Inventive Ways to Hone Your Content Marketing Message

You’ve heard me babble on about how important content is before. But, you guys, it really is the center of all your traffic. And, I’m not just talking social media – web, design, and SEO messaging are what help to lead people to your product. That’s why grasping a clear understanding of your message and how that message needs to be presented is crucial to the success of your business.

Want to boost your #ContentMarketing message? Get creative with these tips: Click To Tweet

In fact, 56% of marketers believe that personalized content promotes higher engagement rates. And, here’s the thing – it does!

“Content Marketing provides 4x the ROI of our traditional marketing spend.”

– Julie Fleischer, VP Marketing, Neustar (@jfly)

I mean, I get it, B2B products of any kind usually are a hard sell. But mastering your messaging can help. And, here’s what you can do to get on the path to more traffic and more leads:

Understand Your Audience

This is the first major step when wanting to create any content. I’m sure you already have a pretty good grasp as to who you want to target, but just knowing is only half the story. You also have to know what they want, what they need, what they like, and more.

Does your product span multiple generations? You need to accommodate for that. One message doesn’t fit all. Having a complete understanding of your audience (or audiences) will help you create a framework to base the future of your content around.

Aside from this, it’s also key to be with the times. Ya know, “hip with the trends.” And, what does your audience want? Engagement, engagement, engagement. We’re seeing this more and more, especially in social media. In fact, 64% of marketers said that increasing audience engagement was crucial for their social media marketing strategy. And, how you engage matters. Don’t just throw content out – do your research and see what works. For example, Tweets with 1-2 hashtags get 21% higher engagement than those with none. Hashtags work. Use them.

“Businesses and organizations that are succeeding on social media now are the ones providing personalized social experiences to their fans…”

– Alfred Lua (@alfred_lua)

Get Brand Ambassadors

Want to make your content last and span across multiple channels? That’s where brand ambassadors come in. Whether it be employees that got your back, investors, influencers, or friends, (heck, even old aunt Sally) these individuals are what help your content reach its max potential. They share, engage, and basically help your company shine in a positive light. Sure, not all of these people are going help you reach your target audience, but every little bit helps right?

So, that’s what they do, but how do you even get a brand ambassador? Well, there are a few different ways:

• Find and possibly even hire a relevant influencer (with amazing credibility) who will help spread the good word about your organization and talk about your features or benefits. In a way, you would be a sponsor where they would have to send out a certain about of tweets or posts about your organization every week/month
• Look inside your company. Your employees are your biggest asset and you need to take advantage of them (in a good way). Have them send out posts every time a blog post goes live, or even share images of company events on Instagram.
• What about your customers? Some customers or clients like your product/service so much, they may be willing to spread the word for free. Or, try enticing them with a free t-shirt when they leave a great review and more!

The key to this whole thing isn’t how many ambassadors you have, it’s who they are. And, possibly leads want to see what you have customers who like you and that there are others out there they back your claims. That is what is important.

But, the problem remains, you have to actually produce content that these ambassadors can stand behind. That’s why it’s important to be real. This is where the “you do you boo” mantra comes in handy. No one wants to support a brand that is fake, too salesy, and downright just doesn’t connect with its readers. The key to success lies in being yourself and sticking to your word. You want people to talk highly of your company and advocate to others about your services.

Creativity At Its Finest

How did you get to start your own company or create your own product? By being a leader, right? Same goes for content. Don’t follow what the other guys are doing – create your own trends. If you want to stand out, use that creativity and be an influencer yourself instead of being influenced by the outside.

Write about the latest topics, create your own hashtag, and base your ideas on what you and your audience needs, not the other guys. Readers and prospects alike will take this in strides and appreciate you being significantly different from the rest.

But what type of content helps you be creative and reach your audience in the best way? The stats say visual. In fact, in a 2016 HubSpot survey, 43% of consumers wanted to see more video content. And, Tweets with images receive 150% more retweets than tweets without images.

Are you taking advantage of these insights? If not, visual content from photos to videos and even infographics need to become a part of your mandate. Without these, your engagement and brand are more likely to suffer simply because your audience won’t be interested.

Speak To Your Audience, Not At Them

Let’s get one thing off the table – no one wants to hear the sales pitch. This isn’t about what your product is capable of, nor should you make it be. Your content needs to be geared toward how your product can benefit your audience. This needs to be specific and to the point.

Let’s face it, your message won’t reach or resonate with everyone, but you don’t want it to. By showing the issues your product can solve you create an actual conversation that allows your audience to see how they relate to the topics at hand.

At the same time, don’t be afraid to switch it up either. Shining light on certain topics and speaking your mind also can create that communication, engagement and traffic you’re looking for. Don’t be ashamed to connect with your audience and use content that will both please and rile them up.

This #DigitalMarketing technique provides @jfly 4x the ROI than traditional #marketing: Click To Tweet

The best way to speak to your audience is to address issues that actually affect them, preferably issues your team or product can solve. For example, we’re practiced at giving graphic design, web development and even content creation advice. We gear posts (yes, like this one) to people who aren’t as knowledgeable on these topics by providing advice, tips, tools and tricks that will actually help them develop skills. Knowledge sharing is a great way to establish your expertise without pushing your product and services. Take a look at our latest Design 101 articles below. All three offer actionable information from our professional designers.

So, did you learn anything? I’m hoping you at least took a little bit away from this, especially as content and technology continue to grow, you have to understand and find ways for your messages to stand out among the crowd the capture the attention of the target audience you want. Need more awesome insight to help you on your path to world dominat- I mean….content marketing success? Subscribe to our blog!

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