It’s a well-known fact that people interact with images more than words. For example, when people read about the Holocaust in books, they often turn to Google image search to see what it really looked like. So when you put out a quality product or service that is supported by great marketing, social media, and website content, you’re able to attract potential customers whose first port of call might be Pinterest or Instagram, both of which feature heavily in today’s digital world.

Monument marketing is the practice of creating marketing material – whether that’s an image, video, or piece of writing – that stands alone as a symbol of your business. The idea is that this material exists independently of any promotional material or content you might publish elsewhere. Sometimes it’s referred to as “brand journalism” or “branded content.””

Why should you consider putting out branded content? Well, beyond the fact that people already know what your brand stands for, there’s a distinct advantage to having original, expert content to draw on. If you want to stand out from the crowd, it’s best to develop your own stories, rather than relying on other publications to cover your company’s news. Developing and maintaining a media relationship with key journalists can also prove beneficial.

So how can you, as a business owner or brand manager, put out awesome content that’ll engage with potential customers? We’ve got you covered. Here are five tips on how to market your business online using branded content.

1. Find a platform that supports quality content.

As we’ve established, people love to explore content that is either educational or entertaining. So whether you’re an author looking for publishers or a journalist in search of material, there’s a whole world of content out there that you can access for free. Google is also a great place to start when researching potential platforms.

You’ll also need to decide on the type of content you want to put out. If you want to go the educational route, you can check out the prestigious Open Learning University for more details on courses and pricing. Alternatively, if you want to entertain your audience with a blog post series, you can use a content curation tool like Blogger’s Curator to pull together bite-sized chunks of information.

2. Create compelling content.

When people speak to the media, they generally want to offer a unique perspective on a topic. So you, as a marketer or brand manager, have the opportunity to step in and offer your expertise. Whether you’re a well-known blogger or a prominent journalist, you can become a one-stop-shop for all things your target audience might need. This is especially important if you want to generate leads for your business.

Make sure you fully understand your audience’s needs and wants before pitching content ideas. If you want to write about personal planning, but your target audience is people interested in fashion, you might want to consider pitching an article on style icons. Similarly, if your company values quality over quantity, you can use your expertise to write an article on the best luxury brands.

Having a clear idea of the type of content you want to create can help you figure out the best platforms. For example, if you want to create video content, make sure you look into platforms like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok, which are owned by Google.

3. Measure the success of your content marketing.

Just because you created quality content that people are interested in doesn’t mean they’ll all flock to you. To succeed as a business owner or brand manager, you need to stand out from the crowd and convince people to come back for more. One way of doing this is through effective content marketing – measuring the success of your content campaign and optimising your efforts based on the data you collect.

To start with, identify the material you produced and published over the past month. Then, think about what made this content so special. Was it the type of content people are likely to engage with? Was it the writing style? The images? The combination of video and written content?

Insightful questions like these will help you figure out which content is performing well and which areas you can expand on or develop further. Once you’ve established what made a particular content piece unique, you can craft a story about this content to tell your audience more about your business and what you can do for them.

4. Identify the key performance indicators.

In any marketing activity, it’s essential to track the results of your efforts. Without accurate and complete data, you’ll never be able to tell whether your campaigns were successful or not. The same applies to content marketing.

The first step to taking care of this is by setting up key performance indicators for yourself. These will be specific to your content marketing strategy and the platforms you’re using to disseminate your content. The better your key performance indicators, the better your metrics will be. This way, you can track the performance of different content marketing campaigns and identify the types of content your audience is responding to the most. It’ll also help when it comes time to review your content strategy and see which areas you can develop further, or which campaigns worked best.

5. Distribute your content.

The final piece of the puzzle is to make sure that your content reaches the right audience. For this, you have a few options. You can use social media to share a link to a specific piece of content. Or, you can send out press releases to top tier media groups who might be interested in featuring you.

Make sure to distribute your content to as many people as possible. If you want to succeed as a business owner or brand manager, build a following on social media and make sure everyone knows about your content. Doing this well takes a bit of effort, but it’ll all be worth it in the end.

What’s important is that you establish a pattern of regular distribution so that your target audience knows when new content is published. The more you put out, the more you’ll get. So make sure to follow this rule – you might find it helpful to set up automated, weekly email broadcasts to nurture your audience.