With the resurgence of social media being driven by millennials, it’s no surprise that businesses have started to adapt. More and more marketers are realising the importance of digital marketing and content marketing (creating, distributing, and analyzing content to attract and retain customers), and as a result, content marketing has become one of the most popular topics on social media.

If you’re new to content marketing or just need a refresher on the basics, this article is for you. Here we’re going to cover the essentials of what you need to know in order to get started building your own content library.

What Type Of Content Should I Create?

When it comes to marketing content, the absolute key to success is relevance. The more relevant your content is to your audience, the more effective it will be. To determine the right type of content to create, consider the following:

• Your target audience: Who is your audience? What are their needs, desires, and interests?
• Your product: What are you selling (or trying to sell)?
• The platform you’re on: Google, Bing, or other search engines; Facebook, Instagram, or other social media platforms; emails; and so on.
• The world around you: What’s going on in your niche (or in general)
• Your strategy: Why are you really here (i.e., what are you trying to achieve)?

After you’ve got a clear picture of your target audience, product, platform, and strategy, you can start to assemble a content strategy that fits within those guidelines. Then, it’s a question of producing content that will attract, engage, and retain your audience. Remember: People share emotions. If you can get inside your audience’s heads, you can really engage with them and encourage them to action. This could take the form of an explainer video, an SEO guide, an e-commerce store review, or something else entirely.

How Am I Going To Distribute This Content?

Another vital part of content marketing is actually putting the content out there for your audience to see. This means creating content for various platforms and then figuring out the best way to distribute it so that you can capture the greatest impact. The most effective way to do this is with a content planner. A content planner will analyse the content you’ve created and figure out the most effective way to distribute it. They’ll look at your target audience, the platform you’re on, and the content currently available on those platforms. Then, they’ll create a plan of action for you to follow. Some content planners will even craft short-range plans for you, taking into account the attention spans of today’s busy millennials.

If you don’t have the time to plan out your content strategy and execution yourself, then hire a content planner to handle this for you. They’ll charge you a small fee to help you get started and then a monthly fee to help you maintain your content schedule.

How Do I Engage With My Audience?

The most effective type of content is that which engages with the reader. This means creating content that is not only informative but also entertaining, surprising, or shocking. This type of content may include lists, infographics, interactive quizzes, or something else entirely.

Interactive content stands out from the crowd and encourages readers to come back for more. If you want to engage with your audience, consider creating something that they can take away and use. For example, you can create a digital marketing guide that’s actually worth reading and then distribute it on your website. In this case, you’re creating informational content while also entertaining your audience with a clever and engaging blend of writing and design.

You don’t necessarily need to put your content in the form of a digital marketing guide; it’s entirely up to you. What’s important is that you brainstorm ideas that will engage your audience and eventually drive them to action. When they take away something useful from your content, that’s when you know that you’ve succeeded.

What Type of Person Is My Audience?

One of the most vital aspects of content marketing is knowing your audience. Not only does it help you target your audience, it also helps you understand what they want and need. Since content is essentially ‘words and pictures combined’, understanding the latter will give you a decent idea of the former.

According to HubSpot Blogs research, people most affected by content marketing are digitally native, with 67% using social media and 66% using the internet for personal reasons.

If you want to succeed in content marketing, you need to understand that your audience is already online. That means that you can connect with them in any way that suits you. For example, if you know that video is a platform that they prefer, then create video content whenever you can. Not only will this make it easier for you to engage with your audience, it will also make it easier for them to remember you.

Video isn’t just suitable for millennials; it’s also a great tool for Gen Z, the Next Gen, and even Baby Boomers. The video content marketing trend is unlikely to disappear any time soon.

Is My Audience Genuinely Interested In My Product?

The best way to engage with your audience is by creating content that is directly relevant to a product or service that they are interested in. This means that instead of just sharing an article about a brand, a company, or an event, you can engage with them by creating content that is tied directly to a product that they may be considering buying or using.

To find the right information product to promote, consider looking at the websites and blogs of your competitors. The key to content marketing is creating a balance between branding and generating leads. If you want to generate leads, then create content that is directly relevant to a product that they are interested in. It’s easy to pull content from elsewhere and use it on your site, but try to find a way to tie the content back to a specific product or service. This will make it easier for both you and your reader. When someone clicks on a product or service mentioned in a blog post, that’s when you know that you’ve successfully generated a lead.

What’s My Overall Strategy?

Before you get started distributing your content, you’ll need to sit down and put all your content marketing goals and objectives in one place. Consider writing down a concise plan that connects the dots from the various platforms you operate on. In doing so, you’ll be able to see the full scope of your efforts and know whether or not you’ve achieved your planned results.

If you don’t have the time to plan out your content strategy and execution yourself, then hire a content planner to handle this for you. They’ll charge you a small fee to get you started and then a monthly fee to help you maintain your content schedule. The benefit of hiring a content planner is that they’ll take the time to get to know you and your business. This means that when they put together your plan of action, it will be tailor-made to fit both your needs and goals.