Whether you're just starting or have an established business, this applies to you.
People are hungry for content.
That's why they're glued to their smartphones. Human beings have a deep-rooted desire to learn and grow. So it makes sense that content marketing continues to be one of the most effective ways to build a business.
Because you're not spamming them with unwanted ads. You're fulfilling a natural human need. That information just happens to be related to your business.
It's a win-win.
But in order to turn this long-term strategy into a profit, it's crucial that you follow these three keys:
Be committed
To succeed with content marketing, you need to be committed — and truly believe in — the benefits of content marketing.
Of course, this is much easier when your efforts are more mature, as you are seeing results in the form of cost savings, sales, and better customers.
But it’s equally important that marketers who are getting started have a committed mindset.
In fact, I recently advised marketers to go all in or do nothing.
Document your content marketing strategy
Sophisticated/mature marketers also understand the value of a documented content marketing strategy.
Your strategy can certainly evolve as your efforts mature, but you need to get your plan in writing (our research consistently shows that a verbal strategy isn’t nearly as effective).
While there is no one right way to create a strategy, here are 36 questions you can answer to help you get started.
Focus on building audiences
Many marketers who are getting started with content marketing consider their organization’s content to be their asset, but it isn’t.
The audience that you build as a result of having compelling content is your asset, which is why using content to build your subscriber base is so critical.
It has been proven over time, with the greatest content marketing examples as well as the best-known media models, that building a platform leveraging (for the most part) one content type on primarily one channel is a winning formula versus the publish-everywhere model.
Once a subscriber base is established via the one-content-type/one-platform model, then innovative companies diversify into other areas
I cannot overemphasize how important it is to prioritize building a subscriber base as you grow in your content marketing maturity.
If you can do that, adjust your strategy as needed, fully commit to the approach, deliver quality content on a consistent basis through carefully considered channels, give your efforts time to produce results — and, keep your focus on creating value (versus sales) — you’ll be well on your way toward producing long-term business results.
Source: Content Marketing Institute
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