You’re thinking about a content marketing strategy and that’s great, but before you start putting plans in place for distribution, reach and so on, take time to ensure that the basics are covered off.
1. Do you have website?
This may seem elementary but many businesses are foregoing websites and working around social platforms – Facebook is the most common example of this. If you are looking to be purely social and just share ‘cool stuff’ then fine – two great examples are The universe with 481,000 likes and I love science with over 4.8 million likes! However, just remember that everything is not yours! Should Facebook switch off, you will lose everything so go back to basics and invest in a website where your content will sit safely and you’ll have control!
2. Think about your language
When writing your content, think about the language that resonates well with the reader – will it be easy to understand? If your content is too complex, you may lose readers and, in turn, business. A classic example is often in the IT industry where big numbers and complex solutions are often banded about but, by removing unique terminology, you are actually empowering the reader to make the right decision about your product or business.
3. Don’t worry about links
Don’t waste time worrying about whether people are linking to your content or not – spend that time focusing on getting the content right in the first place. If your content is high quality and original, then the links will take care of themselves.
4. Title your content appropriately
So you have written the fundamental piece explaining the theory of relativity so well that primary school children will now understand it, but what do you call it? Logically, it should be “The Theory of Relativity Simplified” or even better “The Simple version of the Theory of Relativity”. This may seem basic but so many people make titles too complex, for example, “The Attribution Gravitational Time Dilation”! What?, I hear you say! An extreme example, granted, but titles are all about drawing the reader in so keep them simple.
5. Measuring success
After creating all of your content, getting it published, earning links and so on how do you know if it was successful or not? Build in your target metrics early and this way you can identify the content that worked. What had the most engagement? Which pieces generated the most leads? What was popular socially but didn’t result in business? If you can answer these questions, you will be heading in the right direction and able to grow and develop your content efficiently moving forward.