What are the best ways to do Content Marketing?

Gone are the days when penning down your thoughts and what you know were ways to let your heart out or to educate people. It has a wider and far fetched intentions behind it now.

Now, you write to reach out to people, to let the world know that you have something for them, to make sure that they will fall for it. I could go on forever, but I think it would be more fun to explore on your own.

But just writing something isn’t enough. There’s more to it. You need to have a plan, a strategy.

When you start a business, say a women’s clothing store, you have chosen a very specific niche from a very broad cluster and your target users are also clear. What I mean to say here is that you need to be able to point out your niche and your users without any doubts because it is the first and the basic step that decides your success.

Content has many forms now. It’s not mere words anymore. It can change shape and form according to convenience. To list out a few would be

• Blog articles
• Podcasts
• Video content
• Infographics
• Newsletters

And something that should be clearly noted is that you should never brag about your products in your content. Research out the type of content that would be appealing to your users, customers and potential customers, or let’s call them your target audience. Know what your audience would want to read about and concentrate on such topics so that your potential users come to you by reading these. And as for your existing users, engage them with new and exciting information.

Knowing your users is important in order to find out which form of contents and what sort of data are they looking for.

Find out where your target audience mostly hangout online. Understanding this is very important since it tells you where you should be active and where you shouldn’t be wasting your time. This also gives you an idea about the kind of content they love and loathe.

Once this is sorted make a calendar for at least a month, precisely specifying the topic, the form of content and the medium where you would be posting it. Do a lot of research to find out where to post what, at what time and how often. Don’t be annoying by spamming nor be stingy by never showing up. Be very specific and very clear on your strategy and your goal.

To sum up:

• Know your products, understand the niche.
• Know your users.
• Decide upon the type of content you want to create for your audience.
• Shortlist the channels where you want to be active in.
• Keep a calendar for what topics you are gonna write about and on which days and where you shall post them.
• Stay active on your channels and establish your brand.

Credit: Surya Gopal