Effective content marketing which is informative, persuasive and compelling will not only help to convert sales and enquiries, but also greatly assist your SEO. When launching a new business, website, or marketing strategy, how your content marketing is going to support this should be a key consideration.
Here are a few tips on how to get started with content marketing.
1. Decide on your goals
As with every aspect of marketing, content marketing should be goal driven. This will help you plan an effective content marketing strategy that works in harmony with your other marketing – such as PPC and email marketing – to achieve your business objectives.
Ideally, every piece of content should have a clear, strong call to action that supports your goals. Website content should also be SEO driven, to ensure your business is visible online to your target audience.
2. Know your audience
Before creating content, it’s vital to define the audience your content is for. In our digital age, pumping out generic, poorly written content will not create an impact. You need to design your content marketing for your business’s target audience.
At the start of every content marketing project, we work with our clients to create customer personas to understand what content will work best for their particular audience. This process involves considering several different factors, including:
- Why would someone visit your website?
- What problem-solving solutions does your business offer?
- What sets your business apart from your competitors?
3. Tone of voice
Tone of voice is a powerful part of your branding arsenal. Used effectively, it can add credibility, personality and likeability to your content marketing. A poorly executed tone of voice, on the other hand, can damage your business’ credibility, or even make visitors to your website mistrustful.
A compelling tone of voice does not necessarily have to be witty or clever. You might opt for a tone that is reserved, matter-of-fact, direct, and relaxed – it depends on what’s appropriate to your industry, and what best reflects your business’s identity.
4. Consider your language choices
Hand in hand with having a strong tone of voice comes considering your language choices. Where possible, avoid bombarding your audience with jargon or technical language. If you need to use technical language at any point, ensure that terms your audience might be unfamiliar with are explained.
A test is to ask an external person who is unfamiliar with your business and what you do to read through a piece of content. If they come away from reading it feeling that they understand what your business does, you’ve made successful language choices. If they come away confused, you may want to rethink your content.
