There is a tremendous amount of buzz surrounding content marketing and its need within a brand’s overall marketing strategy.

Doing content marketing is much more than publishing on your blog occasionally and posting your thoughts on social media. “Do stuff and maybe it will work” is not a strategy, it is a gamble. A risky and expensive one, at that.

Even so, many brands have yet to create an effective content marketing strategy.

What does such a strategy look like? Where are the examples of brands doing it well?

What is Content Marketing:
Content marketing’s purpose is to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behavior. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it.

This generation of customers are taking drastic steps to avoid marketing messages. As consumers, we use DVRs to skip television ads, pay internet radio subscription fees to avoid commercials, mentally block out — or use plug-ins to avoid — internet click ads, and gloss over road-side billboards, rendering them useless and ineffective.

So how are marketers supposed to combat this shift?

Education.

Consumers are still buying and making purchases, but the way they go about making a decision has changed. With all of the world’s information at their finger tips, savvy consumers are doing enormous amounts of learning and self-education before stepping into a showroom or talking to a salesperson.

Knowing this is a huge opportunity for brands. If you know consumers are looking for information, be the source of that information. Not with sales-y content that puts your priorities before theirs, but information that the buyer really wants and needs.

The Marketing and Sales Departments must align to create a buying path for this new era of consumers that provides authentic and transparent information about a product or service (the mission of Marketing) and closing the sale (the mission of Sales).

Content marketing closes this gap by using brand-created educational content to satisfy the prospective buyer while helping the sales team convert anonymous visitors into buyers.

Thought leaders and marketing experts from around the world, including the likes of Seth Godin and hundreds of the leading thinkers in marketing have concluded that content marketing isn’t just the future, it’s the present (see the video below on the history of content marketing).

The key ingredient to using content to attract new customers is in the advanced planning. The strategy.

What is a Content Marketing Strategy:
A content marketing strategy is a roadmap; a “User’s Guide” to how your brand will do the following:

- Meet the customer at their specific point within their buying cycle
- Align the customer’s needs with your knowledge and expertise
- Use your brand’s assets to meet these objectives

Business-to-Business marketers who have a documented content marketing strategy are 66% more likely to consider themselves effective compared to only 11% of those without a documented strategy.

A content marketing plan helps you see the end-game before you have even started. Further, it gives a clear, articulable vision for your entire team and keeps you on track throughout the campaign.

Just like New Years resolutions often fade into a foggy memory, our intentions are good – but we allow resolutions to fail. To be successful in any strategy, we need to be intentional.

For proper sales and marketing alignment, and for the success of your bottom line, you must have a plan in place.

How to Start Your Content Strategy:
The framework of a content marketing strategy is fairly straight forward:

- Who are you targeting? What are their needs?
- How are you going to reach them? (Attract new and nurture existing)
- What content do you have now to get started?
- What is your plan to develop and share more
- How will you measure your efforts

1. Personas
Take some time to consider who you are targeting. Are they male or female? Does it matter? Do they have a career? Children?

Are they affluent? Coupon cutters?

What are their goals? What happens if they do not reach them? Is their a monetary penalty for them? Will meeting this goal further their career? Will it make them happy?

Clearly defining your targeted personas will save you a lot of time, energy, and money as you continue your business. With this person in mind, your content marketing strategy will begin to fall into place and you will feel that you are having a conversation with this “person”, rather than blindly throwing stuff out there.

2. Outreach
Content marketing and social media are often used synonymously. This is a mistake. Content marketing is a broad method of marketing whereas social media is a tool that complements getting your content seen.

Imagine your website as your online hub, where all of your brand-controlled content resides, your social media profiles are spokes that lead back to your home base.

Social media has the power to reach incredible numbers of potential customers, influencers, existing customers, and even the opportunity to convert customers from competitors. Social media, in and of itself, is not content marketing. It is one of your outreach tools.

3. Available Content
Next, take stock of materials you have on hand already.

Many of us sit in offices filled with brochures, flyers, handouts, manuals, and documents loaded with helpful information, but we do little to extend that information to potential customers on the web. Make a list of the content available to you immediately and start identifying which persona is most aligned, where they are within their sales process, and what pain point they are currently facing.

