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    Categories: Content Marketing

4 Tips for Getting Started with Content Marketing

As more marketers are delving into social media, email marketing and lead generation in 2013, they are finding the need for quality content to support these marketing initiatives. Content creation is one of the top challenges of B2B marketers—it takes both time and planning to be successful.

But your efforts won't go to waste. Content be used in multiple marketing mediums—from email to social to lead generation efforts. It's really the cornerstone of your digital marketing strategy. Content can:

  • Increase links and improve the ability to rank for top keywords (especially when integrated with a great social strategy)
  • Keep your email list engaged with your company, and give subscribers a reason to visit your site
  • Fuel your social media strategy and give your audience a reason to engage with your company
  • Generate leads by offering up great content in exchange for emails so you can start the lead nurturing process

Here are 4 tips to get started with content marketing:

1. Talk to Customers

ID questions your customers have and answer those questions. This will help provide highly relevant content that your customers want to know and most likely are searching for in Google.

2. Review SEO Keywords

ID keywords your site doesn't currently rank well for and create content around those keywords. With Google limiting the number of keywords you can optimize a page for, many companies are using blogs to create additional content to help rank for more keywords.

3. Get Several Team Members to Contribute

Get several employees from different roles at your company involved to provide multiple view points and writing styles. Each person will have different points of view and interact with clients differently which allows for a wide breathe of content topics.

4. Invite Your Social Media Audience to Participate

Use social media to ask clients what they want to know from you and you can do research, especially on Twitter, to see what topics are trending in your industry.

If you need to sell content marketing to your management team, hTo achieve content marketing success, start with research and planning. Most importantly, don’t get overwhelmed by the thought of undertaking this; start small and grow from there. Start by writing one blog post a week for a couple months and then refine your strategy and grow to writing more frequently.

To learn more about creating a successful content marketing program, check out the new OMI class, the Business Marketer's Secret to Content Marketing Success.

View Comments

  • Hey Nessa, good post. Getting in the minds of your customer is key to be able to use social media and content to have the right conversations with them and your prospects.

  • Hey Nessa, good post. Getting in the minds of your customer is key to be able to use social media and content to have the right conversations with them and your prospects.

  • Definitely agree with getting the whole team involved. It's so much easier to write a mountain of content when 3-4 people are doing it!

  • Definitely agree with getting the whole team involved. It's so much easier to write a mountain of content when 3-4 people are doing it!

  • It's all about being persistent with your content. If you are a blogger post at least a few times a week consistently make readers your #1 priority but also keep your keyword research in mind, and go after keywords that your blog, or website can realistically rank for. In time the harder to rank for keywords will become a lot easier to rank for if you stay consistent. One more thing I would like to add like you mentioned in your post. Accepting guest bloggers can take some of the burden off of you, but you will have to build up your blogs popularity so people will want to post guest posts on your blog. Good tips!

  • It's all about being persistent with your content. If you are a blogger post at least a few times a week consistently make readers your #1 priority but also keep your keyword research in mind, and go after keywords that your blog, or website can realistically rank for. In time the harder to rank for keywords will become a lot easier to rank for if you stay consistent. One more thing I would like to add like you mentioned in your post. Accepting guest bloggers can take some of the burden off of you, but you will have to build up your blogs popularity so people will want to post guest posts on your blog. Good tips!