSpot:
“[your] editorial calendar should be a resource for your whole team, not just content creators.”
2. Create a Content Backlog
Next, you need to create a content backlog. This is just a list of content ideas for easy viewing and lets you track your ideas for posts.
You could use Google Sheets or Excel for this, or one of the free templates mentioned, like Asana.
Whichever you go with, your chosen tool should allow you to create a clear, organized list. Just remember, it’s OK to stray from your list. Not every idea will end up as an entire post, and sometimes changing your content strategy is essential for keeping up with new trends or thinking of a new angle.
Create your sheet, then start adding a few headings like:
title
assigned author
project status
publication date
Other headings you could use are:
Special dates and anniversaries.
Themes and distribution channels.
Trending topics/new launches relevant to your niche.
Seasonal content and key sales dates. For instance, Black Friday, where you may want to ramp up content production.
3. Develop Your Content Strategy
Don’t overthink your content strategy. There’s a simple way of making sure your content strategy covers all the bases, and as long as you keep these parts in mind, you won’t go wrong.
First, outline steps such as how much content you want to produce a month, what topics you want to cover, and your ideal customers.
Then add strategic steps, such as managing your existing content and goal tracking. These might include:
Define your goals: For example, growing your mailing list or attracting new customers.
Understand your customers: Which social media sites do your audience use? Which content types do they prefer/respond to? What are their pain points, and how can your products/services solve them?
Analyze your competition: You can use a tool like Ubersuggest, which has a free and paid version to see which keywords competitors are targeting.
Positioning: What makes your business unique, and how do you stand out in your marketplace? You could do this in a few ways, like specializing in a targeted niche or telling your brand’s story. Ask yourself how the content you’re creating can achieve this.
Estimate your budget: How much is your content strategy going to cost you, and how can you maximize your ROI?
Measure your KPIs so you know your content is getting results: For example, if you’re aiming to build brand awareness, an increase in shares and views will show you’re heading in the right direction.
4. Schedule the First Month
Many of us produce content at the last minute or create it whenever we have spare time. If you’re looking for a less stressful (and more effective) approach, schedule your content in advance.
A month is usually enough, but you could schedule up to six weeks. You can use Google Calendar for this.
Add each step of your process, and make sure to give yourself plenty of time. So, you might create a due date on the first Monday to write your outlines, then schedule one article a week to be written, two days for editing, set a publish date, then schedule it into your social media sharing calendar.
The process will vary based on how much content you produce and how many people are on your team, but I strongly recommend breaking each piece of content into more manageable steps.
5. Move Articles Into Production
When you’re in the full swing of producing content, it’s easy to let pieces slip through the cracks, especially if you have multiple people working on the project. Creating a Trello account can keep you on track.
The first step in using your Trello account for content production is to decide what stages each article will need to go through.
What you need is up to you, but here are some suggestions for your Trello cards:
assign to writer
writing in progress
ready for edits
ready for uploading and scheduling
Alternatively, you could make it more complex and add additional steps like:
If you’re just starting with an editorial calendar, you need to get a few articles ready for publication.
Choose a schedule that suits you, but a forward-looking schedule of 4-6 weeks works well for most teams.
That sounds like a lot of work, but you can approach the task in two ways. First, you could spend a few weeks writing content until you have a volume of work to publish. However, this method isn’t suitable for everyone, unless you’ve got a team of writers to help you.
Another way is to spend a few months creating extra content every day, which is doable for most content producers.
7. Continually Optimize Your Process
So far, we’ve covered how to get your content production off the ground. However, you can’t set it and forget it. Over time, you might find there are bottlenecks in your process or that certain tools don’t fit your needs. Make sure to check in with your team regularly to ensure the editorial process you’ve created is working for everyone.
Common areas to review include:
your schedule and the tools you’re using
the volume of content you’re storing
the time between stages
the metrics you track
Over time, you’ll get a better understanding of whether the tools you’re working at are suitable for your team and whether the amount of articles you’re publishing is helping your business grow.
FAQs About Editorial Calendars
Why do I need an editorial calendar?
An organized approach to content production reduces time and helps you publish better quality content. From ideation and writing to publishing and promotion, an editorial calendar helps streamline every part of the process.
Do I need paid tools to create an editorial calendar?
Not unless you want to. Free tools like Trello and Google Docs are fine, but there are also paid options like Asana available.
What headings should I include on an editorial calendar?
Not everyone’s calendar looks the same, but most marketers include titles, publication dates, and the article writer’s name. Once you’ve added in the most obvious headings, write in the titles that work for your specific needs.
What’s the difference between an editorial calendar and a content calendar?
These terms are often used interchangeably. However, an editorial calendar generally outlines each step of the process, while a content calendar usually covers one aspect—such as when posts are published or shared to social media.
Summary of Editorial Calendar Guide
An editorial content calendar is a must-have for any content marketer or small business looking to make the most of content production. It helps you stay focused on your goals and produce high-quality content consistently.
Although it sounds like a lot of work, setting up a calendar isn’t difficult and allows you to seamlessly produce evergreen content while making the most of seasonal trends.
How do you use an editorial calendar? Tell us below.
If you create content, you need a content calendar. I know—not an earth-shattering revelation! What about a calendar specifically for your paid content? Should it be part of your regular editorial calendar? A separate calendar? Do you even need a paid content calendar? The answer to the first two questions is: How you structure your … Continue reading Why You May Need a Content Calendar For Paid Campaigns
If you create content, you need a content calendar. I know—not an earth-shattering revelation!
What about a calendar specifically for your paid content?
Should it be part of your regular editorial calendar? A separate calendar? Do you even need a paid content calendar?
The answer to the first two questions is: How you structure your marketing calendar is up to you and your company’s needs.
The answer to the third question is: almost definitely.
Read on to learn what a paid content calendar is, why you should consider having one, and which tools we recommend for creating your own.
What Is a Paid Content Calendar?
It may seem self-explanatory: A paid content calendar is a calendar you use to plan for paid content, right?
Well, it’s a little more complicated than that because paid content works differently than other types of content.
It’s usually more direct and sales-oriented than other kinds, and unlike your other content, which is likely owned (even if it does end up also being earned), it can exist on multiple platforms.
A content calendar for paid ads doesn’t strictly plan what you want to post; it plans when and where you want to post it, as well as how much you want to spend doing so.
What’s the Difference Between a Blog Content Calendar and an Ad Content Calendar?
A blog content calendar is for owned media, specifically on a blog, while an ad content calendar is for paid content.
Your blog content calendar likely goes through a somewhat lengthy process from start to finish, starting with initial information gathering, going through researchers, writers, and editors, being published, having quality assurance checks, and so on.
A paid content calendar focuses more strictly on the buyer’s journey with the goal of making sales. It’s the schedule you follow when you plan to get information directly in front of people.
Sometimes these two types are on the same calendar; sometimes, they’re separate. It depends on what you want them to do.
5 Reasons to Use a Content Calendar for Paid Ad Campaigns
Using a paid content calendar is a good idea for many companies, whether it’s connected to or separate from their regular content calendars. Here are five reasons why.
1. Pre-Plan Your Entire Ad Campaign
You can use a paid content calendar not only to determine dates and times but also to finalize where you’ll post your ads and what they’ll say.
For instance, Hootsuite does this (with Google Sheets) when planning its social media campaigns and determining what topic, site, copy, and link to use when it’s ready for the ads to go live.
2. Avoid Reinventing the Wheel for Evergreen Campaigns
In the Hootsuite image above, you may have noticed they don’t have dates on those specific campaigns—they’re held under an “evergreen” tab.
This is when having a separate calendar for your paid ad campaigns may be of real benefit: You have a paid campaign that does well. You don’t want to overstay your virtual welcome, but you know it could do well again in the future, with little to no changes to the content.
