Content marketing is a powerful way to get your audience’s attention and build trust. It might seem difficult to get started but it’s pretty easy to grasp once it is broken down into a few steps. If you are struggling, just remember the 3 C’s of Content Marketing – Create, Curate, and Circulate.
1. Create
Creating quality content is the heart of content marketing. Relevant, valuable content is will make your audience stop to think and behave differently. Positive engagement is what separates content marketing from traditional marketing.
Have a goal
There must be a purpose to content creation; a goal. Creating content for the sake of it wastes time for the readers and authors. Content marketing goals should align with your overall marketing goals.
Give your visitors what they want
Understand who the audience is and what they want to know. Even the most visually stunning, data driven infographic on nuclear fusion won’t benefit the audience if they are small business owners looking for information on how to grow their business. Jake Athey, in his Bad content is worse than no content: How to create stuff that doesn’t stink article, suggests the following litmus tests for your content:
If someone emailed you the content you just created, would you be grateful?
Does your content have any sentiment or piece of information you would repeat while out socializing with your friends?
If the content doesn’t meet either of those, maybe you should revisit it.
Offer what no one else can
There is so much information on the internet, readers aren’t going to just be looking for a reason to kill some time on your page. If you are struggling to create original content, shed some new light on a popular subject. If you have a successful business, you likely have something that makes you different. Use this knowledge and personality to differentiate your content as well.
2. Curate
Creating content isn’t the only way to provide the audience with valuable information and resources. You can become a source for industry news and tips from others as well, through content curation. Mark Sherbin says to become the “go-to feed for audience members interested in your topic” in his article Should You Curate Content? The Essentials Every Content Marketer Needs to Consider.
Add value
Part of content curation is providing extra value to the content. It could be as simple as providing key points for those who don’t have time to read through the whole article, or taking a fresh look on the topic.
Build connections
When you are sharing the content of others, you must make sure you are giving credit where credit is due. Including snippets in a blog with credit or re-Tweeting is a useful way to curate content. When you are sharing others content and giving them credit, you are creating a good opportunity to build a mutually beneficial relationship. They might share your content with their audience, which helps expand your efforts.
Save time
Save the audience time by giving them one location to find all of the news they want to see. They don’t have to comb through numerous sources, it’s already been taken care of. Be thoughtful of the content you curate, sharing too much unwanted content isn’t beneficial.
3. Circulate
Get your content seen. It can initially be difficult to develop a following. People aren’t going to just search out what you have to say. You have to start by having quality content. Then share it wherever you can.
Share via many channels
The more places you share your content, the more opportunities people have to find it. Your blog is one obvious place to start sharing. Social networks are another great place to share content. Each network has a different emphasis which allows you to share content in different ways.
Share multiple times
You finished an article and feel great about it. It was shared via your social channels but did not get the response you hoped for. Was it shared at the right time? Should it have been shared with different messaging? It’s good practice to share your content multiple times. Experiment with what times are best to share, and what messaging best resonates with your audience.
Share via multiple forms
Content doesn’t need to be held to just one format. What may be a great step by step instructional slide presentation could make a great video or blog as well. People have preferences on how they like to consume information. This also helps you produce more content without requiring as much time.
If you’re looking to build more content in your marketing plan for 2014, just remember the three C’s.
Nate Holmes is the marketing coordinator for Smartimage, a brand of Widen Enterprises.
Image credit: CC by AltimeterGroup
