There have been numerous occasions where content marketing has been declared obsolete. However, we can finally put those claims to rest. Content marketing is not only effective, especially in the long run, but it’s also perhaps even more relevant now.
There are more writers, bloggers, link builders, and content marketers out there now than ever. One of the most effective ways of capturing the attention of today’s satiated customers, which seems to last about 8 seconds, is storytelling. Content not only provides potential customers with relevant and useful information but its storytelling component that contributes to the overall user experience.
So why aren’t we focusing all of our efforts on content marketing and blogging? Well, it turns out, coming up with a sustainable content marketing strategy is more difficult than it might seem. According to a joint survey done by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, producing content was the biggest challenge for 64% of marketers. One of the reasons for that is the fact there is more and more competition out there every day. Since marketing is susceptible to constant and frequent changes, it’s very challenging to stay on top of all the latest content marketing trends.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at what you should do to have an effective blog strategy for sustained content marketing success.
1. Have a Dedicated Content Creator
This is arguably the most challenging of all the items on this list because hiring a dedicated content creator can set you back a pretty penny. Needless to say, if you are just starting out and you don’t have a huge budget, you will have to roll up your sleeves and write the content yourself, or hire one of the more reliable freelance writers. However, if you can manage to afford a full-time content creator, you can expect numerous benefits. Having someone as part of your company means they will know all the nuts and bolts of your job, which is often lost when you hire external writers.
Moreover, dedicated content creators with experience have more than a few tricks up their sleeves. These tricks can range from the application of neuromarketing tricks to contacts they have created over the years. They are also the primary drivers of thought leadership, as well as the people capable of creating a unique voice and online presence for your brand. Finally, having a dedicated content creator means that content will never take a back seat to some other activities. Since your existing employees won’t get stuck with creating content that ends up looking and reading like an afterthought. You will be able to produce high-quality content on a regular basis, which is all that matters.
2. Establish Benchmarks
Before you set out to create your content marketing plan, you need to have a good idea about what your company has done in the past. So that you can set achievable benchmarks for the future. For instance, you will need to take a look at:
- who your customers are
- how many of them have you had over the last 12 months
- how many of them were new or repeat customers
Also, you will have to have a pretty good idea about all the relevant KPIs, such as the number of visitors to your blog, website, social media, and so on to determine which channels work best for you.
By analyzing your efforts you can optimize your content creation strategy to focus your efforts on channels that are profiting. Furthermore, you will need to analyze your marketing efforts to see which changes to your strategy are improving overall effectiveness. Finally, knowing your resources is crucial to planning for your success. Resources like your cash flow to your staff and external associates, can help you form a much clearer idea about what you can achieve next with what you have. Setting goals is easy, but setting goals that are realistic is what matters.
3. Outsource Your Work
Since hiring a dedicated content creator or writer requires a large budget, you will have to rely on freelance writers to help you out. Outsourcing your content to freelance writers or bloggers can be a bit messy at first. Since it will probably take a bit of time before you can find a writer which is able to turn in high-quality work and turn it in on time. It’s even more complex if you need to put together a team of writers.
The good news is that there are plenty of freelance writers out there who are willing to take a regular workload. Which means you may end up working with only a handful of writers over the years. They will set you back far less in terms of salary. In addition, once they have gotten to know your company and blog they will know all the nuts & bolts of it just as well as any dedicated in-house content creator.
According to assignment writing, one of the things that can help you find good bloggers or content creators are freelance platforms like Fiverr or Upwork. On these platforms, you can view their profiles, previous work experience, as well as their ratings, and earnings. Alternately, you can post a job ad on one of the numerous job boards, and wait until you receive an impressive writer’s resume in your inbox.
4. Divide Content Creation Work Among Your Staff
This approach probably works best as an addition to your existing content marketing plan. We have already pointed out that having your staff members pulling double duty never really works out. However, it would be a good idea if you could have each one of them produce a blog post that covers their point of view. Not only does that make for diverse blog content. In addition, by having experts pitching in you will be able to start a relationship that could lead to guest blogging.
However, crowdsourcing among your staff can be a logistical nightmare at times. Therefore, you will need to have a content production schedule in place in order to publish in a regular timely manner. On top of that, you cannot rely too much on crowdsourcing, because nobody is going to prioritize blogging or content production over the work they were hired to do. You can remedy this by providing additional perks or bonuses to motivate employees to do more on that end.
5. Rely on User-Generated Content
Another way of filling in the gap between two pieces of content is user-generated content, which is especially popular on some social media platforms, such as Instagram, where customers are more than happy to upload pics in which they are using a particular brand or product. And it’s really easy to get UGC in front of the eyes of the audience, thanks to hashtags, and especially thanks to branded hashtags. Some companies, such as GoPro, have taken it a step further and given the keys to content creation to their audience.
Admittedly, it’s a bit more difficult to get your customers to write instead of taking photos or video, but it can be done. Invite them to share their story using your services or products. Among them, there will be plenty of creative people which can then act as your brand’s ambassadors. The best thing about UGC isn’t even that someone else is creating content for you, like Essay Writing Service UK, but the fact that today’s customers, which are millennials, for the most part, are more willing to believe their peers and influencers, rather than some nameless, faceless corporate entity.
6. Curate of Others
If none of the methods listed above have helped your content marketing, or if you are trying to bridge the gap until one of them starts to take effect, there is still one way for you to publish content for your blog on a regular basis: curating other people’s content. For instance, you can locate and publish selected content that covers topics that are relevant to your blog and business. And the clever thing about content curation is that you don’t have to publish the original text in its entirety, but only snippets of the original blog post, along with your commentary and point of view, and a backlink to the original source.
The downside? Well, other than the fact that you are not producing your own content and finding your own voice, content curation is not something that can be completely automated, which means you will ultimately have to take time to discover interesting and useful content, add your own two cents, and then publish it for your audience to read.
The Final Word
As you can see, although creating a sustainable content strategy through blogging has its challenges, it’s far from impossible. We hope that this advice will help you improve your blog, and attract new readers and customers. In addition, spread the word about your company or business. Good luck!
Author bio for the article:
Tiffany Harper is a training guru who’s been working in the corporate sector for over a decade now. She is a management graduate and loves to share her experience through blogs and articles. For her love of writing, she also helps the bestcustomessay.org online with their social media posts and blogs, while working with bestessay.com and Write my essay. Please do not hesitate to contact her on Twitter.
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