Why try to dig through old campaigns, whether through your content calendar or your ad history on your chosen site, when you could just organize things in one spreadsheet or another documentation system?
When it’s time to pull out one of these evergreen campaigns, you can simply move it to your dated paid content calendar, and, except for actually posting the ad, you’re done.
3. Plan for Holidays
In many industries, holidays are big sales times, and, whether or not you’re in sales, holidays like to sneak up on you.
Depending on the type of calendar you use, the program may auto-populate holidays into your calendar. You can also download a template that does this for you, like the one HubSpot created:
If your brand wants a campaign for World UFO Day (who knew?), and it usually takes your team two months to go from brainstorming to promotion, count back two months. Then, add an event titled “Brainstorm World UFO Day Ideas.”
You could even have a reminder a week before saying, “Remind everyone about World UFO Day brainstorming session.”
Depending on the calendar program you use, you could even set it up to repeat your event yearly, so the brainstorming session would already be on your calendar for next year’s holiday.
4. Monitor Results and Adjust Plans
Your paid ad content calendar should include the anticipated and actual start and end dates of your campaign, but it could also include a daily or weekly breakdown of the campaign’s results.
You’re already monitoring how well your campaign is going; putting the information in the calendar lets you see at a glance whether the campaign is working as planned and consider if you should extend the campaign or end it early.
Since this is all in one central calendar, you can look back or look ahead to see if you can replace an ad that isn’t doing well with an ad you think will perform better—or if you need to delay the start of a new one because of how successful a current campaign is.
5. Prioritize
Some programs allow you to set priorities for different projects.
For instance, imagine it’s late October, and you want your holiday campaign to be ready to roll by mid-November. However, you also have a cool blog you want to write and promote.
They’re different enough to promote both simultaneously without any kind of conflict, but one is a higher priority than the other.
If you use a program that allows you to prioritize your paid content (like Asana), you give yourself some wiggle room.
High-priority paid content takes precedence over the others, so you ensure those head down the pipeline on time. Lower priority ones stay in the system, and you can get to them later if you need to.
In addition, most of these programs alert you when a project is “late” so you can adjust your dates and change priority levels as needed.
Content Calendar Tools for Paid Ad Campaigns
There are a ton of content planning tools available out there, and if you already use a calendar program for your content, chances are you can use it for paid ad campaigns as well.
I have 14 favorite tools for organizing content, but let’s look at just three of them for our purposes: Google Calendar, Asana, and HubSpot.
Google Calendar for Paid Content Calendars
Who doesn’t love products that are both free and effective?
Google Calendar integrates well with other Google products, so if your organization already uses things like Google Docs for content, you don’t have to do much to make your different products play nicely together.
Like many paid options, you can color-code your entries, set up start and end dates, invite relevant people to view or modify the calendar, and more. When it comes to scheduling, at least, it’s kind of a one-stop-shop.
The downside, when compared to paid options, is that you can’t collaborate directly on the calendar task. Of course, you can integrate this with other Google products, but the collaboration occurs on the products and not the calendar itself.
Asana for Paid Content Calendars
Asana could be ideal if you like seeing the big picture and the small details with just a click of a button.
You can create a seemingly endless number of projects and subtasks (and subtasks of subtasks), with over 100 integrations available.
One beneficial aspect of Asana is you can look at a graph showing exactly how much each member of your team has on their plate.
This can help when planning your campaigns because you can see—even months in advance—who has the bandwidth to complete different tasks.
HubSpot for Paid Content Calendars
If you’re looking for an option encompassing calendars, automated marketing, customer service functions, and more, Hubspot has you covered. Anything you want to do with your content or paid campaigns can probably be done on the platform.
If you’re wavering about whether they’re right for you, they offer a Social Media Content Calendar Template you can download for free. However, it doesn’t have the bells and whistles the paid membership does.
That membership gives you access to many marketing tools, including a highly flexible and easy-to-read social media marketing calendar.
FAQs About Paid Content Calendars
What is a paid content calendar?
A content calendar that helps you plan when, where, and how you’ll promote your content.
How is a paid content calendar different from a blog calendar?
A paid content calendar focuses on the details about your marketing campaign, while a blog calendar focuses on the content you plan to create.
How is a paid content calendar different from a blog calendar?
A paid content calendar focuses on the details about your marketing campaign, while a blog calendar focuses on the content you plan to create.
Do I need a paid content calendar?
Yes, if you run more than one paid campaign a year, you should use a calendar to keep you organized, plan for holidays, and better monitor your results.
How can a paid content calendar help my company?
It can help your company in dozens of ways, including pre-planning entire campaigns, easily accessing evergreen materials, preparing for holidays, monitoring and adjusting work, and helping with prioritization.
Paid Content Calendars Conclusion
Calendars are essential to running any kind of business, and using calendars to monitor your paid campaigns could be particularly important.
They help you plan when and where you’ll post content, monitor the success of your campaigns and adjust accordingly, keep track of dates and evergreen content, and more.
If you have a calendar for your blog content, chances are you can use that same calendar—or at least that same program—to house your paid content calendar. However, if you need a new system, you have a ton of content management systems to choose from.
If you need a little extra help, we’re always here to give you a consultation and assist you on your way to marketing success.
Your business won’t succeed by doing the same thing as everyone else.
Content marketing is powerful, but it’s also hugely competitive. If you’re just rehashing the same points as everyone else, you won’t get anywhere.
Your business is unique and so is your audience. If you want to make the most of content marketing, you need to produce content that is helpful, detailed, and different.
Below, we’ll cover 30 content marketing strategies that will help your brand stand out, but first, let’s cover why content marketing matters in 2021.
Why Is Content Marketing Important in 2021?
What brings people to your business in 2021?
In many cases, it starts with a question and they come to your website for a solution. They expect your business to solve their issue, but it’s not just your product they’re looking for.
They want information.
In many cases, content is the moment when your relationship with the customer begins, and that content is going to be with them through every step of the customer journey.
Your content marketing tactics are as important in 2021 as ever because the modern consumer craves an experience. It’s not just about your products or service, it’s about how people interact with your business—and your content plays a huge part in this.
Content marketing ticks nearly every box for your business. It helps:
bring people to your website
engage customers by offering value
generate leads
move people through the customer journey
drive sales
provide post-sale care
Content marketing isn’t just good for customers; it drives profits. In fact, the yearly ROI for a successful content marketing campaign is $984,000.
How to Choose Which Content Marketing Strategies Are Right for Your Brand
Every business is unique, and each one will use different content marketing tactics. What works for one website might not necessarily work for another, so what’s important is that you find the blend that works for you.
When it comes to content marketing, you’ll want to be particularly aware of your brand voice. For example, if you’re a highly respected law firm that people look to for advice, strategy number 22, “Be a little weird,” might not be the best option.
This is where it pays to sit down and brainstorm before you create your content marketing strategy. Understand what your brand stands for, how you want to convey your values, and the goals you want to achieve.
Once you’ve worked out these details, it’s much easier to pick and choose which content marketing tactics will work for your brand.
30 Content Marketing Tactics That’ll Skyrocket Your Search Traffic
I’ve experienced the power of content marketing first hand. It’s what my entire business is based on, and I want you to achieve the same kind of success through your content. Over the years, I’ve tried out lots of different content marketing tactics, some of which have paid off big time, others that have crashed and burned.
By trying new things and not being afraid to get creative with content, I’ve narrowed my list down to 30 content marketing tactics that’ll skyrocket your search traffic.
1. Build More Targeted Landing Pages
My search traffic almost tripled when I created advanced guides for SEO and several other internet marketing topics. Each of those advanced guides has a separate landing page, optimized for the applicable keywords.
Mailshake, a comprehensive email outreach platform, had success with this, repackaging its cold email masterclass into an eight-part email series. This allowed them to create targeted landing pages and offer user-specific content that matched their place in the customer journey.
