I’m sure you hear it over and over again – post regularly on social media to leverage the power of your following, create brand ambassadors and increase your company’s name recognition online. Posting updates on social media is one thing, but publishing strategically and sharing the right content is another beast entirely. For those who are unsure what to post, this article provides some helpful ideas that can get your creative juices flowing. 8 Challenges Of Creative Content Marketing It isn’t easy to come up with fresh, new and exciting ideas for your business day in and day out. As Jeff Bullas mentions, there are eight main challenges that can be barriers to your content marketing plan. They are: Finding inspiration and ideas for the content Creating it Making it relevant Resourcing it Managing it Monitoring it Measuring it Making it “liquid” and contagious As CoSchedule continues, the most important questions to ask yourself when determining if the content is a good fit are: What’s in it for my audience? Would I click on this? Is this relevant to my business? Want to reimagine the world of your business? Here are 20 excellent ideas for what to post next. 20 Ideas of Creative Content Marketing for your business There are many ways to come up with creative content marketing ideas for your business. Create a daily, weekly or monthly series On social media, and online in general, content is king, but consistency is queen. Creating a series that you post to your social media channel regularly builds trust with your audience; they will see that you are consistent and will be more likely to engage with your content. Create Instagram and Facebook stories Have you noticed the Instagram and Facebook story features? This feature allows users to share photos or live videos in the form of a story that lasts for 24 hours. This is an awesome opportunity for brands to take advantage of because it allows you to share more content marketing material without clogging up customers’ newsfeeds and appearing spammy. It also allows you to create a “story” for each day, which is a great place to highlight current specials or happenings at your company. While viewing a story, users can send the creator a direct message easily through the app, which makes it simple for customers to contact you. Remember to have a social media point person assigned to monitor fan engagement, because the average customer won’t wait long for a response. Run a contest or giveaway People love contests, and even more so, they love free things. According to Sprout Social, “Running the occasional contest is one of the most impactful social media ideas when it comes to potential engagement from followers. Ninety-one percent of Instagram posts with more than 1,000 likes or comments are related to a contest. Meanwhile, accounts that run contests on a regular basis are noted to grow 70 percent faster than those that don’t.” Offer a tip of the day While you don’t want to give away all of your company’s secrets, there is great value in dangling a carrot! Try sharing a Tip of the Day related to your industry to showcase your expertise. For example, if you’re the author of a cookbook, try sharing your favourite recipe. Host an ask me anything (AMA) AMAs are increasing in popularity and are very common on Reddit. This is a great way to engage and educate your followers. AMAs are question and answer sessions connected over social media where you can show off your industry knowledge, experiences and insight. Just be prepared to answer anything that’s asked – you may want to have a trusted colleague with you to help navigate any tricky questions that come up. Prepare a top 10 list Curated content is another great option to share on social media, especially when you are feeling some writer’s block. There is a ton of fantastic content on the internet, so take a research day and dive into the ins and outs of your industry. Compile these into a blog post (adding an introduction, conclusion and your own commentary), then share it with your followers on social media. This helps establish you as a thought leader and shows you are always learning. Create bite-size videos Video content marketing is a must-do for modern brands in more ways than one. Unfortunately, some companies worry about video content is too complicated or costly. According to Sprout Social, “When you consider that video content gets exponentially more shares than video or text, brands should give some serious thought to creative social media ideas that incorporate video.” Bite-size videos (15 to 60 seconds) are low cost and are perfect for social media platforms like Twitter, TikTok, Instagram and Facebook. Some businesses’ products are hard to explain using words and pictures. If this is the case for your company, try a more dynamic approach. Create an interesting video demonstration of your product or hold a Facebook Live session where you can answer customer questions. This helps shake things up, keeping your content marketing approach fresh and fun. Repurpose your content There is a good chance that you spend a lot of time creating your original content, so you are going to want to repurpose it as much as possible. According to Sprout Social, “Fifty percent of articles only receive eight shares or less on social media. For every blog post you write or video you shoot, you should consider additional ideas for promoting it on social media beyond its original format. For example, you can pull a quote from your content and repurpose it into a share-friendly image via Canva.” Create interviews and podcasts According to The Podcast Consumer 2019, “Seventy percent of Americans have heard of podcasts – that’s an additional 20 million more people over the 2018 statistic.” Podcasts help build brand recognition, authority and trust among listeners. With so many people tuned in, they provide a fantastic opportunity for conversations related to specific industries and build the speaker’s credibility in
What is Content Marketing | Beginners Guide
