So you have decided to try and use content marketing to launch your beauty brand, blog, or website. Congrats! You are probably really excited about this direction, and rightfully so – it can be incredibly effective. But you might be a little anxious about how to go about doing this. Maybe you are wondering whether or not to go with paid or organic content for your blog. Or perhaps you just want to know how to best use content marketing to grow your business.

Fear not! We have you covered. Here are some tips to get you started successfully.

Paid Content Is the Key To Getting Massive Engagement

When someone discovers your content marketing strategy, the first thing they are most likely to do is to check out your website, or read your blog post. After doing this, they might then want to read more. This is a great opportunity to expose your content to more people – and potentially, make even more sales. Why? Well, paid content actually gets seen, and it stands out. When we compare this to organic content, which is free and often times not as interesting or engaging, we can see that people are more inclined to click-through to a paid content platform.

In short, paid content is more effective when used for marketing purposes. It can also help you get more website traffic, and eventually, leads to sales.

The Dangers of Going Without Analytics

There is no question that when you have decided to go down the content marketing path, you are going to want to optimize your efforts. To do this, you are going to want to measure the results of your work. Without good analytics, you might end up in vain – trying to figure out what worked and what didn’t, when in reality, you could be sabotaging your efforts with no real idea of ​​what is going on.

Having said that, implementing analytics doesn’t have to be difficult. There are many good systems that can be used to monitor and analyze content on a blog or website. For example, you can use Google Analytics to track the performance of your blog posts, as well as other online marketing efforts like ads or social media.

Start Small

If you’re brand new to content marketing, it might be a good idea to try out a small blog first, and see how it goes. You can use this to your advantage. Why? It’s always important to try and find a niche, or area of interest, that you are passionate about. This will naturally translate to better and more interesting content, which in turn, will engage your target audience.

If you’re looking to create business content, chances are you already have a niche or two that you can fall back on. Use these to your advantage, and start a blog or website around these topics. Once you have established yourself, you can expand into other areas – but don’t worry about it too much – you’ll always have your niche.

Use Personal Stories

In today’s world, everyone loves a good story. If you can tell a story that is both relatable and interesting, you will absolutely captivate your audience. But how do you go about doing this? You can start by talking about your own experiences – how you overcame a tragedy, an adversity, or something that you learned from an experience. The important thing to keep in mind is that you want to keep your personal stories authentic – not manufactured.

For example, let’s say you’re a car enthusiast. You’ve had a bad experience with a particular model, and you decided to give it a try again, only this time, you did your research, and bought the best, most reliable one. Your personal story would go something like this – “My first car was a Honda, and I have never been happier or more content than when driving it. However, a few months ago, I bought a Mercedes-Benz – and not only does it make me smile every time I get in it, but it has also improved my quality of life. These are the kinds of stories that keep me coming back for more – because I want to learn more about the subject matter, and I want to be able to relate to the fellow car enthusiasts out there.

Vary Your Content

If you’re using the same kind of content, (that is, the same kind of blog post, with the same kind of imagery and language) on your website, in your social media platforms, and in your emails, your customers will get sick of seeing the same thing over and over again. This is especially problematic if you’re following the same formula, in other words, you’re just regurgitating the same thing, with no real attempt at varying your content.

To make your content more interesting and engaging, try varying the words, the length, the imagery, etc. – this will make your content more interesting and more likely to stick out. It will give your content a different twist that will make it more memorable and interesting.

Avoid Plagiarism

Plagiarism is, quite simply, copying someone else’s work, and passing it off as your own. This is a quick way to lose credibility with your audience, and it will hinder your content marketing efforts. Avoid doing this, and be confident enough to say your sources – even if you don’t give specific examples.

If you’re using others’ work, either cite the source or give it credit. If you don’t know where the content originated from, ask the author for permission to use their material. If you think that your material might be misinterpreted, take the time to clarify any uncertainties about your intentions.

Remember: your audience will find out if you’re being genuine or not. If they have any doubts, they will naturally assume that you are not being genuine – especially if you’re trying to pass off someone else’s work as your own. This is a quick way to lose credibility with your audience, and it will hinder your content marketing efforts.

Measure And Evaluate Success

Whatever you do, don’t forget to measure and evaluate the results of your work. This will ensure that you are headed in the right direction, and allow you to adjust course, if needed. When used correctly, analytics can provide you with the information you need to measure the success of your content marketing strategy.

There are many different ways to measure the results of your content marketing strategy – but the most important thing is that you measure something. Otherwise, you are simply guessing – and if you are guessing, then you are doing it wrong.

Use A/B Testing

Often times, when we are looking for new content ideas, we will gravitate toward topics that we are already familiar with, or ones that we think will be easy to research and write about. However, nothing stops us from creating our own content, and essentially, trying out new things, on a limited basis, before rolling them out to the entire blog or website. This is called A/B testing.

What is A/B testing? It is the process of dividing your entire content audience into two distinct groups, and then, seeing which version of the content performs the best – the A version or the B version.

To do this, you are going to want to use a tool like Google Analytics, or similar platforms – to track the traffic on your site, before and after the A/B test. With these tools, you can determine the percentage of visitors that clicked on a given piece of content, compared to the total number of people that viewed that content. From there, you can determine which version of the content is performing the best – and make the necessary adjustments, before moving on to the next project.

Avoid Self-Publishing

If you’re looking to grow your business through content marketing, it is absolutely critical that you keep in mind the limitations that come with this style of marketing. For one, it takes a lot of effort to produce quality content on a consistent basis – and not all businesses are capable of doing this. Also, since it is essentially an “all-or-nothing” proposition when it comes to content marketing, the chances of you succeeding are significantly less than if you were to try and rely solely on paid advertising.

So, what are the benefits of content marketing? As you may have guessed, the main advantage is that content marketing is an “all-you-needs-to-know-how-to-do-it” kind of strategy. In other words, you don’t need a marketing or sales person to guide you through this process. You simply follow the steps, and you will see results.