Why do we do content marketing?
Every business today is trying to create an online presence. But how do you do that without becoming a spammy banner ad business?
Content Marketing. This means providing free written content that helps us connect with potential customers.
Great and effective content marketing converts those who read your articles into actual customers and also helps to grow your business.
In this article, we will break down and explain content marketing tips and methods and why they are effective.
LET’S BEGIN: RESEARCH YOUR TOPIC
Content marketing may seem exciting. You can talk about anything and provide it for free for your users or readers. This could encourage the idea that your users will get hooked on anything you provide.
The reality of content marketing is the opposite. Even if the content is free, users won’t get hooked on it instantly.
How exactly can you determine and find the topics or content marketing that users will really love? What are the articles you can write that will bring in constant traffic, increase brand awareness, boost brand engagement, and generate revenue?
The answer to this problem would be keyword research. If you want organic search traffic, learn to find keywords with search traffic potential.
1. KEYWORD RESEARCH TOOL
Whether you choose free or premium keyword research tools, any of these can provide you with what you need. Generate a list of seed keywords related to your industry and specific to your business. After that, enter it into your keyword research tool.
For example, you could enter a keyword—”workout plan”—into Ubersuggest (a free keyword tool), and it will generate a ton of keyword ideas for you.
Ubersuggest will give you the keywords that will bring you the traffic that you want!
2. FIND HIGH-VOLUME, LOW COMPETITION KEYWORDS
Most keyword tools will show you some basic keyword metrics. Firstly, there will be search volume—usually this means how many times keywords are typed into Google search per month. Another valuable metric is keyword difficulty, which tells you how difficult it is to rank for this keyword on Google.
The name of the game is to combine these two metrics together. Find a search volume that is above $1,000 per month and a keyword difficulty that is in the lowest range.
For Google Keyword Planner, you have keyword ideas like this.
Under the competition column, you can find low-competition keywords with high search volume in the ranges of “1k-10k,” “10k-100k,” or even “100k-1m.”
Make sure to adjust what you consider high search volume specifically to your business niche and topic!
3. RESEARCH COMMUNITIES
The wonderful thing about the internet is the online community. It’s so easy to go on a platform and discuss topics relating to anything. It’s the perfect opportunity to find people who are talking about your niche online.
A great place to start would be Facebook, Reddit, Quora, and Slack. Join these groups and start researching what is being discussed.
For example, if you’re running an e-commerce business that sells bodyweight workout routines for men and women, you could go on reddit and look for subreddits relevant to your business.
One possibility could be bodyweight fitness
In this specific post, the user is writing about gymnast ring workouts for bodyweight only. The post is extremely popular on this subreddit, as it has been upvoted 631 times. The keyword to extract from this post is gymnastic rings workout.
e can check its popularity on Google through the Chrome Extension Keywords Everywhere tool.
4. RESEARCH YOUR COMPETITORS
Sometimes it would be better to just find out what keywords your competitors rank for, wouldn’t it? Why not just use them to create similar content topics?
A super simple way is to just visit their blog. Go to their best articles and content marketing section.
Here we have thenx.com’s blog page.
Each of these posts will have something unique about them, and their title tags will show you what keywords they are trying to rank for.
For Example:
In this article, they would probably be targeting “The Best Calisthenics Exercises.”
5. MATCH SEARCH INTENT
Now that you know how to find keywords with high volume, it’s time to find ones that are actually good to rank for. For example, the long-tail keyword “pure gym near me.”
You can see here that it has a monthly search volume of 27,100. However, the search intent is noticeably clear for locating pure gyms near a user’s location. It might be easy to rank for this keyword; however, users won’t click on your URL if it doesn’t match what they want.
Search intent is extremely important. With search intent, you essentially find out what the searcher is looking for.
To get a clear idea of the search intent behind a keyword, enter the keyword into Google and look at the first page results. The results will give you an idea of what searchers are looking for.
If you enter the keyword pure gym near me, the search results that come out will be a list of pure gym locations near you. In order to create content marketing relevant to this keyword, the best you could do would be to review which pure gyms are the best in each region or city.
6. TARGET TOPICS WITH HIGH BUSINESS POTENTIAL
You can remember the day when you could start boasting about how much traffic you’re driving to your business’s website. That’s one amazing accomplishment, but pointless if the traffic is not generating revenue for you.
You already know how to find keywords with high search volumes. Now filter your list of keywords by finding those that have high earning potential.
These keywords would be related to how crucial your product or service is to solving a certain problem.
Here’s a simple scale for measuring how important your product is to the keyword:
- High: Your product is the obvious and probably the best and only solution for the problem.
- Medium: Your product is somewhat helpful but not that important in solving the problem.
- Low: Your product can only be brought into context on a small scale.
