After recently reviewing some great posts on website content, I realized that Content Marketing is like gold mining–finding the little content nuggets keeps your prospects listening; then conversation turns into gold (and sales).
Here are some golden nuggets about content. Some of these points are based on Ann Handley and CC Chapman’s book, Content Rules, some are based on Noah Kagan‘s HubSpot content interview and some are my content thoughts.
Marketers Are Gold Miners When They…
1. Build Relationships. Become a reliable information source by frequently posting information, like Beth does during her day. And your content won’t expire. Jay Baer calls content an ‘information annuity.’
2. Drive Conversations. Conversation engages your customers. Conversations should be duplicated across many digital platforms. A blog post can easily be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Linked In when you use a manager, like Hootsuite. Encourage comments; these can lead to additional posts or FAQ’s your customers want answered.
3. Play To Strengths and do less work. Do a few things well, don’t create and publish everywhere-you will never have enough time. Do interviews, create a flip video, launch a professional video, invite guest posts, run contests with voting parameters or more. All of these options create great content with minimal effort.
4. Stop Pitching. Stop putting on a salesperson hat all the time to promote products and services. Act as an information source.
5. Develop a Unique Voice. A distinctive voice in social media will make you successful–it is just as important as design, logo and graphics.
6. Do Something Unexpected. Surprise can drive idea sharing and enhance your organization’s personality. Spontaneity can spark debate and discussion.
7. Have & Measure A Goal. Don’t create content just for the sake of it. Know why you are creating content and what you want to accomplish with one metric goal. When you measure your goal, you will know what delivers the biggest result.
8. Create A Content Creation Routine. Content creation can be scheduled (Don’t confuse creation with creativity.). Steve puts Linked In time into his schedule. Personally, I like to insert ideas into a calendar when I have the creative idea spark, but spend a specific amount of time editing, rewriting and clarifying my thoughts. Don’t underestimate how long this editing can take and don’t be afraid to split content into more than one post. Keep it simple.
What tips am I missing?
If you adopt some of these content mining behaviors in your marketing, you will stop being a pitchman and strike content gold with your prospects. What is your favorite way to mine for content?
definitely going to be implementing some of these things! thanks for the tips