Hardly Word is as omnipresent in online marketing as content marketing. Content is sometimes declared king, described as the most important measure, and lifted up as the holy grail.
But can content marketing do justice to these laurels? What is it all about? Which goals can be achieved and what is really important if you want to create content successfully in the long term? We give you a deep insight into the world of content!
What is content marketing?
Content marketing simply translated means as much as content marketing. It is a method that has become increasingly important in online marketing. It is about creating tailor-made content for the target group so that they are addressed and convinced of the company and its performance.
The target group should be informed, entertained, and enthusiastic about the content will. In contrast to more classic forms of advertising, in which the focus is always on your own product or its advantages, content marketing focuses much more on the needs of the customers. So it’s about creating suitable content that helps the target group in everyday life.
As a measure, content marketing is part of corporate communication. With a view to the big picture, different sub-areas such as SEO, social media, or newsletters are also included. Through targeted use, different goals can be realized, e.g. B. the positioning of the brand, customer acquisition, and customer loyalty.
What is the point of content marketing?
Targeted content creation can help achieve a variety of different goals:
- Branding
- Brand Loyalty
- Lead Generation
- Range increase
- Traffic increase
- Link building / SEO
Not all goals are to be considered equal. You have to differentiate between smaller (e.g. building links or increasing traffic) and larger goals (brand building & retention). Which of the goals are achievable for your company, depends on your performance and the target group.
What types of content matter?
Content can be produced in different ways. Possible types of free content are:
- Magazine articles
- Blogs
- EBooks
- Whitepaper
- Interviews
- Project Reports
- Infographics
- Videos & Livestreams
- Podcasts
- Surveys & Studies
- Reviews & Tests
- Counselor
This list is just an excerpt to illustrate how diverse content marketing can be can. The type of content that makes sense for your company depends on the performance and the target group. Do you have e.g. B. a B2B trade audience? Then, extensive white papers can help. Are you selling a B2C product that requires an explanation? Then infographics and guides might be the right choice.
9 Tips for Successful Content Marketing
1. Define clear goals for your strategy
As with any marketing measure, it is the same with content -Marketing is necessary that you make strategic considerations. So before you start creating content, you should define clear goals. This is the only way you can check whether your measures have been successful. Possible goals are e.g. E.g.:
- Generate Website Traffic
- Increase user engagement
- Increase range
- Increase brand loyalty
- Increase brand awareness
- Generate Leads
You have to check individually which of these goals you want to tackle specifically. They are often related to each other. Because if you z. For example, increasing website traffic will ideally translate into more leads. Conversely, you can generate more leads with good content without necessarily increasing website traffic.
2. Get to know your target group
A good content strategy also means that you always keep an eye on the people for whom the content is intended. So get to know your target group! Because only if you have accumulated enough knowledge can you understand and serve the needs exactly. As part of a target group analysis, you will receive helpful insights into the living environment of your potential customers.
This is less about demographic data. Of course, these also play a role. Above all, you should deal with the wishes, goals, and needs of your target group. Because that’s how you understand exactly what matters to these people – and can create content that addresses that.
3. Create an editorial plan from keywords & search intention
A basis for content marketing can give you a Provide keyword analysis. This will give you insight into search engine user behavior related to your business. You will find out which search terms are entered how often and in which combination.
Once you have created such a list, you then need to understand the search intent. Because not every keyword has the same goal. Some prepare for a clear sale, while others indicate a need for information.
Follow all these steps conscientiously. Because they help you to understand what the target group expects from your product and would like to know in context. Then use this preparation to create an editorial plan.
In doing so, you go from big general topics to more and more detail and thus cover all needs. You always adapt the respective content type to the individual search intention. This is how you create an accurate roadmap that will help you achieve your goals.
4. Create high-quality and customized content
Once the editorial plan is in place, it’s time to get down to business: the content. Take plenty of time for this and create content that best captures all the associated questions. A keyword that is often mentioned is added value.
