When it comes to creating content online, having unique content, having good content, using key online channels, and having a content marketing strategy to get your content out in a big way are keys to making content marketing work for your business.
In this post I share 3 S’s that help you to spread your content and reach your ideal audience. Here are the 3 S’s that are key to using content marketing to grow your business:
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Searchable Content
The first step for people to find and consume your content online is that it needs to be searchable, meaning when people are looking for your service, product or topic online, your content will be found.
When people look for something online, more than likely they are turning to the two most popular online search engines Google and YouTube. However, with the continuous changes to the search algorithm on Google, creating content that appears on the first page of Google can be hard to accomplish, but having a strategy by knowing what your ideal clients would be searching for and using the right keywords and phrases will make your content easier to find.
Two tools you can use to help plan out your keywords and phrases are:
- Google AWords Keyword Planner– The Google AdWords Keyword Planner tool is a useful resource for building strong keyword lists. By using the AdWords Keyword Tool, you can search for keywords and see how a list of keywords might perform when searched online.
- Moz Keyword Explorer– Is a tool to help you discover and prioritize the best keywords to targets. You simply enter a term or phrase, to get an analysis, difficulty, suggestion and more.
Once you have selected appropriate keywords and phrases, it is important to create content that is engaging, entertaining, and/or educating. The internet is packed with information about your topic, subject, products, and services so keeping these three things in mind when you create your content can help your content to stand out from the rest. Having a different point of view or showcasing your information in an engaging format like video or images can help to make your content more successful.
Shareable Content
The second step for people to find and consume your content online is for it to be shareable. People usually share valuable, educational, or entertaining content on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, etc. The first thing to do is make sure you share your content with your friends, followers, list, etc. In addition, make it’s easy for people to share your content directly from your website or from your email.
A way that you can make sure your content is easily shareable on social media is be adding social media share buttons to your website. A tool you can use to add social media share buttons to your site is Sumo.com.
The key to getting your content shared is to make sure it resonates with your ideal clients, content that is inspirational, encouraging, or educating gets shared at a larger rate than other types of content.
In addition, visually appealing content is also shared at a higher rate than other forms of content so having content that is educational, entertaining, inspiring and encouraging that is visually appealing by being in the form of a graphic, picture, or video can help you to make your content shareable.Some tools you can use to help to see what content is being shared at a higher rate regarding your product, service or topic include:
- Buzzsumo– a tool that helps you analyze what content performs best for any topic or competitor. You simply type in a topic, keyword, or domain and it will show you the most shareable content online for that topic, keyword or domain.
- CoSchedule– CoSchedule is an online marketing calendar that has a social media scheduling feature. CoSchedule allows you to see the top shared content that you have created. This allows you to see what content you have shared is working the best. This is a good tool to understand how your own content is performing.
Sponsored Content
The first two strategies are organic, so it doesn’t require you to spend any money to use those strategies. However, the last strategy, sponsored content, is a paid way of making your content more find-able. Two types of Sponsored Content are:
- Social Media PostsAlmost all the social media platforms offer sponsored content. You are able to pay to get placement in the news feeds so your business and content can get more exposure. Each platform has varies types of sponsored content and have varying results. Facebook is super popular because the reach on Facebook is so high with over 2 billion people on the platform, and the segmentation available is amazing so you are easily able to target your ideal audience. However, you can also successfully sponsor content on other social media platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest.
- Search Results
You can also pay to get your content higher in the search engines by sponsoring your content on Google and YouTube. Using paid sponsor search results is a large topic and not one that I have used in my business that much, however, I did feel it was important to mention as it can be a part of a sponsored search strategy.
Similar to searched and shared content, you sponsored content also needs to be engaging in order for people to respond, and engaging content usually includes visually appealing pictures or videos, relevant educational material, and or entertaining content.
Is content marketing a part of your online marketing strategy for your business? If so, are you using the 3 S’s to get your content out in a big way?
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