Getting started, you can use what you have on hand. But I recommend expecting this low-hanging fruit to run out. You should plan on developing your own, unique content.

For a number of reasons, search engines reward fresh, unique content. Further, your prospective customers will be looking for information that is not available everywhere. Your unique perspective and “voice” (the tone in which you talk, the way you communicate, and what you share) may be the first experience a prospective customer has with you. This is the beginning of a long business relationship.

4. Schedule and Share Your Content
After you have compiled your educational materials, grab a calendar. I recommend looking out 3-4 months to start. Mark holidays, special events, and milestones. Working backwards, prepare your marketing message for these campaigns.

For example, one client of ours hosts 4-5 annual sales. They all surround major US holidays (New Years, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving/Black Friday). By knowing this, it is easy for us to prepare everything from banner ads, Pinterest images, blog posts, Facebook Status, videos, and even newspaper ads (don’t shoot the messenger).

Once you have those events marked, consider a “theme” of the week for those 3-4 months. With that theme, and your personas in mind, write out the following for each week:

- 2 Blog Posts
- 8-10 Facebook updates
- 20-30 Twitter updates
- 4-5 product photos for Pinterest
- 3-4 Instagram ideas
- 1 Video

By no means is this list all-inclusive. It is a starting point to get you thinking about how to plan content. To get a specific content marketing plan designed for your brand, I need to interview you and understand your goals, personas, and timeline.

5. Analytics
Finally, how are you going to measure your work? Remember when we set up our goals earlier? Were you specific in identifying how many leads you want to generate?

“Get more leads” is a horrible strategy, better is “Gain 50 new leads by September 1st” or “increase from 6% conversion rate to 12% conversion rate” These types of goals are easily measured and tracked.

Do you have a mechanism in place to measure, monitor, and gauge your efforts? Further, do you have the right people on your team to help you know what is working and what is not? Can you explain why certain marketing dollars are generating a return on your investment while others fall flat?

Final Thoughts
Just like runners know the course of the race before they start, your brand should know the route you will take to your finish line. Having a strong content marketing strategy in place will ensure your team is setup for success.

Using content is a great way to use search engines to bring people to your website/blog. Then use that content to share on social media where your ideal reader is hanging out.

If you'd like help, please drop me a note here.

All the best,
-Shaun

Hi - congrats on your new blog! There are a lot of different techniques businesses or marketing experts utilize to get publicity.

Some of these ideas are as follows: guest blogging, cross-promotion tactics, social media ads and public relations. My agency would be more than happy to help you with this, so please feel free to contact me via Clarity or go to my website www.bloominari.com and request a free strategy, no-obligation phone call! Thanks for reading and best of luck!

Hey there!

First of all, congratulations for taking the leap! Launching a blog is very exciting, but as you know, also very overwhelming.

As you try and navigate the online marketing world, I would recommend starting in an area that you're probably already familiar with - social media.

Facebook is usually the obvious starting point, but I like to recommend Instagram as it is often overlooked. You can build an active following on Instagram, and then funnel your followers to your website.

Building a following on Instagram takes more time than anything else in the beginning. You will need an account to get started.

Here's a few tips to help get you started:

1) Post often and consistently. By providing regular content, you will keep your followers engaged and help generate new ones. If you can't keep up with regular postings, use a service like Schedugram (http://bit.ly/2dGfiZH) to schedule your posts

2) Engage with your audience often. You need to do a lot of liking and commenting! Use the search feed and find users and/or posts similar in your niche. It doesn't hurt to follow other accounts as well. This can be quite time consuming. There are services like Likestagram (https://likestagram.com) that will automate some of the process. I've found this service to be significant in attracting new followers.

3) Use relevant hashtags to make your content found easily. You can find hashtags by using a site like Hashtagify, http://hashtagify.me.

I hope this gives you some valuable insight into how to use Instagram to increase your blog following!

If you'd like to know more, or have someone review your page, please give me a call!