Content offers added value if it is formulated so comprehensively that the readers no longer have any unanswered questions. Instead, you should now know exactly what is important for a certain topic. Ideally, a purchase decision is derived from this conviction, but at least benevolence towards your company.
To get a feeling for how extensive content should be, it’s worth taking a look at the competition. Examine the content of other market participants and look at the top 10 search results for your search terms. This will help you discover which content is absolutely necessary, how detailed your content should be – and where there may be gaps that you can fill with your know-how.
5. Note Diversity of Content
Good content lives by its versatility. This simple rule applies to all channels, whether email, social media, or website. It is therefore important that you always orientate yourself toward a diversity of content. That means: Using different forms of representation to make content exciting.
If e.g. For example, when writing a blog post, you should always check when you can support the content with infographics, images, and videos. Various content elements such as lists, quotations, or highlighted boxes create variety.
The advantage: Straight image elements are then also suitable for other channels. An exciting infographic just begs to be shared on social media and cross-referenced to the associated blog post. It all fits together and you create content that is engaging and exciting.
6. Consider SEO Factors
Of course in content marketing, you should look at website content Always keep an eye on the relevant criteria for SEO texts. The basis is the preparatory work for the editorial plan (keyword analysis, search intention) and the content creation (competitor analysis, diversity of content) already created.
Now pay attention to factors such as headlines, metadata, image metadata & Co when optimizing. This is how you get the last percentage points out of your content. But always keep in mind: Users come first, followed by the search engine.
7. Think mobile first
More than half of internet use is now mobile. The abundance of mobile devices is greater than ever before. At the same time, Google switched its crawling process to mobile-first. This means that only the mobile version of your website is relevant for SEO.
It is therefore important that you always think mobile throughout the content marketing process. Any content you create needs to be easy to consume on mobile. This starts with the design of the website, continues with paragraph lengths in texts, and goes all the way to graphics and video integration.
Of course, your website should continue to work as a desktop version. Nevertheless, you should pay close attention to the mobile presentation and implementation.
8. Plan the distribution: the content seeding
Let’s assume that your content marketing plan is from your website. So you start z. B. a blog or magazine section. Ideally, your posts will be convincing in terms of SEO and you will thus receive traffic via organic search in search engines. At the same time, the articles are also easily accessible via the general website navigation.
What now? Very simple: you should strategically use this content to spread it across all channels. This is called content seeding, i.e. the seeding of the content. Your website posts are suitable e.g. B. excellent to be sent directly to your customers in a newsletter.
In addition, you can add a subscription function to your Integrate with a blog to automatically send push notifications when there is new content. Social media also plays a big role. You can share your article as a link or pick out individual fragments (graphics, images, videos, quotes) and prepare them for the different channels.
This is how you get content for newsletters and social media from a single blog article. This has several advantages: You can use all channels with less effort and at the same time increase the chances of success of the contribution. This interplay is what constitutes content marketing.
9. Monitor and optimize content
Content marketing always has a lot to do with analysis and numbers. Because once the strategy is implemented and the first content is published, you have to keep an eye on everything. Check with monitoring tools regularly if you are on track to reach your goals.
An article or content series on social media didn’t work so well? Then tweak the content and extract insights. In this way, you regularly question everything you have done so far and squeeze the last percentage points of quality out of your work.
Have you been active in content marketing for a long time? Then you should probably do a content audit again. In doing so you put the existing canon of content through its paces. This is how you discover optimization possibilities, break out of routines and create valuable meters on the way to your goal.4
Summary: This is how successful content marketing succeeds
If you follow these points, you can set up your company in the best possible way with content marketing. Now all you have to do is follow the most important rule: stick with it! Because content marketing is a lengthy process that requires a lot of work, especially at the beginning, but often only achieves low results in the short term. Don’t let this discourage you: It sometimes takes months for Google to recognize the potential of your content. Only those who survive the strenuous initial phase will be rewarded later. And believe us: the work is definitely worth it!
