7 Key Elements for Content Marketing Profitability
Learn how to create amazing content that gets results — start by failing a lot.
As content marketing becomes increasingly critical, it’s no surprise that there’s a growing demand for engaging material. However, it’s not as easy as the “experts” say it is.
Unfortunately, many marketers end up producing mediocre content that doesn’t engage or convert. What may be even more frustrating is watching mediocre content that is actually reaching a market and prospering! To be successful with content marketing, you’ll need to adopt a few key tactics.
7 Key Elements to Content Marketing Success
So, if you really think that you can develop the skills and the thick skin needed to compete, here are seven key elements that I recommend tackling. These will enable you to get better at the craft and earn more cash.
1. Know Your Top Audience Demographic
Being able to create excellent material is not enough to bring in the audience you need for successful marketing campaigns. Your skills need to be aimed at the right targets.
Attracting an audience for your content is only the first step. Hone your articles or blog posts to speak to that very specific person who will respond and take action. Take the practice of building demographic avatars seriously.
2. Develop Great Ideas for the Chosen Few
Since you’ll be writing to bring specific people to your marketing funnel or sales offer, you’ll need to entice them with information that they can appreciate. Your content ideas should focus squarely on the needs of that persona.
There’s no need to wrack your brains for original ideas. Ask your target audience what they want by reaching out to them on the platforms they frequent. You can find inspiring ideas by connecting with the people you’ll be writing for.
3. Plan Your Content with a Specific Purpose
You’re going to be tempted to cut corners in the process and wing it. If you have deadlines and other projects to complete, you might skip this step and make generic material to hit your quota. Sure, it might work; but it’s inefficient.
A content marketing plan focuses on the Who, What, When, Where, Why and How for each piece. Every work you produce should pass through this step. This is how you ensure that you’ve maximized the time and effort invested in the work.
- Who are you speaking to?
- What do they need to know to make the time worthwhile?
- When is the most effective time to reach them?
- Where should the material be distributed for maximum results?
- Why should they care about the work?
- How should they respond to accomplish your end goal?
4. Format Information to Match Your Audience
Once you know who you’re talking to, you need to be sure that the information is being delivered in the medium that they find most attractive. For example, if you’re trying to influence today’s high school seniors, which method will get the most results?
According to a 2019 Gen-Z Media Report, high school seniors are getting their primary information from social media platforms. Be aware that platform popularity changes year after year.
The top platforms they currently frequent are:
- Snapchat
- TikTok
- YouTube
For this generation, the role of the mobile device is far more critical than their computers. Their phones are frequently tuned to Snapchat, Instagram, Discord or TikTok. Knowing where your audience congregates will be crucial to your content marketing strategy.
5. Distribute Your Work Strategically
So, knowing your target audience’s destination means developing the optimum distribution system to get your content to stick in their minds. You may not want to depend on just one platform. Your strategy may benefit from repurposing your work on different platforms.
6. Promote Your Material
Here’s where many content marketing novices fall short. They may produce excellent content, but cannot effectively market it. Let’s say you have a YouTube channel and your information is geared to a specific target audience. You can create promotional material for other platforms to drive traffic to your YouTube channel.
Your channel may be the gateway to your website or sales funnel, but all the other platforms lead users to the videos. This process can be semi-automated to distribute your promotions every time you publish your work.
7. Track the Metrics that Matter
This step also gets lost in the rush to build content density. Tracking your results can take many forms and will only apply to your aim. That means knowing the audience and keeping tabs on who is consuming your work.
For example, if I wanted to build an audience for small business publishing. I might target small business owners who want to self-publish their work for marketing. Each month, I will look at how many small business owners are reading my posts and signing up as regulars.
This will require learning about tracking metrics pertaining to your platforms. Each one will be different and may require learning its method for data collection and analysis. Checking the reports weekly or monthly will help guide your campaigns and your strategy.
Improving the Content Creation Process Means Failing a Lot
In order to succeed, you will need to fail. You’ll need to fail a lot. That’s because you’re almost guaranteed to have to produce a lot of work that gets rejected. Some readers will reject your stuff and some editors will reject your work. It might take a while to generate interest in your material.
This is a positive thing! No one gets proficient at something without practice. In order to produce consistent results in content marketing, you’ll need to do it over and over. It’s likely that you’ll to have to be flexible, learn various techniques, please specific audiences, picky clients and editors who demand very specific guidelines be met.
Conclusion
With the right content strategy in place, you can create content that helps your business grow and reach new customers. By following the 7 key steps listed above, you’ll be on your way to content marketing success!
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