4 Simple Ways to Supercharge Your Content Marketing

Content marketing has changed drastically over the last few years. In the early days of content marketing, you could get away with creating off-the-cuff content. Today, there’s a lot of competition and it’s important that your content stands out. Here are four simple ways to supercharge your content marketing efforts.

1. Develop a Comprehensive Strategy for Long-term Success
Without a comprehensive plan your content marketing efforts are doomed to failure. Beyond doing the necessary keyword research it’s important to think about the style and tone of your content. Will it be serious or lighthearted? Written in the first or third person? Whatever you choose, it should be consistent. Developing a consistent voice will help keep your audience returning.

You also should be thinking about how today’s content ties into next week’s. One of the more effective ways to get users returning to your blog is to create a series of articles around a given subject. For instance, if your audience is comprised of entrepreneurs you could create a three part series on “How to Launch a Successful Business in 90 Days.”

2. Controversy is OK, Take Risks
A client of ours has an audience comprised mostly of Wall Street executives. When they started their blog they began writing on exactly the topics you’d think Wall Street types would be interested in; earnings reports, stock tips, mergers and acquisitions etc. After six months and little traction they decided to change course. Their blog now features articles on Wall Street gossip, fashion and scandals. As a result, leads have increased significantly, site traffic has improved by over %1,000 and they’ve created a cult following. Now, this doesn’t mean you should run to the keyboard and start writing trashy content. Rather, you should strive to be different and always be testing new content ideas. 

3. Backlink to Older Content
Your old content can either sit there doing nothing, or it can get to work. You’ll get the most for your time and money when you make old articles and video clips stay on the job for weeks or months rather than hours or days. Backlinking is one of the easiest ways to do this. Backlinking simply means that you include links in your new content so that readers can find older content just by clicking a word or phrase. For instance, if you’re writing a blog post about the recession, link to articles that you published last year (or even way back in 2008 when the recession began). Doing this will help improve SEO and increase the amount of time users spend on your site.

4. Find Your Audience Before They Find You
If you wait for an audience to come to you, chances are you’re going to be waiting awhile. There’s a website, blog or group for every niche so there’s no excuse for not becoming a member of these communities. You can find these groups by searching on Google, Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn. Once you find an applicable group it’s best to spend a few days just observing. Whatever you do, don’t start spamming users with your content. It’s ok to provide links to relevant information but without first becoming a trusted member of the community, you’ll be seen as an outsider and won’t get much traction. Another great way to find your audience is to answer questions on Q&A sites such as Quora and Yahoo! Answers. On these sites it’s more acceptable to provide direct links to your content as long as it applies to the question you’re answering. And as a bonus, links from these sites can provide SEO value.

Follow these four simple content marketing strategies, and you’re sure to boost your content marketing efforts.

Guest Author – Andrew Page is the Founder of ContentSpree.com, a freelance writing marketplace where small businesses go to hire professional freelance writers for writing projects that span from creative to technical.