Or, take a look at Copyblogger Media. Copyblogger has dozens of landing pages, each aimed at a keyword that the target audience is passionate about. That’s a lesson for you when developing a sound content marketing strategy: when creating more landing pages, think strategically about keywords and build your content around the right ones.
The easiest way to start creating high-quality landing pages is to use templates.
There are plenty to choose from, but I like Unbounce and Instapage. Both are paid platforms, but they’re a great way to create effective landing pages quickly.
2. Segment Audience to Increase Engagement
Smart content marketers know they need to segment their audiences based on product need. Segmentation is crucial for one simple reason: some of your blog readers aren’t buyers, but others are.
Simply put, your content can’t suit everyone because people are at different phases of the buying cycle. So, for example, content designed to create awareness with new customers is wasted on loyal repeat customers.
Make the most of your marketing efforts by segmenting customers based on their personas. Remember, a buyer persona is a fully fleshed-out profile of one segment of your audience. It enables you to develop content that speaks to each segment more effectively.
Here’s an example of one in action:
Segmenting your target audience is difficult on your blog or website (though not impossible with content personalization), but email segmentation is pretty simple.
Email list segmentation is a must if you want to get the most from your list. According to Campaign Monitor, marketers who used segmented campaigns saw a 760 percent increase in revenue. Not too bad!
3. Know Your Audience, and Give Them What They Want
Before you can create successful, engaging, and overall great content, you’ve got to know your audience very well. The first step is to perform keyword research to discover what your ideal customers are looking for.
Start by getting a better idea of the existing demand for your topic through Google Trends. Just type your main keyword into the search box to learn how many searches it received within a specified period.
For instance, here’s the Trends graph showing the popularity of the keyword “content marketing:”
This will give you a rough overview of how people are searching for your keywords, but for more detailed information, you should look at Ubersuggest.
Follow these simple steps to gain access to hundreds of keyword opportunities you can use to build engaging content.
enter a keyword and see related keywords with search volumes
Remember, the more you know about your readers, the more precisely you can base your content creation on them, and the more effective your whole content marketing strategy will be.
Sometimes, you need to personally verify results or data through experimentation. What was true five years ago, or even last year, may no longer apply.
Results are relative. You may experiment and get a different result. Through observation, brainstorming, and A/B testing, you can come up with a new concept that others can learn from.
That is how you become a content marketing expert; not just following the rest of the crowd.
5. Target Millennials and Gen Z With Adaptive Content
Millennials and Gen Z now make up a huge segment of the U.S. population.
There’s a good chance these groups make up a large chunk of your target audience, so your content should speak to their needs and values.
Both of these groups grew up with technology as a big part of their lives, and so they have high expectations for how businesses use technology. They also value experience above almost anything else, and this plays right into content marketing.
While both groups have similarities, you need to target each of them in a slightly different way. Find out more about how to market to Millennials, and target Gen Z.
Adaptive content is one way to go. Adaptive content is simply the content that supports meaningful interactions across different platforms. Think of it like water—whatever you pour it into; it takes the shape of that container.
For example, you might use their name at the top of a booking site or suggest content based on their past interactions with your brand.
Your readers should be able to access your content on a desktop computer, then continue where they left off using their smartphone or complete their purchases through your mobile app, with absolutely no hassles at all.
6. Leverage the Hedgehog Content Model
A hedgehog is a small mammal with stiff spines and a small, pointed snout. What does a small mammal have to do with content creation and your marketing strategy? (There’s a point, I promise!)
The hedgehog concept is based on an old parable about a hedgehog and a fox. The fox knows lots of things—he’s constantly trying new ways to best the hedgehog. The hedgehog, however, stays focused on one big idea.
What does this mean for your content strategy?
It simply means you should start where you are and stay focused. Why worry about the fact your blog isn’t generating 1,000 monthly visits yet? Instead, create content consistently and use a content marketing strategy to reach your goals.
Instead of obsessing over reaching 1,000 monthly visitors, for example, focus on 100 each month. Just make sure that your goal is realistic and measurable.
If you’re able to hit that smaller goal, the hedgehog model says to treat them well and deliver great content they’ll share with their friends across their social media channels.
Apply the same technique to your email list. Focus on getting three to five subscribers every single day, instead of your first 100 subscribers. By the end of the month, you’ll have 90 to 150 email subscribers.
7. Consistently Run A/B Tests
Are you consistent at split testing? A study by AdPushUp showed conversion rates typically range from one to three percent. A/B split testing helps you drive that rate up, and even a single additional percentage point in your conversion rate can be significant.
Whether you’re on a team of B2B marketers or you’re a small business owner, running A/B split tests is crucial to know for certain which headlines, calls-to-action, and types of content work best for your readers. Once you know what strategies work, your work becomes much more effective and your overall content marketing strategy much clearer.
You can split-test just about anything. Since you’re concerned about search traffic, however, you should focus on the elements that impact search performance, such as headlines, site speed, visuals, landing pages, CTA, and so on.
Instead of a one-size-fits-all philosophy, create multiple landing pages for the same call to action to suit the user’s preferences.
A/B split testing can send more targeted buyers to your product pages, as well. For example, Lyyti.com, an online event management software company, ran a split test on their product pages. They set up a product page variation and tested it against the control.
At the end of the testing, the variation page performed better. It clearly showed the features offered in each plan, while the original design wasn’t quite clear enough. Implementing the results of this test increased visits to their “Free Trial” sign-up page by 93.71 percent.
You can’t afford to run A/B split tests solely on desktop users. If you’re experimenting with mobile testing, look at any key user behavior, especially behaviors related to conversions, such as email opt-in form and landing page preferences.
8. Learn From Topic Training Modules
Content marketing is a lot easier these days, considering all the statistics, data, and content that can be accessed for free.
This is good news for content marketers because with online learning platforms like Udemy and LinkedIn Learning, you can benefit from all that useful content provided in their courses and modules.
Essentially, you can pick the brains of experts in different industries to create top-notch content for your target audience. There’s no longer any need to waste tons of time researching your topic because someone with better training, resources, and time has done all that for you.
So, let’s say you want to create an in-depth article about link building. Here’s how to research your topic using Udemy:
Step #1: Go to Udemy.com. Type your main keyword (e.g., link building SEO) into the search box. Hit the enter button on your keyboard.
Step #2: Analyze the courses. From the top results, choose one that suits your keyword, then click on it to see the modules.
Step #3: Extract ideas from the module. You can find the module for that particular topic when you scroll down.
Note: Most courses at Udemy will typically cost you between $15–$199, although there are free courses available. If you have the budget for it, you can buy the course. Here, however, we’re just looking for ideas to organize your blog post from module titles, so there’s no need to sign up for the course itself.
From the highlighted module above, I can create five unique and high-converting headlines for my next blog post.
11 Traffic-Generating Links and Where To Get Them
How to Use Broken Link Building to Create Links Google Will Love
Traffic-Generating Links: Where to Get Them and Improve Search Traffic
How to Get Traffic Generating Links with Help from Your Competitors
The Best Way to Develop a Traffic-Generating Link Building Strategy
Spending just 10 to 20 minutes each week studying Udemy course modules will give you lots of ideas to write about and expand your analytical skills and give you a more thorough understanding of your industry and your target audience.
Overall, it’ll enhance your content marketing strategy and inform your content creation.
Just remember, the goal is inspiration; don’t copy other people’s work.
9. Craft Content Based on Your Core Values
Core values are the building blocks of every human being—and every business (or other organization).
Personal core values guide an individual’s behavior and choices. The same is true for your business’s values, as well.
For example, if you believe your target audience will benefit from the information you share, then you’ll research extensively and craft the best content possible.