What is content marketing? and what does it mean for a beginner? Lets find out Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. It’s the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It’s about creating content that educates, entertains, and engages your target audience. Here, we will define content marketing in its different types. Also, we will discuss different types of content marketing and their different strategies. To answer these questions, read the following article carefully. Once you understand content marketing, you can develop your own strategy for creating valuable content for your website and business. Listed below are the main types of content marketing. Then, you can use any of these to attract targeted visitors to your website. What is content marketing in simple words? Content marketing is creating and distributing original content that helps a company reach a target audience. Content includes written, spoken and visual materials that are produced with a company’s goals in mind. Regardless of the medium, content should engage the audience and provide them with a clear purpose. In short, content marketing helps a company attract and retain customers. This strategy is especially useful for online businesses because the content is available in a variety of formats and can be distributed to a large audience. Content marketing differs from traditional advertising in several ways. While traditional advertising creates overexposure to a brand, content marketing focuses on solving the problems and challenges of the audience. By focusing on the needs of your audience, you can engage them with valuable content that will build trust and establish your brand as a thought leader. Once customers start reading your content, they are more likely to want to buy your product or service. Content marketers think in terms of campaigns and promotions instead of simply delivering information. People are curious and like to hear a story. Effective brands create stories and make them about their audience. Instead of talking about their products, they talk about their customers and how they make the world a better place. Ann Handley, the creator of content marketing, defines the purpose of her storytelling. Content marketers should take the time to understand their audience, make them feel involved in the process, and make them the hero of their stories. types of content marketing One of the most effective types of content marketing is long-form case studies and fact-driven reports that give consumers insight into complex topics. They are also highly shared by B2B buyers. For example, 79% of them said that they would share them with their colleagues. Case studies are one of the best ways to present your brand as an expert in its field. In fact, they are more likely to be shared than other content marketing types. Video content is gaining in popularity as a way to build brand awareness while enticing prospects into the offerings of a business. Another important aspect of content marketing is lead generation, which involves drawing prospects to your company and exchanging their contact information for more information. Video content is a great way to get a high-quality list of potential customers. However, there are many different types of content marketing. If you’re just getting started with this type of marketing, you might want to use a tool that provides a free trial. Social media is another great way to market your business. This type of content marketing is essentially the same as other forms of marketing, but it operates on a different set of rules. The key is getting people to look at your content and respond directly to it. For example, suppose you want to make it popular with followers; you’ll have to create content that resonates with their interests. Luckily, you can reuse content from other forms of marketing for social media. What are content marketing methods? Content marketing is a powerful tool for promoting your business. This type of marketing enables you to reach a wider audience and improve ROI. You can track your success using tools such as Google Alerts, Mention, and SEMRush. Content marketing is not only effective for your website but it can be used to increase brand awareness and increase social media following. You can even track your email subscribers with email marketing software. It is essential to track the results of your content marketing strategy to make adjustments and refine your content strategy. Among the main goals of content marketing is to provide useful content to your customers. Moreover, you should write content that teaches your audience and provides them with valuable information. Providing quality content can help you gain the trust of your audience and increase your sales. The following are some content marketing methods: The first method is to create and publish high-quality content. People are more likely to trust a company that provides quality content, so don’t worry about quantity. Quality content is the cornerstone of content marketing. You can get a high number of visitors, but it will not mean anything if your content doesn’t engage them. Similarly, newsletters must encourage click-throughs and subscriptions. The more useful and informative content your audience consumes, the more likely they will become loyal customers. What is a content marketing strategy? When creating a content marketing strategy, you need to keep your goals and objectives in mind. Your content should be SEO-friendly, help people make decisions, and nurture brand loyalty. A successful content marketing strategy combines these goals and fits into the different stages of the buyer’s journey. To start, create a buyer persona to determine the type of content that appeals to them. Analyze their demographics, understand their pain points, and develop a persona representing your ideal customer. This persona will dictate what kind of content you create. Despite the many benefits of content marketing, you should know that it’s not without its challenges. Among these challenges