Last week we attended the Social Media Breakfast – Twin Ports, a monthly session where social media experts share their advice with business owners, managers, marketers and students. Topics and locations change month to month and there’s always free coffee!
This month’s speaker was Dave Scott, CMO of BNG Holdings, Inc. He spoke about the importance of content marketing and how to implement it into your overall marketing strategy. So, we took his advice and wrote up a quick summary.
STEPS TO SUCCESSFUL CONTENT MARKETING:
Step 1: Identify Your Target Persona
Who are they following on Twitter? What LinkedIn groups are they involved in? What blogs do they read? Where do they get their news? How do they make their decisions?
Use this list of placements to determine where to share your content and engage with your consumers.
Step 2: Build a Strategy
We recommend building month-by-month content calendars. It’s best to keep timelines short and flexible due to the ever-changing content and platforms in the digital realm.
Step 3: Post Content
- Website
- Blog
- Social Media
- LinkedIn Publishing
Step 4: Share Smart
- Send responsively. Don’t overdo it.
- Share free information, like e-books and whitepapers.
- Use the gradual approach:
- Start by sharing tips and information with absolutely no intent to “sell”
- Then, move into sharing information about your business/product
- Who are you? What’s your story?
- Finally, pitch the sale + show the value behind the product with a strong CTA
Step 5: Acquire Trust + Credibility
When you create + share content, it provides at least one of the following:
- Awareness
- Trust
- Purchase Intent
- Word of Mouth
- Customer Engagement
- Lower Acquisition Costs
And we’d like our marketing efforts to result in “all of the above.”
Key takeaways:
- Success in content marketing takes lots of trial and error. Expect to fail a few times, or a few years.
- Commit to the long haul. Creating constant and useful content for the foreseeable future is the key to building your brand’s presence and audience.
- Don’t let “years” scare you away. If you put your customer first, you’ll find a lot of success. Don’t ever give up.
Thoughts on content marketing? Comment below or send us a note.