Take the time to articulate your values in writing, just as Google and Buffer have. Google believes in putting users first. Buffer believes in showing gratitude, which helps make their social media management tool so valuable for content marketers.
There is no single rule for defining your core values. Just make sure each value originates from your deeply-held beliefs. When you start to write content based on what you truly believe in, you bridge the gap between your message and your readers’ expectations. Solid content creation will flow from there.
Storytelling can also help bridge that gap. From personal experience, I can tell you that it’s much easier to tell stories based on what I know and believe, instead of what someone else says or believes. Such a marketing effort will feel, well, effortless to your readers.
10. Use Native Ads, But Don’t Be Deceptive
Native advertising is a form of online marketing in which the “ad” content matches the platform where it’s published.
Although we’re very accustomed to seeing this form of advertising, many people believe native ads are deceptive because they don’t “look like ads.”
It doesn’t have to be that way. Native ads can still offer value as something more than just a promotional piece.
Whatever you may think about it, there’s no question that native advertising works. For example, Newscred regularly paid for sponsored content on LinkedIn, with an ROI of $17 for every $1 spent. That’s almost six times the ROI you can expect from Google Ads.
Although the stats point to native ads being an important content marketing tactic.
Copyblogger Media shared 12 examples of native ads and why they work—ideally, as an integrated part of content marketing.
A study by Forbes found that people pay 53 percent more attention to native ads than banner ads. Plus, they view native ads 53 percent more frequently than they view banner ads.
According to Pardot, “Native advertising is actually a form of content marketing.” This means that it should offer some form of unique and useful information to the target audience.
According to eMarketer, native ad spend more than doubled between 2018 and 2020 and is expected to increase by 21 percent in the next year. If you want to join the trend as part of your content marketing tactics, make sure your ad is consistent with your other content.
Above all, native ads should meet the needs of your readers and engage the audience, just like your other content does.
Bottom line: Native ads work and will continue to work. The best practice is to approach it with your content marketing mindset and ensure that you use only high-quality content.
For example, if you decide to do sponsored posts or paid tweets, make sure that your landing page is well-designed and your content is crafted to welcome visitors and convert them into email subscribers or buyers.
Content marketing is always changing because the way we interact online is always changing.
You should be willing to change and adapt to the latest developments in your industry. That might mean enrolling in a content marketing course to further your education, or, it might simply mean reading extensively to stay on top of trends.
Business models evolve, and the only way to stay competitive is to always work with the most current information. Never be caught unaware.
As the business and content marketing world constantly evolves, you’ve got to keep your business viable. For example, you should keep abreast of Google’s algorithm updates if you want to keep generating sufficient search traffic.
I’m always ready to change what I’m doing if I find it’s no longer yielding significant results. I don’t throw in the towel and quit. Rather, I stay flexible and continually adjust.
You can do the same. Be prepared to satisfy your customers no matter what the economic situation or new government policy might be. It’s your responsibility to evolve for the sake of your target audience.
12. Conduct a Competitor Analysis and Work With the Data
Competitor analysis isn’t optional these days. You can effectively spy on your competitors to know exactly what they’re doing and find ways to outsmart them.
Industry experts agree that competitor analysis is an integral part of search marketing success. When its results are integrated into your strategy, competitor analysis can improve many aspects of your marketing, including your conversion rate.
The easiest way to know what your competitors are doing, in terms of where they’re getting backlinks and how many quality links they have, is to use the right automated tools.
First and foremost, you’ll want to find out who your strongest competitors are. You can use Google to search for your main keyword (e.g., beginners guide to blogging), then check which sites are competing with you.
Another way to perform competitor analysis is with Ubersuggest. Select competitive analysis from the left sidebar and then enter your domain.
You will then see a list of websites that compete for similar keywords. You can dig deeper into each competitor to find out which specific keywords you are competing for by clicking “view all.”
This provides an immediate picture of who you are competing with and what keywords you should target.
13. Get on the Local Platform
Not every visitor to your website is as valuable as the next. For example, if you’re a local brick-and-mortar business in Florida, getting thousands of web visitors from California doesn’t do much good.
Your content is a great opportunity to drive your local SEO. Create valuable information for people in your target area and make sure you’re focusing on local keywords (use Ubersuggest to discover local keyword opportunities).
Competing for big national keywords in competitive industries may not be possible, but it could be a realistic goal in your local area. Use my guide to local SEO to make sure you’re ranking for those important local keywords.
14. Use Emotional Keywords in Headlines
The best way to create magnetic headlines is to target emotional keywords. Doing so will supercharge your content. People will not only read it; they’ll be inspired to share it on social media and beyond as well.
For example, if you were trying to lose weight, you’d probably go to Google and search for keywords like the following:
lose 10 pounds quickly
fastest way to burn extra fat
drop 20 pounds in 2 weeks
Here are more variations to the three search terms above:
In our example, if you found an article or video targeting any of the keywords above, you’d respond positively. That’s because those keywords mirror what you deeply desire.
The same is true for your target audience. When they’re searching for keywords, and you notice a hint of immediacy, you know that those keywords will convert into clicks, visits, and sales when you eventually rank in Google.
Let’s assume you help companies and digital businesses to grow revenue. Here are some of the keywords you can use to create powerful headlines to grow your search traffic and rankings:
From the screenshot above, you can see the “emotional keywords.” I call them “emotional” because searchers are already pre-sold on the idea of increasing revenue. They’re just waiting for a nudge to take action.
To make your headlines high-converting, include numbers—especially odd numbers because some studies show odd numbers outperform even numbers.
Let’s craft some headlines based on those emotional keywords:
7 Powerful Revenue Generating Ideas You Can Use Today
9 Revenue Generating Ideas to Help Your Business Soar
6 Steps to Increase Your Sales Right Now
How to Increase Sales in Your Small Business
Better yet, you could turn the emotional keywords into data-driven headlines to share your experiments and results:
How To Increase Sales: An Experiment On How I Generated $25,000
Case Study: How To Increase Sales as an Ecommerce Beginner
13 Revenue Generating Ideas That Yielded $10,837 Sales and 2,636 Email Subscribers
15. Create High-Quality Content
Worried you aren’t a great writer? You’re not alone. According to research statistics from Teach Taught, “fewer than 50 percent of college seniors feel their writing improved during college.”
You can change that, starting today. It begins with fueling your passion for writing. After all, if you’re passionate about what you do, there is nothing in this world that can stop you. Success requires consistent effort, and it’s a whole lot easier to be consistent when you’re passionate about the thing you’re doing.
This simple formula shows you how to find your passion:
With time, you’ll find something you never believed you could do at all may become pretty easy.
Blogging and business require creativity, but it doesn’t necessarily have to come from your writing (it’s just not for everybody). It can also come from the way you manage other people. Modern technology has made it incredibly easy to work with freelancers around the world, and this can make a huge difference in your content marketing.
I never started as an expert. There was a time when I couldn’t put together a 500-word blog post. I had to continually learn and fuel my passion for writing. Eventually, I got better, learned more, and became the expert I wanted to be. You can follow this path and write your content, but you may have just as much success working with freelance writers.
Listen up: Successful content marketers don’t know it all. They’ve struggled to get things done, too. Because they’ve developed thick skins, they can meet the challenge and come out stronger and more influential.
16. Give Your Audience a Behind-the-Scenes Experience
If you want to attract a loyal audience and boost your site traffic, pre-sell your content and product. For example, if you are going to release a new post next week, tell your readers about the process of writing it before you publish it.
I do this a lot when I write content. I’ve even started doing it when I reply to comments as well, by telling my readers that I’ll be publishing a new post that will more thoroughly address their questions.
Another example of a “behind-the-scenes” experience is when Michael Hyatt asked his blog readers to help him choose the best cover for Living Forward, a book he co-authored with Daniel Harkavy.