Best of luck to you on your new venture.

The best way to gain followers in the fitness and fashion world is through Instagram. These industries are based around content and people love to connect with new brands/blogs through images. If you have great photos start posting them to your Instagram and use hashtags like #fashion #style #ootd #fitness #blog etc. to get people who are looking for the things to find your post. I would also go and like photos or comment on other blogs to try and get their followers to follow you. If you would like to further discuss how to grow your following I would be happy to set up a call!

Brand awareness takes brand recognition a step further. It involves recalling not only the business name, but also the general feeling of the business, information about its products and services, and other experiential details. When a business has a level of brand awareness, their marketing and advertising campaigns mean something to their audience. Brand awareness is all about what the mind states your ideal clients enter when they see or hear your company’s name.
No matter the quality of your products and services, no matter how much you spend on advertising, and no matter how much you post to social media, your business isn't likely to get very far if it doesn't have a brand to set itself apart. As you can see, brand awareness is important because it helps pave the way for achieving a variety of your small business marketing goals and objectives like staying ahead of the competition, building an audience, and generating more leads.
Plus, increased exposure does not necessarily equate to increased brand awareness. In addition to the Kleenex and Dunkin Donuts examples above, here are some more companies that have a high level of brand awareness. Using eye-catching visuals, advertising in the right places, and developing a distinct voice in your content, you too can build brand awareness for your company. To effectively execute on your strategy, be sure to identify ways of measuring your brand awareness so that you can make necessary adjustments and improvements along the way.
Few strategies to increase brand awareness are as follows:
1. Impressive guest content
Guest posting is still a powerful way to get your name known in your industry. Create memorable, valuable content and you’ll be introduced to new audiences and make a lasting impression.

2. Infographics
Infographics are a bright and colourful way to display interesting marketing data and statistics.

3. Local partnerships
Another great brand building strategy is to get involved with local partnerships . Partner with other local businesses to hold join intro seminars or festivals. Sponsor local sports teams and donate to charity events.

4. Social media contests
Contestants will share the link with friends and family to get more votes, building your brand awareness as a result.

5. Social focus
With the number of social networks constantly increasing, trying to do active social media marketing on all of them is a fool’s errand. If your business is best suited to a particular network, then do not be afraid to put most of your energy into a few sites. You will not want to totally abandon the other social sites but save your biggest efforts for what you know works.

6. LinkedIn publishing
Recently, LinkedIn began letting all users publish posts right to LinkedIn via the publishing tool. If your posts get enough attention, it could wind up in the LinkedIn home stream for many users. Of course, you can also always set up your own company blog and post there – just make sure you share and promote your posts after publishing.

7. Pro story telling
If you can create emotionally moving, compelling stories that connect deeply with users, they will not soon forget your name.

8. Unique personality
One sure fire way to increase band awareness is by giving your brand a fun, unique brand identity. If you work in an industry were a little dose of comedy or personality is appropriate, being outrageous can make your brand extremely memorable.

9. Podcasts
Some industries, like marketing, already have a hefty number of podcasts that would be tough for a beginner to compete against.

10. PPC advertising
Even if users do not end up clicking on your PPC ad, seeing your name at the top of the search results makes an impression and is incredible for building brand awareness.

11. Remarketing campaigns
Remarketing is a pro strategy for boosting that good old’ brand awareness. Soon they’ll be seeing your business everywhere – on their favourite blogs, while shopping online, etc. This gives the impression that your brand is much larger than it really is.

12. Paid social advertising
Whether or not users convert immediately, every added piece of familiarity counts when users finally are ready to make a purchase.

13. Controversy
Take an unlikely stance on a hot industry topic, and you may find yourself attracting quite a bit of attention.

14. Influencer marketing
Getting friends in high places is another easy way to boost your brand awareness. Find existing influencers in your industry whose business you could potentially complement, rather than compete with. With these brand awareness tips, you will be a super-star brand in no time. When she's not typing out blog posts or crafting killer social media campaigns, you can find her lounging in a hammock with an epic fantasy novel.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath