Complete Guide Into Content Marketing

If you haven't read the PART 1 of this guide, we advise you do so to better understand this part. Read PART 1 here

CONTENT MARKETING
According to Wikipedia, Content Marketing is a type of marketing that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services.

Things to consider in content marketing;

1. Plan/Strategize
Having identified your target audience and developed your contents to speak to them in part 1, it is imperative not to delve into content marketing without an execution plan. To effectively market your content to its audience, you must draw up a content marketing strategy.

- Build a content calendar
In as much as it is important to develop a content plan to help stay organized. The most powerful tool yet in achieving your aim is the use of the content calendar (editorial calendar).
Building a good content calendar will not only help in creating a clear picture of the amount and type of content to be put out, it will also give you the opportunity to select platforms you wish to publish your contents.
For examples of a content calender click here <hyperlinked to Creating a Content Calender>

- Create a Content Sharing Formula
A content sharing formula should be adopted to guide you through. Most preferably is the 70:20:10 ratio.
- 70% of content created should be about the brand, as these are needed information for the audience
- 20%, should be news articles, thought leadership posts and articles
- 10%, should involve interactives, for fun but also relatable to your core strategy.

- Where, When, and How to Publish Content
Generating quality content is only half the job: getting it in front of the right audience is equally important.

WHERE TO PUBLISH
The following are the various “wheres” to reach out to the necessary audience.
To extensively exhaust the social media, you must exploit the following platforms:
Facebook,
Twitter,
Linkedin,
Instagram,
YouTube, and not forgetting Email Marketing/Newsletter Campaign.

WHEN
Sharing contents to the above listed platform requires meticulousness and timing for effectiveness. These platforms have prime times which hold a great value as a larger outreach can be gotten at these times. These times are known as their various peak activity.
The outline below shows some social media channels and their peak activity time frame.

Facebook
• Chatty content that shows brand’s informal side e.g. wacky photos from the holiday party
• Highly visual content and things like info-graphics tend to do very well.
 New to the list, short videos of the brand.

Peak Activity
• 6-8am
• 1-4pm


Instagram
• Rich imagery and short videos
• Share photos or videos of the brand, hard at work (and at play) or of activities in general.

Peak Activity
• 7am-6pm


Twitter
• Short, conversational updates
• Retweets can increase trust and credibility as a brand and show that one is engaging with other people while only promoting the brand.

Peak Activity
• 12 noon-4pm


Linkedin
• Content that highlights the brand
• Anything that educates readers on the company and its professional service and goals
• Videos, images/quotes, and thought leadership-oriented blog posts tend to do well.

Peak Activity
• 7-10am
• 4-6pm


YouTube
• Showing real applicants or participants telling their stories
• Really good videos could go viral.

Peak Activity
• 12-3pm


Google+
• Technology or science-related articles, blog posts, infographics, videos and papers as regards the brand.

Peak Activity
• 9-11am

Every great piece of content, deserves to be promoted everywhere that makes sense. But you must remember to not post on a platform if you can’t spend the time to monitor it.

HOW
On this segment, the frequency needed in running the contents on various platform would be highlighted. Also, a more direct guide on how to share the contents will be looked into. Sometimes too much is valueless and too little is not noticed.
The following are outlines on HOW to share contents.

- Post at peak activity times
Users are active at varying times of the day on each media platform, so you would need to keep the peak times in mind to maximise the impact of your posts.

- Post frequently
You should commence with a few times per week, and work up to one or several times per business day, depending on the platform. If you are stretched for resources, consistently sending out relevant content once a week to your audience is better than nothing. You can even repeat content; just change up the wording so it’s not a verbatim copy.

- Lead with a catchy first line
The first line of your status update draws the audience in – it ought to be eye-catching. If you are stuck, cite a key statistic or quote. For example, “Over 80% of Oil and Gas...”, is better than “Read this article on Oil & Gas...”

- Be responsive
Respond to comments and questions. This will earn the brand the needed trust if you are thoughtful and approachable: people look for those qualities in a brand.

- Reciprocate
Share, comment and like other people’s content and they in turn will be more likely to interact with your posts.

The following are added tips that should be enacted;
- Including a link can drive twice the engagement compared to posts without links
- Posts with images generate 98% higher comment rate than posts without
- Links to YouTube videos can play directly in your social media feed and generate 75% higher share rate.
- Reach Amplification/Promotion
- Increasing Engagements with the Contents


ASK EMPLOYEES TO SHARE

The employees are an extension of the brand and the best advocates. It would be of a great advantage to regularly ask them to share important brand updates and high-quality contents. This way their networks will be exposed to the brand’s messages. Here are a few more pointers you should employ in the urge to amplify contents thereby increasing engagements:
- Inform them about the brand’s efforts and how they play a key role in helping to grow the brand
- Ask them to follow the brand’s pages on LinkedIn, Facebook and other social networks
- Encourage them to like, share and comment on the content published by the brand. Send them pre-scripted status updates so it’s easy for them to share
- Let them know you are not asking them to create anything new
- Get leadership buy-in and get executives to promote your contents. Make sure they lead by example.


SPONSOR YOUR BEST CONTENT TO EXTEND REACH

When you post a content, typically only your followers see it. To amplify your message to a wider audience, you should sponsor contents – this would generate an indirect audience (non-followers). Various social media platforms offer the opportunity to make sponsored contents according to the budget of the user.


I hope this article was helpful to your quest? Do let me know, in the comment box below.

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