Content Marketing in 6 Easy Steps

By Nancy LeVasseur

"The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they want."

This mantra, made famous by Dale Carnegie, is the essence of content marketing - creating and publishing meaningful, valuable information online with the intent of educating and building trust with your future clients.

The theory is that if you openly share what you know, you will build loyalty and ultimately be rewarded with more conversions and thus more clients. Help others gain the knowledge to make an informed decision, and you’ll increase your client base. And isn’t that what we all want?

Very briefly, online content can include blogs, videos, white papers, articles, e-books, infographics and webinars. Regardless of the format, the content should be unique and exceptional. If possible, it should offer information that your users can’t obtain anywhere else.

Exceptional content. . .

• Provokes comments and conversations.
• Allows and encourages social sharing across multiple channels.
• Should be created and written with a specific client persona in mind.
• Should be available at all stages of the buying process.
• Should grow in depth as the buying process evolves. The further along, the more detailed the content.

Getting started - Here's How

Determine who needs your product/services. Clearly define that group of people. 

Example: Women 20 – 40 years old who run to stay fit – aka semi-serious runners who participate in amateur competitive running events.

2.    Research your. . .

         a. Demographics’ buying habits (online versus bricks and mortar), social trends, mobile          and other channel usage like YouTube, eBay etc. so you know what channels to use                when you publish your newly-created content.

   b. Competitors to determine how they are engaging your demographic. If possible,    generate some unique content that your competitors are not offering.

3.    Figure out (more research) what information your demographic needs.

Example: women’s health and running, injuries common to women, balancing kids, career, and running. 

4.    Create content such as videos, articles, and blogs that solve your demographics’ problems mentioned above. 

Example: Start a blog on balancing kids, careers and cardio! (Catchy uh?) Write an article entitled, “Common Running Injuries for Women.” Create an exercise video that focuses on avoiding injuries. List upcoming races for women only!

5.    Put yourself in your demographics’ shoes, (okay, maybe pun intended!), and figure out what they’ll need in the future. This will probably take a bit of research on your part, but it will be well worth the effort. Being the first to provide content about unforeseen trends will build trust and keep your users coming back to you frequently. They will view you as the expert and will be delighted to “know” you! 

Example: If you’ve reached out to those women runners 20-40 years old, how can you retain their interest when they turn 41?

6.    Deliver your new content, created for the above demographic, in a way they would expect to receive it based on your research above in No. 2.

To be an effective content marketer today, one must focus on creating and providing unique, exceptional content via the internet. Content created for a specific demographic, in order to meet their needs or help solve their problems, is most effective for educating, building trust, and ultimately acquiring new clients.

How are your content marketing efforts going? What are your greatest challenges with content marketing?