7 Tips for Efficient Content Marketing

Without a doubt, content marketing is the marketer’s tool of the Millenium. When you’re stuck for ideas, however, knowing how to get that high-quality content online can seem a real challenge. In this article, we’ve got one or two ideas for you.

Without a doubt, content marketing is the marketer’s tool of the Millenium. The success of any content marketing strategy, however, is truly dependent on the quality of the content and the value the information provides to the reader. Making sure the content is useful, whilst at the same time focussing on the brand or product it is meant to, can often pose a real challenge to marketing teams.

For this reason, we’re giving you seven key tips for effective content, perfect for those moments when your inspiration has run dry. Here, we’re giving you the framework. You’ve just got to fill it with the right content.

Lists

Lists, such as “10 blog marketing ideas for 2013”, for example, lend themselves perfectly to being blog titles. There are a few reasons for this, though the main motivation for using a Top-10 is the fact that lists are much easier to write than articles of the same length, as the time needed for research is cut down considerably. Not only this, but lists tend to be shared more frequently.

So pick a topic which is bound to interest your readers, and then list a few points of important information. Make sure that your list is not too thorough, but also not too select to the point of monotony. A creative title or a long list (e.g. 50 points) will really draw attention.

Instructions

Explanations and instructions, or How-To’s, add real plus points to your blog. It’s a frequent occurrence that users will search online for advice or instructions, for example how to sew a skirt seam. Good, clear instructions which offer solutions to readers’ problems will mean your blog is almost certainly bookmarked in your readers’ browser.

Just make sure that your How-To is easily understandable, and that it lays out clearly in a step-by-step manner the points that have to be followed. Remember to include videos and pictures to enhance the clarity. In particular if you’re using videos, make sure that they’re both engaging, entertaining, but also that they offer the solution your readers are looking for.

Interviews and Surveys

Whether you choose to interview experts or important people on a specific topic, it’s certain that the result will normally be littered with expert knowledge and insider info. If your interviewee is a well-known personality in one field in particular, then you’ll even get traffic from their followers, too. And, by ensuring you’ve asked as many people as you can for an interview, even if someone later declines, you’ll still have a back-up plan.

If you choose to do a survey, edit the results into digestible information and pull out the key points. The opinions presented in these points are great to provoke discussion amongst your users.

Make sure you know how the technology you will be using for the interview works! There’s nothing worse than arranging a Skype date with your interviewee and having to spend the first 30 minutes of the call working out how to install the programme.

Competitions

A competition is the easiest and quickest way to generate traffic. Most users would never let an opportunity to test out their luck pass them by. Just make sure you don’t run competitions too often. If you really want to keep your users interested, select your prizes and occasions. Set the date for your competition and present it on all of the channels available to you. Don’t forget to ask your contacts and partners to take part in the competition in that you invite them on your social media networks or similar.

Reviews

Another way to get content onto your site quickly and easily is to make outside content your focus. Concentrate on discussing an article, a type of software or a book, for example, or better yet – another blog.

Don’t forget that the critical criticism and recognition have really got to be balanced – make sure your wording is, where possible, neutral, that your facts are accurate and the points of criticism are clear.

Controversial Opinions

Sharing an opinion on a controversial topic in your field is almost guaranteed to get readers interested in your blog. Here, however, you really do have to ensure that you’re able to deal with any ensuing discussion – no matter how heated it might become.

It is likewise essential to have enough crucial points ready to use. Especially with controversial topics, however, don’t involve any well-known personalities in your field of business, just in case the results reflect negatively on them. Your end result should be a positive, engaging discussion – not an online battle which ends up in disrepute.

Link Round Ups

A link round up is an effective strategy to gain interest from users not only from your field of work, but also from others. Get a list of extraordinary and amusing links together and publish these on your website. Since the bloggers and website owners you have linked on your page will also benefit from the extra traffic to their sites, they ought to use the opportunity to provide guest blog entries and contact. It’s nothing less than a win-win situation.

It is always a good idea to be creative and come up with your own blog format. On the one hand, it offers great variety, and on the other, it will always seem more genuine and convincing than copying standard, run of the mill ideas. This is the ideal way to avoid negative feedback.

Author: Coskun Tuna, Co-founder and managing director at rankseller international UG , Berlin