- Very Low: Your product has no connection at all with the problem.
On this scale, finding great topics also includes a keyword’s traffic potential and low competition.
CONTENT MARKETING CREATION/ON-PAGE SEO
As much as every content editor wants to create as much content as fast as possible, great content marketing requires more than just pumping out 500-word articles daily.
If you want your articles to rank as high as possible, they need to practice the best on-page SEO.
Here are some tips for you.
1. MAKE YOUR CONTENT EASY TO READ
When you drive traffic to your website, you want your readers to stay and actually read what you have to offer. One obvious way of doing that is by making your content easy to read.
Here’s how to do that:
So, keep your copy nice and simple. Some tips:
- Keep the writing simple; avoid using big words. This means writing that a middle schooler could understand.
- Break up your string of paragraphs with images and videos that help emphasize your points.
- Include headings that are eye-catching and easy to understand
- Make headings bold
- Include lists with bullet points if you can
2. CREATE THE BEST PIECE OF CONTENT MARKETING ON THE TOPIC
Here are three characteristics of a great piece of written content marketing:
- Quality. Is the article well-written? How easy is it to read? Does it solve a problem for readers? How much detail is given for readers to digest?
- Uniqueness. Does the article stand out compared to other articles written about a similar topic?
- Authority. Is the article written by an authority figure or expert? Does it borrow knowledge from an authority figure or expert?
3. WRITE A GOOD INTRODUCTION
Once you get the traffic you want, you want it to stay. You definitely don’t want readers to leave within the first minute.
How do you get readers to stay? You wrote a great introduction.
Here are two tips for writing a good intro:
- Keep the introduction as short as possible.
- Tell the reader immediately what they’re getting out of the article.
- Explain their problem to them and tell them why the article will solve their problem for them.
- Hint at how you know how to solve their problem. Show a teaser of your method, solution, or strategy.
4. COVER IMPORTANT SUBTOPICS
Once you start writing pages of content marketing that are ranking #1 and getting lots of traffic and earnings, you’ll find that these pages of content marketing cover long-tail variations of your main topic.
How else can you optimize these articles? You want to find out if there are any subtopics you can take advantage of as well.
The best method is to look for other keywords for which the top-ranking results for your keyword also rank.
One awesome free tool you can use is provided by The Hoth.
The Hoth’s Content Marketing Gap Analysis Tool will tell you what keywords your competitor’s domains are also ranking for.
Look through the keywords that they’re ranking for, and you may find some subtopics that can benefit your article as well.
When choosing subtopics, make sure they’re still relevant to your main topic. It is important to know that subtopics should make your main topic shine and increase in value.
5. INCLUDE PLENTY OF EXAMPLES AND REAL-WORLD CASE STUDIES
The best way to make your content stand out is by giving real-world examples. The more practical your examples are, the better.
On onnit.com, they show you the best way to do a warm-up before your workout routine with a video demonstration.
6. USE UNIQUE IMAGES
Visual content marketing is much easier to process and way more interesting than written content marketing.
This is the reason why infographics, videos, and animations get shared more often than written content.
If your infographics and images are unique, you can also use them as a source for link building.
7. WRITE A GOOD HEADLINE OR TITLE
Another basic skill to have is writing a good headline or title. It may seem like a simple task, but the importance of it is high.
Your compelling headline must convince the reader to click on your article.
Use these tips:
- Use 1 or 2 big and compelling words.
- Such words include “awesome,” “proven,” and “ultimate.”. These words are supposed to elicit an emotional response from readers.
- Include your target keyword by mentioning how it would solve the reader’s problem
- E.g., Keyword = “home workout routine”
- Title/Headline would be: (The Ultimate Home Workout Routine to get you strong fast)
8. USE SHORT, DESCRIPTIVE URLS
Why care about being descriptive with a URL? It’s good for your SEO, but it also tells viewers what the URL’s content is about.
For example, the URL—http://www.barbrothersgroningen.com/calisthenics-workout-plan/—tells us the URL content is about a calisthenics workout plan. It is written to be simple and easy to understand.
Users will most likely click on the URL if they have a clear understanding of what the page is about.
Your URL will also be easy to understand if it is used as an anchor text somewhere else.
Content Marketing and Promotion
It is one thing to rank #1 on Google. But what if that isn’t enough for your business or blog?
If you want more online engagement with your article, you’ll have to learn how to promote your content.
Here are some tactics that you can implement right away:
1. SHARE ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Every time you publish an article or post, you definitely need to share it on all social media platforms that you’re active on. These platforms could be Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and even Instagram.
In order to get the most out of social sharing, research the best times to share your content with your users.
Sprout Social has an amazing article on the best times to post on many social platforms.