Of course, this is also a type of pre-selling, because the customers and loyal readers now know the book’s title, and will look forward to its launch. Now, the majority of them are ready to buy.
Before they buy, they’ll tweet the page, cite it in their blog posts, recommend it to others on their other social media platforms, and follow the updates. This will increase referral traffic to Michael’s blog and his search performance will likely improve as a result of social signals.
17. Curate Content Like a Pro
The internet is full of brilliant content.
You don’t always need to create fresh content from scratch because there are lots of other people out there who are also doing a great job at it. This is where content curation comes in.
It allows you to find the best content and bring it together in one place. Moz does this extremely well with its weekly round-up of SEO content.
Your goal is to bring people the best possible information, but it doesn’t mean you have to write it. As long as you’re crediting the content owners, you can use content curation to engage your audience and help solve their pain points.
This content marketing tactic is a great way to add to your content production, but consider what businesses you are linking to. Make sure you’re only sending your audience the highest-quality information, and be careful about sending people to your competitors.
A few tips to help you drive more traffic and leads from content curation:
Research extensively for authority blog content. Don’t curate content from low-quality sites.
Stay relevant. Every content page you curate into your list must be relevant to the topic.
Design for user experience first, then optimize for the right keywords (but don’t stuff).
Reach out to bloggers whose content you’ve curated and notify them. Most of them will share it if they believe their target audience will benefit from it.
Social media is one of the best ways to reach your audience today. If you’re not marketing yourself on social media, you could be missing out on a huge portion of your audience.
It’s not just about building out your profiles and engaging people through the platform, though; it’s also about what action you want followers to take. One of your goals with social media should always be to bring people to your own space.
You have more control over your blog and email list than any social media profile or platform. No matter how successful you are on social; you don’t own that connection. Make sure you’re not abandoning your blog audience for social followers.
Grow your social media presence, but make sure you’re using it to bring people to a medium you control. From here, you can control the customer journey, build your email list and nurture your subscribers.
19. Create an Editorial Calendar
An editorial calendar helps make your content marketing strategy low-stress and rewarding. Unfortunately, most people never take the time to craft a plan for creating content, marketing it, and tracking its effectiveness.
The importance of an editorial calendar can’t be overemphasized. You need to develop yours as quickly as possible and use software to guide your process:
know your audience and the content type they’re interested in
research your topic thoroughly
create content and measure its effectiveness
Remember to keep a steady flow of content going out. That’s the way to generate more leads and indexed pages and improve organic traffic.
20. Get Maximum Mileage Out of Your Content
Blogging can help you reach more of your target audience, particularly if your blogs are frequently shared across social media channels. How do you get more referral traffic from your content, though?
You’ve got to think outside the box. Inbound marketing works, but you’ve got to diversify your efforts if you want to get outstanding results. The majority of your target audience hasn’t visited your blog yet. They are, however, on Slideshare, YouTube, and other content platforms.
You’ve got to be everywhere they are. Your content should make a mark online. If you’ve spent your precious time creating great content, don’t let it sit there in oblivion.
This content marketing tactic helps you make the most of your content by using it in different formats.
For example, you could take an article, convert it into a PDF report and offer it as an e-book. You could also create PowerPoint presentations and upload them to Slideshare or create an infographic out of a case study.
Be very careful to repurpose only your high-quality content that produced measurable results the first time around. Not every piece of content will work for this purpose.
21. Invest in Learning About Your Audience
The web is a virtual university. You can learn just about anything online if you know where to look. Content marketing will continually produce high ROI when you give it time and consistently work to upgrade your knowledge and skills.
The bad news is that your competition will continue to get more intense. The good news is that we’ve never had so many effective and affordable tools and knowledge resources from which to learn.
Using the right marketing tools, developing your skill sets, and networking smartly will get you to the top. If you want to succeed and reap huge dividends, channel your learning efforts towards better understanding your target audience.
22. Be a Little Weird
Everyone loves a company that is willing to go against the grain. There is something about a healthy dose of irreverence and tasteful humor that increases the likability of brands.
It also makes you stand out from your competitors.
Tons of businesses send out the same message, which means consumers notice funny or weird marketing campaigns. They’re a breath of fresh air in a world of cloned marketing tactics.
Dollar Shave Club creates weird, creative, and outright bizarre content. I’ll bet you can’t help but laugh when watching this video.
If you think this video is funny, but that it couldn’t possibly increase revenue or help business, I understand, but that’s simply not the case.
Dollar Shave Club spent $4,500 to create the video, but they more than made that money back. The video has 24 million views on YouTube. They gained 23,000 followers on Twitter and 76,000 Facebook fans from the campaign, and most importantly, they attracted 12,000 new customers in two days.
It turns out that being funny, weird, and irreverent can pay off.
Dollar Shave Club continues that unique brand identity with its Bathroom Minutes articles, and their customers love it.
Similarly, Denny’s uses its blog to put out content in the same style as Dollar Shave Club. Its content is unconventional as this image of a married couple pulling a morning breakfast with their car shows.
Snickers tapped into the weird trend as well, creating its “You’re not you when you’re hungry” marketing campaign.
People like it when your brand does something different. Don’t be afraid to mix it up and see what happens.
Nothing risked, nothing gained; so get out there and do something weird.
23. Respond to Twitter Mentions
I can’t overstate the power of responding to people who are talking about your brand.
Why?
Because responding to real people’s questions, comments, and concerns humanizes your brand. It tells people that your company isn’t just some inhuman entity. Rather, you’re a company that cares about its customers.
Twitter makes this particularly easy, notifying you whenever someone mentions your company’s name.
If you quickly and consistently respond to your customers’ comments and concerns, this shows a level of dedication that will impress your followers.
That’s good news for your business. Responding to people regularly shows you care.
24. Inspire People to Share Your Product
The more people tell their friends about your product, the more products you’re likely to sell—and the more successful your business will be.
When a friend recommends a product, they mean it.
By thinking creatively about your product and doing something that no one has ever done before, your product is more shareworthy. Coca-Cola did a good job with this with their Share a Coke campaign.
They put individual names on each bottle of Coke, personalizing the experience for their customer base. They then encouraged people to share a Coke with a friend and post a photo using the hashtag #ShareaCoke.
In the end, the campaign generated 998 million impressions on Twitter and 235,000 tweets with the hashtag. They sold more than 150 million bottles of Coke, too.
When the experience is unique, consumers want to participate, and they want to share it with their friends.
By collaborating with Google, Burberry allowed people to send each other “kisses” with digital messages. Since it was new and different, consumers couldn’t help but try it out. Every time someone sent a kiss to a friend, that person saw the Burberry logo, which increased Burberry’s brand awareness and engagement.
When people share your product, more people buy your product. It’s that simple.
25. Pay Attention to Upcoming Tech
Technology moves fast. The newest piece of revolutionary tech seems to hit the market every week. If you pay attention to these interesting innovations, you can hijack their attention.
The New York Times did this when they created NYTVR (New York Times Virtual Reality). The marketing campaign required users to have Google Cardboard and the free New York Times app.
Users could then experience the world in a different and fun way with a 360-degree view of a video. By leveraging upcoming technology, the New York Times positioned itself as relevant and edgy.
Campaigns with modern tech show consumers that you’re listening to trends and keeping up with the times.
Most people want to feel confident about buying your product. They don’t want to be the first one to try it. They need to know that other people like it before they take the leap.
By listening to the stories your customers tell about your product and creating content around those stories, you’ll inspire confidence in your brand. Microsoft does just that with its “Story Labs.”
This blog tells the stories of people who buy their products, make their products, and inspire their products. By sharing these engaging stories, Microsoft is positioning itself as a trusted business and convinces consumers its products are worth buying.
Eventually, first-time buyers will step up to the plate and try out Microsoft’s goods because of this.
