Every business has the same goal – to reach more of the right audience to boost their sales. However, more than a few are missing their mark each quarter.

Why is this?

Well, it may be due to some businesses choosing to ignore the value of the internet, and more importantly, the role content marketing plays in attracting target customers.

However, content marketing’s popularity continues to grow, especially since it generates 3x the leads as outbound marketing (and costs 62% less).

And while 90% of B2B and 86% of B2C companies are using content marketing, only 63% of B2B content marketers have a documented content marketing strategy.

If you’re one of the unfortunate ones who are using content marketing but seeing no success, then this article is for you.

We’re going to dive into how you can create a documented content marketing strategy to growth hack your results.

Let’s get started!

Creating a Content Calendar

Millions of pieces of content are competing for the attention of consumers. This is true on social media channels, video streaming platforms, and the blogosphere.

The chances of your content reaching the right person at the right time are slim, especially if you’re only publishing one or two posts per week. In the past, this may have worked, but not today.

There’s a sea of content consumers must wade through to find yours.

Stats show that companies that publish 16+ blog posts monthly are getting 3.5x the traffic and 4.5x the leads than businesses that publish only 0-4 posts monthly.

But in order to keep up with this level of production, you need a content calendar. This way, you have all your topics lined up and your posts ready for publishing in advance.

Developing Your Topics List

Now, the content you publish must resonate with your audience. If it doesn’t, then it’s going to fall on blind eyes and get overlooked.

So in order to stand out, you need to focus on topics that your customers care about. This will take careful research, which you can do on social media, forums, and surveys.

If you’re on social media (which we hope you are), you can browse through conversations, start conversations, and engage in conversations to learn more about your audience.

The key is to find out what their problems, questions, and concerns are. Then spin this around into content that educates and engages your target audience.

Not only will this content help your audience, but it’ll also demonstrate your brand’s expertise. This, in turn, builds trust and authority, which will make more people flock to your blog to find more valuable content.

And if you’re following the 16+ monthly content calendar, then they’ll have plenty of content to swim through. It’s also important to point out that having blog posts that your people find valuable can help your website ranking.

The more traffic your content gets and the more visitors browse through your site, the better search engines will rank your site.

Building a Strong Brand Image

It wouldn’t be smart to expect your content to generate buzz without you doing any brand building. How people perceive your brand matters because this will determine whether or not they click on your content.

But how can you help build this recognition? With online reputation management, of course. There are various methods and venues you can use to achieve this.

To start, you need a brand name, tagline, website, brand colors, and even a hashtag.

Then you can get to work appearing on podcasts, YouTube videos, blogs, and magazines. Being a guest on these mediums can drive traffic to your site from already-established sources.

Just be sure to target those with a similar audience to yours and preferably within the same industry (without being a direct competitor).

Delivering Content Your Audience Wants

Roughly 55% of marketers say blog content is their main focus. Maybe this is because it generates 38% of all traffic and yields a great return on investment.

Yet, we can’t ignore that 80% of all traffic will soon come from video (by the end of 2019).

With careful research, you may learn that you have more people who like visual content. In this case, you can incorporate video, infographics, and charts into your blog posts.

This will make the content more engaging.

Couple this with topics they’re looking for and you got yourself winners. You’ll find that how-to’s, top 10 lists, and data-driven titles will get more clicks.

Promoting Your Content

Once your content is published on your own blog or 3rd party sites, it’s time to promote it. Social media is one of the best platforms to get the word out about your newest content.

And by driving traffic to your blog using social media, you can help to boost your SEO.

If you’re not already building your brand on one or more platforms, then it’s time to research which channels your audience frequents.

Just be sure to engage with your followers and even non-followers. Don’t just use your social channels to promote your products/services and blog posts.

It’s important to note that social media posts get more shares for blog posts with certain word lengths. For instance, content with 2000+ words get 4.3x the social shares than content that’s 501-1000 words.

Then it also shows that content with 2000+ words gets higher average visits.

Again, with the right content, promotion should come with great results.

It’s also good to use content curators, such as Buzzfeed and Upworthy to give your content a higher chance of going viral.

Developing a Content Marketing Strategy that Converts

There are over 4 billion internet users globally. And over 3 billion people are on social media. What’s the first place these individuals go? Search engines and social media.

Imagine the amount of traffic (and revenue) you can potentially earn with content marketing. You can push your site up in the search engine results pages, gain attention on social media, and boost your reputation.

It’s the perfect recipe for success.

So get started creating and implementing your own content marketing strategy today. Or if you feel you don’t have the time or knowledge, you can always reach out to us here at WriteForMe.