You can also recirculate some of your content after a certain time. This can be done through a re-post or a retweet. Do this sparingly, as you don’t want to be seen as a spammy account.
2. BUILD AN EMAIL LIST
One of the best resources for an online blog or business is an email list. By using your email list, you can notify hundreds or even thousands of subscribers of your newest published content.
How do you build this awesome resource? You must learn how to collect emails effectively from your readers.
If you want to convert your readers into email subscribers, you need to offer something valuable in exchange for their email.
Here’s one example of getting a reader’s email.
Here we have a free eBook being offered. Besides this, you could also try offering a free course or even a free trial for your business services.
3. COMMUNITY CONTENT PROMOTION
Remember the Reddit or online forums you joined to do topic research? Surprise, surprise, but they’re also great for content promotion.
If these online communities are relevant to your niche, you should promote your content there.
One bad way to promote would be to spam your content on the forum. This will most likely get you banned by the online admin.
The best way to promote your content is to offer actual value on these forums.
This means:
- Commenting on posts
- Offering advice and tying it in with your published content
- Offer your published content in a natural way, not in a click-baity way.
Quora is a great place for people offering value to grow their online following and promote their content and themselves.
4. RE-PURPOSE YOUR CONTENT
Sometimes, after publishing your content, you feel like all the time, money, and effort weren’t worth it. Well, what if you could still use that content in a different way?
You’re getting some results from your content, but you want these results to last longer. How? Break up your content into smaller pieces.
Structure these smaller posts of content for other platforms like Medium, Quora, Facebook, or even LinkedIn.
5. USE THE “SPLINTERING TECHNIQUE”
This technique is similar to “repurposing your content.”.
For this technique, you use your smaller pieces of content as guest posts.
Use your research and rewrite smaller pieces of content for the right websites to publish on.
6. REACH OUT TO RELEVANT PEOPLE
Outreach is a strategy where you must be very selective. You reach out to influencers in your niche and get them to talk about your business, content, and link to your website.
These influencers should be people who:
- You’ve included or quoted in your content.
- If you have published similar content to yours, however, your content has something unique and more groundbreaking for them to talk about.
Once you have a list of the right people, send an email and give each of these influencers a reason to promote your content.
If you’ve included them in your content, tell them why they’re included.
If there is a mind-blowing insight within your content, give them a summary of why it’s so mind-blowing.
With this strategy, the backlinks and shares will start coming in naturally.
7. ADS
The best content promotion tactics are sometimes free, but what if you have a budget to promote as well? Facebook ads could be your answer.
If you’re using Facebook ads, you should set aside a certain amount (e.g., $50) to promote every published post.
According to Adespresso, it costs around $0.30 a click.
If Facebook ads don’t work for you, you should also consider other platforms like Google, Quora, or even Instagram.
BUT THERE’S MORE
That can’t be all. Need some extra content marketing tips? Below are a couple more I have added for you today…
BONUS 1: ADD INTERNAL LINKS
Did you ever come across a website that grabbed your attention for the longest time? You first start reading one of their articles, and then you move on to another article, and then another article, and then another as you find increasingly interesting topics.
This is exactly how you should present and structure your content.
Add internal links within your recently published content that direct to older content, and vice versa. How do you know which posts should be linked to which? By content and topic similarity.
One quick way to find articles related to each other is through Google. Go to Google and type: (site:yourdomain.com + “target keyword”).
It should look something like this
From this example, we could link “Best Suits for Men 2019” with “Supreme Still Makes One of the Best Suits on the Planet.”
BONUS 2 – UPDATE CONTENT REGULARLY
Being the king and ranking #1 won’t last forever. Your competitors may produce better content and outrank you. Or, over time, your content will naturally become outdated.
How do you overcome this problem? Update your content regularly.
One awesome tool you can use is Revive. Revive connects to your website’s Google Analytics data and tells you which posts need to be updated.
After that, you examine those posts and find out which areas are outdated and could use some refreshing.
Don’t be surprised if you have to refresh the whole page!
Further Reading: How to Win Traffic by Refreshing Old Content
BONUS 3 – RUN A CONTENT AUDIT
A content audit is a process where you analyze all aspects of your content. From there, you decide if it needs to be deleted, left as-is, redirected, updated, or anything else.
The whole idea is to find the low-performing pages and posts and give them a new makeover. How can you make these posts of higher quality? Here’s a process you can follow:
Is that all for CONTENT MARKETING?
Content marketing is a process that takes time and practice. Hopefully, there’s something in this article that can help you with whatever you need to improve.
However, these aren’t the only tips and methods that work. In order to be an expert at content marketing, you must keep on studying, researching, and applying.
Keep on reading great resources about content marketing and testing out what works for you and what doesn’t.