27. Encourage User-Generated Content
For some businesses, user-generated content is their content marketing bread and butter.
When companies encourage customers to create content for their brands, it’s a double win: the company saves time and money, and they distribute compelling content.
GoPro does a good job of encouraging and posting user-generated content. Consider this video made by an avid “Go-Proer.” Start watching at 1:28 and cringe a few seconds after as you see what happens.
This video has over 13 million views, and it generated a ton of brand awareness for GoPro. All of that was at no cost to the business. Since the user created the content, the business simply stood by and watched while their product was marketed for them.
26. Use Your Product in a New Way
Can you dream up a new way of playing with your product?
It isn’t always easy, but it can be an effective marketing strategy. Take Blendtec, a company that sells blenders, as an example.
They were unsure how to market their blender and stand apart from the hundreds of other options. Then, they came up with a brilliant idea. They started a show called, “Will It Blend?” where they blended everything from marbles to iPhones.
Don’t believe me? See for yourself here:
And here:
By thinking about the blender in a creative and interesting way, Blendtec became one of the leading sellers of blenders and appealed to consumers all around the globe. Millions of people have watched their videos. That last video has over 4.5 million views alone!
If they can do it with a blender, the chances are you can do it with whatever product you sell.
28. Educate Your Customers
Creating educational content around your product might not seem like the best idea.
Do people really care about how your product works? Do they want to know the ins and outs of how you created it?
It turns out that a lot of times, they do.
It depends on your target market, but people are always interested in learning more about how a device functions. Remember: people love to know stuff that their friends don’t know. It makes them look smart, and they’ll usually share their newfound knowledge.
Magnolia used customer education to its advantage.
Unsure of how to market their products on a low advertising budget, they decided to create a blog. The blog discusses what electronic products to look for when making a purchase, what to watch out for, how electronics work, and how amazing they are.
As it turns out, few companies were taking the time to educate their customers about electronics. Magnolia took a leap and went in a different direction and made a massive amount of money from it.
Your customers want you to educate them, especially if there aren’t a lot of people teaching them about a certain product or industry.
29. Be More Transparent About Your Products
Transparency is scary for individuals and businesses alike. What if people respond poorly to who you are or what your business is?
I won’t lie to you: when you tell people about the real you, there’s a chance they won’t like it. I guarantee that some people won’t like it. You can’t please everyone, but I also guarantee that some people will.
It won’t just make you more likable. It will allow you to address your customers’ concerns and create a bond they will remember.
McDonald’s is a company that’s undergone a lot of scrutiny for its food’s quality. They decided to increase their brand’s transparency with their bold, “Our Food. Your Questions.” campaign where they answer questions customers have about their food. This campaign gave them the chance to debunk particularly heinous rumors about their food.
One rumor, for example, was about “pink goop” in McNuggets. In response, McDonald’s eradicated the myth by creating this video that shows how they make their McNuggets.
When you take the time to listen to and answer customers’ questions honestly, people will trust your company. Rumors spread about every brand; creating content around frequently asked questions is a great way to debunk revenue-killing myths.
30. Hijack Trending Topics
There is always something trending online, and you can use trending topics to your marketing advantage.
How?
By creating content that plays off of them.
Hootsuite made the video “Game of Social Thrones.” That’s right, a social media tool used Game of Thrones.
How did they do this? It got creative and found a way to connect the trending topic to its brand.
While “Game of Thrones” is popular, it isn’t always the talk of the town. Other topics often are at the forefront of consumers’ minds so how do you figure out what topics to talk about?
Glance through the topics on the homepage. These are topics that are currently getting a lot of search traffic on Google.
Use Google Trends to find trending topics to hijack with your content marketing strategy. Doing so can give your content the same appeal as the trending topic.
It’s always important to remember your brand image, though. There are certain topics you don’t want to be associated with your brand, so make sure you’re hijacking the right trends.
Content Marketing Tactics FAQs
Is content marketing still important?
Yes. Your content walks the customer through their pain points and gives them actionable advice on how to fix their problems. In short, it’s the moment where your relationship with the customer begins, making it crucial to a successful online marketing strategy.
Which content marketing tactics will work for my business?
Every business is unique. What works for one website might not necessarily work for another, so what’s important is that you find the blend that works for you. Focus on creating high-quality content, then test these strategies to see what works for your audience.
Should I be A/B testing my content?
Running A/B split tests is crucial if you want to know which headlines, calls-to-action, and types of content work best for your readers. Once you know what strategies work best for you, your overall content marketing strategy becomes far more effective.
Do I need an editorial calendar?
Yes, you need an editorial calendar to make your content marketing strategy low-stress and rewarding. Taking the time to create a calendar keeps your content production consistent and more effective.
Content Marketing Tactics Conclusion
If you’re not seeing the results you want from your content marketing, then there are lots of different tactics you can use. Not every tactic will suit your business, so test to see which ones work best to engage your audience.
I’ve grown my brand off the back of content marketing. Using these content marketing tactics will help you do the same thing.
Whether it’s for a loved one or a colleague at work, getting a gift for someone is never easy.
One reason is there are billions of options to choose from. The other reason is most people don’t have the time to look through millions of catalogs to pick one.
That’s why if you run an e-commerce store, you should make it easy for your customers to select one of your products as a gift.
To do that, you must equip your customers with a gift guide to help make the selection process easier.
Why Should You Create Gift Guides for Your E-Commerce Site?
Besides making it easier for your customers to decide which of your products to buy as a gift, gift guides serve many other purposes. Here are a few more reasons why you should create a gift guide for your e-commerce site:
Gift GuidesBoost Brand Awareness
One of the most significant reasons to create a gift guide is to help boost brand awareness. Particularly during holiday seasons, holiday gift guides are a popular form of content. Because they’re helpful in inspiring purchases, consumers are likely to share them with their networks. As a result, you’ll enjoy a boost in brand awareness.
Gift Guides CanIncrease Sales
Every business-related activity you undertake must ultimately have an impact on your bottom line. That’s exactly why you must invest in a gift guide for your e-commerce store. A well-designed gift guide is an effective tool in helping you increase sales on your e-commerce store.
Gift Guides Provide Blog and Social Media Content
Another reason to invest in creating a gift guide for your e-commerce site is gift guides provide you with engaging content for your blog. They also make for excellent social media posts. As a result, you’ll be able to maintain high engagement rates with your target audience.
Gift guides are also able to help you achieve many of your marketing and sales goals.
How to Create Unique Gift Guides for Your E-Commerce Business
Now that you know what a gift guide is and why having one on your e-commerce is essential let’s dive into how you can create one.
1. Identify Your Audience
Audience research is one of the most critical steps in creating a gift guide. That’s because knowing your audience is key to developing accurate buyer personas.
For your gift guide to be appealing, you must understand your target audience enough to create personalized recommendations.
Here are a few tips:
Collect Demographic Data
Demographic data refers to your target audience’s physical attributes. Examples include:
Both demographic and psychographic data are essential to understanding your customers’ needs, pain points, and aspirations. As a result, you can tailor a gift guide that will be relevant by offering personalized product recommendations.
2. Choose Items to Include in Your Gift Guides
Once you understand your audience, the next step of creating your gift guide becomes easier: choosing the products to include in your gift guide.
Though you may be armed with rich customer data, choosing the right products to include in your gift guide can be a daunting task. A few tips to guide you in choosing unique gift ideas include:
Look at Your Sales Data
The most effective way to choose items is to look at your sales data. Your data will give you insight into:
buying trends and habits
popular products
unique segments
Besides your own sales data, you can also leverage tools like Google Trends to identify emerging opportunities in your niche.
