As you’ve no doubt heard, content marketing is the New Black of the advertising world. The answer to all your lead acquisition prayers and gateway to your customer engagement dreams.
And the best part is, all you need are truckloads of compelling content blockbusters that will persuade even half-interested prospects to fall insanely in love with your brand for life. There’s just one teensy, tiny, little problem.
You have no idea how to create anything like that.
Well, you’re not alone. Because producing crazy-great content is damned hard. But if you keep on scrolling, clicking or swiping - I’ll be only too glad to share “The Six Simple Secrets to Creating Crazy-Great Content” with you.
Heeeere we go…
That’s right, I said taunt them. Hit them with a title that’s so hot, so juicy and so completely irresistible that it will cause them to conclude that their lives will be void of all meaning unless they click through to your content – and click through to it now.
Now, I really don’t enjoy provoking them so (well, maybe a little). But I have no choice. For we live in a world with a billion distractions. And if you don’t snag someone’s attention within three nano-seconds, then they will disappear into the infinite ether of the Internet, ne’er to return. Which is, as we professionals say, not good.
Look. Your company was created to improve your customers’ lives immeasurably. But if you can’t grab their attention from the get-go, then you might as well publish your eBooks in Sanskrit. So go ahead and taunt them. They’ll be glad you did.
The single-most important question in marketing is “What’s in it for me?” from your prospect’s point of view. Because when it comes to your products, this is only thing about which they giveth a rat’s behind.
Hence, every piece of content must be all about them. Their hopes and their dreams, their kids and their kitties. Without ever pushing your products on them too directly.
Which makes perfect sense, when you think about it.
Because in the end, EVERYTHING your company does SHOULD be all about making your customers crazy happy. So take the time to understand what they truly love and value about your firm. For therein lies the key to kick-butt content.
Yes, actual human beings are searching for your products. But they are being aided and abetted by an army of bots looking for the keywords included in those searches. So why not make those poor little bots’ jobs easier?
And lay out the breadcrumbs that will lead them right to your door.
Now, while it’s true that comprehensive search engine optimization is a long-term and complex process, it all starts with the right keywords. To determine yours, analyze the searches your prospects are likely to perform. This will reveal the phrases you’ll want to sprinkle throughout your content.
And I do mean “sprinkle.” Stuffing posts with the same keywords over and over can actually hurt your rankings. But if you help search bots find your content, then they’ll gladly help your prospects find you.
Did I mention repurpose?
Okay, just checking. Because when it comes to your content, you’ll want to use all parts of the proverbial Buffalo -- and use them everywhere you can.
In other words, that paradigm-shifting white paper you just crafted is now a marketing collateral goldmine. One that should be sliced, diced and then repackaged into bite-sized little nuggets of content goodness. These could be blog posts, social blurbs, eBooks, videos, infographics, slide shares and more.
And the clients who adore your brand will eat it up. Think about a product you truly love. If you're like me, then you just can't get enough. You want learn everything about it. And your customers will, too.
Oh, sure - trendy content may attract more attention at first. But timeless content enables you to leverage proven winners to extend the shelf life of your creative.
Repackaging top performers takes less effort – and is less risky - then producing all-new content. Ergo, if your responses to given topic regularly threatens to bring down Salesforce’s entire backend, then it only makes sense to re-deploy that bad boy again and again.
Because creating great content is hard. Really hard. You can do almost everything right, follow every tip and believe you’ve got your finger on your audience’s pulse. And still be disappointed with your results.
Which reminds me of my final tip…
I’ve seen it more times than I can count. Good, super-smart clients. Who spend tons of time creating amazing content. That they then set up to monitor through sophisticated systems built to track every click. Giving themselves terabytes of incredibly insightful data about their campaigns.
Whiiiich they barely glance at after the first email goes out.
But scrutinizing your results is one of the most critical steps of content marketing. Your promotion may have face-planted. But if you dig into the data, you might find that your open rate was amazing and your email prompted tons of click-throughs. But then your landing page dropped the ball.
But if you never analyze your data, you won’t understand what you should fix. So, like, do it.
Developing crazy-great content is never easy. But as long as you:
- Taunt Your Readers With a Provocative Title
- Make Your Content 100% Focused on Your Customers’ World
- Embed SEO-Relevant Keywords
- Repurpose. Repurpose. And Then Repurpose Again.
- Utilize Evergreen Topics
- And For God’s Sake, Analyze Your Results!
Then you will be well on your way to producing the type of content that will compel your customers to stay with you forever. Which is actually the true secret to business success.
About Lyng & Associates
Lyng & Associates specializes in creating highly effective Content Marketing Programs. Our work has helped our clients reach record sales, secure VC funding - and even come back from the dead (it’s true!).
Feel free to explore our site, or contact us today at +1.323.253.7290, or [email protected].