You've heard it before and will hear it again–content is king. In today's marketing world, a strong content marketing strategy is vital for any company that wants to break through all of the noise on the web and stand out from their competition. But, without having a balance of four key skills, your content marketing efforts can fall flat on their face.
Here are your company's 4 must-have skills
Content Marketing Topic selection
Before you start, it's important to define your goals. Are you trying to generate sales? Increase traffic? Connect with an audience?
Good content marketing is all about engaging your audience. That's the purpose of content marketing. It raises your brand awareness and gives you the opportunity to educate and build trust with your readers which will eventually lead to increased conversions. But before you can effectively do any of that, you must first be able to clearly define the problem your content is trying to solve.
Make sure you:
- Clearly define the problem your content is trying to solve.
- What are the feelings your client has when dealing with the problem
- Understand what your audience's goals are.
Be able to answer:
- How do you solve your audience's problems and help them reach their goals?
- What is your proven process?
- What do you promise your audience after working with you or buying from you?
Do these three things, and you'll be able to produce more effective content and make sure it leads to sales conversations or purchases.
SECRETE SHORT CUT -
use tools like
answerthepublic.com to generate topics for you. You feed answer the public keywords and it returns what people are searching for on Google.
Writing
Writing is a skill that you must have at all times. Whether it's writing an email or a blog post, the ability to communicate effectively is essential. BUT, we aren't all writers. Fortunately, there are tools out there for the rest of us. Tools like Copy.ai.
Copy.ai allows you to feed the software a topic and an outline. The writing tool returns a daft. You can edit and revise as needed!
SECRETE SHORT CUT - Go to copy.ai, click on blog tools in the left-hand navigation bar, click on the bullet point to blog section, and follow the instructions.
Graphic Design
Everyone loves a good graphic that helps to get their message across. So, you better be able to create something that is going to make your audience stop and take notice. Thanks to technology, this skill is easy to master with a few hacks. Let me introduce you to Canva.com. Canva is an easy-to-use design system that allows anyone to create professional-looking graphics at no cost. Canva provides a wide range of templates for you to choose from which makes it easy for anyone to create a powerful image.
SECRETE SHORT CUT - go to canva.com, click on Instagram post square, click on the search bar in the upper right-hand corner, search for NEWS, and select your favorite template. Replace the text with the title from what you wrote. Use the stock photos in Canva to create engaging designs. Best of all, click on the animate button at the top of your design and turn your graphic into a video!
Posting
You have to post your content; otherwise, no one will see it. Consumers are exposed to more information than ever before from traditional and digital media. This means you have to promote your business through YouTube, emails, blogging, social media, and ads (amongst other things) Your visitors are inundated with different types of content from countless sources every day, and the only way to compete is to show up, and give them what they want.
SECRETE SHORT CUT - Use the Marketing Launchpad or Create a document with links to all your platforms. Link to your YouTube account, Blog, Email Marketing Software, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, and Google My Business listing.
Successful businesses have to have marketing skills in all of these areas.
Successful marketers have to have skills or employees who have skills in topic selection, writing, graphic design, and posting your content to relevant platforms.
Remember
- Topic selection: You can't just write about whatever you feel like. Successful bloggers and writers need to know what their audience wants to read about, and then deliver that content.
- Writing: Writing is the most important part of marketing for most businesses because a post or article is easy for people to read and share with others who might be interested in your product or service.
- Graphic design: Having good graphic design skills means that when someone sees something that looks professional they will think it's trustworthy too!
- Posting To Relevant Platforms: You have to promote your business through YouTube, emails, blogging, social media, and ads (amongst other things).
It is as easy as picking a topic, writing, creating a graphic, and posting. If you need help developing or learning these skills check out our
13-week Marketing Launchpad Program or
demo our New Web App.
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