Ask Your Customers
Another effective way of figuring out what to include in your gift guide is to ask your customers. The best way to do this is to leverage interactive content like surveys, polls, and quizzes. These will give you insight into your audience’s preferences. To leverage interactive content, you can invest in an interactive content tool. Alternatively, you can create polls on your favorite social media channels.
Consider Creating Gift Bundles
Not sure what to include and exclude in your gift guide?
Then consider creating gift bundles.
Gift bundles are an excellent way of showcasing your product range. For your bundles to be effective, you must get the right mix. Tips for getting the right mix include bundling:
complementary products from your product range
products you’ve succeeded in cross-selling
fast-selling products with slow movers
You can also consider collaborating with other brands that target a similar audience to yours but don’t sell the same products you do.
Consult Your Suppliers
Your suppliers are another avenue you can leverage to know which products to include in your gift guide. Ask them which products are moving fast in their inventory or those they anticipate to be buzzworthy.
The success of your gift guide lies in knowing which products are relevant to the season. Invest time in ensuring the products you include will resonate with your target audience.
3. Craft Headlines for Your Gift Guides That Evoke Emotions and Inspire Action
Like all other types of content, your gift guide depends on a powerful headline for success. Take your time to craft one that:
Evokes the Readers Emotions
Gift buying is usually an emotion-driven endeavor. When your customers shop around for a gift, they do so (in most cases) for someone they have an emotional connection with. Hence, they want a gift that will have an emotional impact.
To craft such a headline, use personalization. Speak directly to your customer by using the word “you.” You can also create emotion-evoking headlines by using words that trigger an emotional response in your readers.
Inspires Readers to Take Action
Your gift guide headline must also inspire readers to take action, preferably purchasing one of your products. To do this:
paint a picture of the benefits of reading your gift guide
A well-written headline is essential to hooking your target audience and getting them to browse for the perfect gift for their loved one or colleague.
4. Find Quality Product Images
Once your customers click through into your gift guide, you must immediately grab their attention. The best way to do that is to use high-quality product images. Here’s an excellent example from Brightland’s gift guide:
Besides attention-grabbing, images also help:
Give instant information: Human beings are visual creatures and process images faster than text.
Make your gift guide easy to scan: Images are an excellent way of helping your readers scan your gift guide.
Images encourage sharing: People love sharing helpful stuff they find on the internet. Those who love your gift guide are more likely to share it if you use high-quality images.
Getting the images to use in your gift guide is quite easy. Your first port of call would be to get your manufacturer’s product images. However, a better option would be to hire a professional photographer and take your own images. Doing so allows you to place your products in a setting of your choice, resulting in personalized images.
5. Determine the Format of Your Gift Guides
Gift guides come in all shapes, sizes, and styles. As you plan on creating your own, you must determine which is the best format for your guide. Examples of the gift guide formats include:
blog post
slideshow
infographic
video
social media post (like Instagram posts)
How do you know which content format to use?
There are a couple of factors you can use to guide you on the best format for your gift guide:
Your Audience
When deciding which content format to use, the first port of call must always be your audience. Check your blog and social media analytics to see which content types perform well with your audience.
The Platforms You’ll Market Your Gift Guide On
The platforms you use to market your gift guide are another factor determining the format of your guides.
Your Niche
Finally, another essential factor that impacts the format you should use for your gift guide is your niche. If you’re in a visual niche, your gift guide may not need as much text as one in a niche where info plays a bigger role in driving conversions.
6. Market Your Gift Guides
With your gift guide ready, it’s time to show it to the world.
How do you get eyeballs on your gift guide?
Here are a few tips to help you market your gift guide to the right audience.
Share It on Social Media
One of the best marketing channels for your gift guide is social media.
Particularly when you run paid ads, you can hyper-target your campaigns to reach people who match your ideal customer profile (ICP).
Send It to Your Email List
Another excellent marketing channel for your gift guide is email. Although it’s one of the oldest and most basic digital marketing channels, email is still one of the best when it comes to marketing your gift guide.
One of the best advantages of email marketing is most of the people on your list are already interested in what you have to offer. The chances of them knowing other people interested in being gifted with your product are also high.
Another advantage of email is you can segment your email list, enabling you to create personalized messaging. You can also consider making a personalized gift guide for each segment, increasing the chances of conversion.
Leverage SEO
Search engine optimization (SEO) is still applicable to marketing your gift guide. While basic, it’s easy to forget to implement best practices like:
keyword research
adding tags to your images
strategic linking
focusing on user experience (UX)
Make it easy for your customers to find your gift guide when they’re looking for gift ideas. Having an effective SEO strategy is exactly what you need to do that.
Creating your gift guide is only half the battle. Getting it in front of the right people’s eyes is the other half. With your well-designed gift guide and these three gift guide marketing tips, chances of your gift guide succeeding in driving sales.
FAQ: Gift Guides Best Practices
Shopping for gifts is never easy. It becomes a more difficult task if you have a long recipient list. That’s why your customers appreciate a helpful gift guide. While we’ve covered how you can create a unique gift guide for your e-commerce site, you probably have a few questions regarding gift guide best practices. Let’s quickly answer a few before we wrap up.
Do Gift Guides Really Help Boost Sales?
There are two main reasons gift guides work so well. The first is people don’t have time for gift shopping—yet they have to. The second is there are just too many products to choose from. Gift guides solve both problems by helping your customers find and decide on what to gift their friends and loved ones.
How Do I Improve the Chances of My Gift Guide Converting?
One word: data.
Before getting started with your gift guide, you must gather all the data you can about your target audience and market. Scour your sales records, and use competitor analysis tools and any other data collection tool you can get your hands on. Use these to mine every piece of data that will help inform the design and creation of your gift guide. Doing it this way will ensure you create a hyper-targeted gift guide.
Conclusion
Creating a gift guide is a must if you run an e-commerce business. They don’t just boost your sales during holiday seasons; gift guides also help raise your brand awareness.
Gift guides are the perfect marketing tool as they attract high-intent shoppers.
That’s why you must include them in your marketing strategy. However, for them to work, you must ensure yours is unique and well-crafted. Use the tips above to create your first (or next) gift guide for the next holiday season.
Have you ever used gift guides to boost sales on your e-commerce store?
Copywriting is hard. Whether you’re writing product descriptions or PPC ads, there’s a huge volume of work involved, and the repetitive nature of the tasks can drain your creativity.
Could you give a machine a few instructions and let it generate engaging copy while you focused on more pressing tasks?
Well, now it’s possible, thanks to AI copywriting tools powered by machine learning. Let me introduce you to how it works and how it could transform your marketing strategy.
First, you decide what you want to write about and the type of content you need. This could be anything from a blog post to a short ad. Then, you set certain parameters for the AI tool to follow. For example, maybe you decide you want a social media post advertising a new yoga class.
Once the machine receives the instructions, it generates content based on these parameters by analyzing similar preexisting content from around the web and processing it into something new and plagiarism-free.
How are companies using AI copywriting? I’ll give you an example.
JPMorgan Chase used an AI copywriting tool to improve its CTAs and online ad copy for home equity lines of credit. They asked human copywriters to perform a similar task, and then they compared the results.
The findings? While the “human” copy generated 25 home equity applications, the AI copy generated 47. With the help of AI, JPMorgan Chase generated more potential customers than before. Impressive, right?
Why Should You Use an AI Copywriting Tool?
There are a few reasons why marketers and copywriters might check out AI copywriting tools.
First, AI copywriting saves you time. These tools can analyze data much quicker than humans can, so they can instantly generate full articles. They work 24/7, too, so you can literally craft content in your sleep!
Also, just think about how convenient AI copywriting is. If you need bulk content, such as product descriptions, AI copywriting handles these jobs for you, so you’re free to focus on more demanding marketing tasks like lead generation and KPI tracking.
