With so many companies engaging in what they think is content marketing, it is best we take a complete look at the subject and find out what an actual content marketing strategy is and what isn’t.
What it is Not
Making a nice infographic and posting it on your Facebook is not a content marketing strategy, although it is a piece of ‘content marketing’.
In order to have success with your content marketing you need a COMPLETE strategy, with everything named out ahead of time. Otherwise it is just random activity, going towards no clear goal. Random blog posts and infographics will give you no ROI.
Proven Content Marketing Strategy
From venerable mega corporations like John Deere and Kraft, to viral Youtube channels like Epic Meal Time, there IS an underlying sequence of actions in common with all successful content marketing strategies.
You must become a media/publishing company
In addition to whatever product you sell, you must create within your company some form of valuable, interesting, needed content. Produce it regularly, and give it away for free. It helps if you think of it as creating either a:
- TV show (in this case it would be on a Youtube channel)
- Print Magazine (expensive!)
- Radio show/Podcast
- Regular blog articles (most mundane)
Those are four mediums for your content. By giving it away for free you allow it to propagate itself and spread easily, and if it is really good, people will spread it for you. As they become more familiar with your brand and begin to trust you more they will be more likely to become a customer. The content must be produced regularly.
What kind of content?
- Find out WHO your exact audience is for your company/product
- Find out what their pain-points are, what they need, their troubles, how you can solve it. Your content will be based around solving this.
- Differentiate your content from your competitors. Find a niche, a point of difference so you can stand out.
Then what?
You must then create your unique content on a regular basis (weekly, etc), for 1-2 years. At this point you have created an audience/community, and you can then begin to harvest their contact information (now that they trust you) and promote to them via email sales letters your actual products, and finally get revenue.
Acid Test
How do you know if the content you are making is good enough for such a strategy? Ask your self: If my server went down, would my content be missed? Would people be disappointed? If the answer is no, then you need to step up your game and create TRULY valuable content.
Conclusion
As you can see this strategy is indeed the slow boat, and does not pay any bills for 1-2 years, until you have made your audience and then begin to try to sell them things via an email marketing campaign (or others). Until then all you are doing is pumping out free and valuable content.
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