Finally, AI copywriting tools can save you from the dreaded “writer’s block” that every writer experiences at some point. Whether you need help brainstorming ideas or generating some content, an AI tool can help you get going again.
If you’re a busy content creator with multiple deadlines or dreams of scaling your content production, it’s worth exploring how AI copywriting may help you.
AI Copywriting Limitations
Like any digital marketing tool, AI copywriting has its limitations.
First, although AI tech is impressive, AI copywriting tools don’t write anything truly original. Remember, we’re talking about a machine. They’re “fed” articles and content written by human copywriters and essentially mix them up to create something new.
AI tools produce great copy, but just because it’s “new” copy doesn’t mean it’s original.
What’s more, AI tools can’t replicate human emotion. Why is this a drawback? Well, emotion matters in marketing. In fact, when it comes to consumer buying behavior, feelings are more influential than any other variable, so you should try to invoke emotion through your content.
In short, while it’s great for bulk projects, you might not find AI copywriting helpful for crafting those more emotive posts that need a personal touch and true creative thought.
Finally, the AI tools we have right now aren’t great at picking up “awkward” phrasing. Although the writing (usually) makes grammatical sense, you’ll still need to proofread the copy to identify any incorrect phrases and awkward wording.
The takeaway? AI copywriting tools can support your marketing efforts, sure, but they’re not a complete substitute for human content creation. Just think of them as another highly useful tool in your toolbox.
5 AI Copywriting Tools for Content Creation
Ready to try out some AI copywriting tools? There are plenty out there, but here are the five I suggest you try first.
1. CopyAI
Got writer’s block? CopyAI is here to help. From brainstorming topics to crafting social media posts, CopyAI can help you go from stuck to inspired within minutes.
How does it work? It’s a simple enough concept. CopyAI uses a highly advanced machine language model, GPT-3, to produce authentic, human-like copy almost instantly. You just select a copy type, provide some words, phrases, and descriptions to base content around, and watch CopyAI do the rest.
Key Features
One thing that’s great about CopyAI is how simple it is to get going. You only need to provide a few words to generate copy including Instagram captions, product descriptions, and even product value propositions in seconds.
What makes CopyAI stand out, though, is its suite of idea generation tools. Whether you need a viral post idea or you’re just stuck on what to write about next, CopyAI gets you moving again.
Pricing
You can choose from two packages. The “Solo” package costs $420 a year (billed monthly at $35) or $49 for rolling monthly subscriptions, and it gives you access to all CopyAI tools, unlimited runs, and around-the-clock support.
The “Multiple Seats” package is better for larger businesses because it includes collaboration tools to support multiple teams. Prices are on request.
Not sure if CopyAI is right for you? You can try it free for seven days.
2. Wordtune
Do you have trouble saying exactly what you mean? Wordtune can help you get the words right. This AI copywriting companion works alongside you in real-time, helping you rephrase and reword your content without sacrificing flow, tone, or meaning.
Since it’s not a fully-fledged article generator like CopyAI, it’s best for marketers who want to write copy and need help shaping it. It could save you time spent agonizing over word choice and sentence structure while giving you the creative freedom to write your content.
Key Features
Designed with the discerning content writer in mind, Wordtune can assist with everything from sentence length to full-length article rewrites. This could be great for marketers looking to repurpose content across different platforms who want help condensing and rewording their copy.
Once you add the Chrome extension, you can instantly use it across popular websites such as Twitter, Grammarly, and LinkedIn, making it one of the most efficient AI copywriting and grammar-assistance tools out there.
Pricing
If you just want help rewording a sentence or two, there’s a free plan.
However, if you want access to features like sentence length controllers, tone controllers, and word searches, sign up for Premium. You can either pay $24.99 a month or save money and pay $119 for the year. You’ll get access to all features other than team billing.
Do you have a larger business or multiple teams working together? Check out the Premium for Teams tier. The prices vary depending on the scope of the services you require.
3. Copysmith
Need help scaling your marketing and driving growth through copy? Check out Copysmith.
Whether you’re a freelancer or you’re managing an in-house marketing team, Copysmith gives you the tools you need to actually accelerate your growth through tailored marketing, not just create great copy.
Key Features
Copysmith boasts a really impressive range of tools for busy marketing teams and copywriters.
For example, if you run an online store, Copysmith can generate a whole FAQ section for you plus unlimited product descriptions. Need taglines to boost your brand profile? Copysmith can turn your brand vision into engaging, memorable ad copy, and you can store all your client copy in one place.
Pricing
Unfortunately, there’s no free option, but if you’re happy paying for AI copywriting support, you have three choices.
First, we’ve got the Starter package. For an annual subscription, it’s $192 which works out at $16 per month. However, you can instead opt for a monthly subscription, which is $19 per month. For your money, you’ll get 20 plagiarism checks per month, Google Ad integrations and Chrome extensions so you can access copywriting support within your browser.
Next, there’s the Professional tier, which costs $600 per year (working out at $50 per month) or $59 for a monthly subscription. You’ll get everything in the Starter package, plus extra plagiarism checks and 100 generated blog posts to get your creative juices flowing.
Finally, there’s the Enterprise package, which comes in at $5,088 annually or $499 if you pay monthly instead. It comes with unlimited plagiarism checks and blog ideas, plus a suite of integrations including Shopify, so you’ll never be stuck for a product description again!
4. Wordsmith
Do you rely heavily on data for your day-to-day decision-making? If so, check out Wordsmith. This platform generates natural-sounding content based on analyzing large data sets, so you can use it for everything from journalism to financial reporting.
Key Features
Like Copysmith, Wordsmith is all about scale. All you need to do is create one template, set up a few variables, and Wordsmith will generate multiple alternative scripts. For example, you can write chatbot scripts for responding to various complex customer requests or write a video game script.
Wordsmith is also great for presenting financial data in understandable English to help you with your financial reporting and tracking needs: The AP uses it to publish more than 3,000 financial reports every quarter!
Pricing
The pricing structure isn’t public, so you’ll need to request a free demo and tell Wordsmith a little more about your business and content needs to get a quote.
5. Writesonic
Looking for an AI tool you can scale as your business grows? Writesonic might be for you.
“Trained” on successful copy from popular brands, Writesonic can help you generate everything from landing pages to Facebook ads, and it’s designed to maximize your chances of ranking well on search engines. Simply select a template and supply a few lines of description, and Writesonic will provide multiple copy samples for you to choose from.
Key Features
Writesonic is great for marketers who want to automate their more mundane writing tasks like welcome emails and SEO meta descriptions. The billing structure is really flexible, too, so you can scale your package to suit your evolving business needs.
However, one of the standout features is the landing page generator. By supplying just a few key details, you can instantly generate an optimized, engaging landing page. Check out an example of a landing page for Monday.com.
Starter: It’s $29 per month (or $25 per month if you pay for an annual subscription) to get 75 credits and access to basic features like SEO tags and the content rephraser.
Professional: You can pay $99 for monthly rolling subscriptions, but it’s cheaper to buy an annual subscription and pay $89 per month. However, you’re capped at 150 credits per month for features such as blog outlines.
Business: Coming in at $449 per month for annual subscriptions or $499 for a single month, you get everything in the Professional package plus 1200 credits for advanced features like full article writing.
Writesonic offers 10 free credits so you can check out the functionality before committing to a paid package. You can also pay-as-you-go rather than buy a monthly subscription if your content needs vary from month to month.
Conclusion
Whether you’re a digital marketer or a busy copywriter, AI copywriting tools can help you scale your content creation and achieve your business goals. They’re easy to learn and fun to use, and best of all, they produce natural, engaging copy to support your content needs.
Since every AI copywriting tool is slightly different, it’s best to check out a free trial or two before you commit to a purchase. This way, you’ll get a sense of how the tools work and which one best supports your business strategy.
Have you tried AI copywriting tools yet?
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