Once you figure out what marketing automation platform you want to run your business on, your success really boils down to creating better content marketing discipline and campaigns. With all the hype and frustration surrounding marketing automation technologies, in our experience the single biggest bottleneck is almost always content. As the adage goes, "Content is King." (Way cliche these days. but so be it!)
Without a consistent stream of highly engaging, purposeful and relevant content to attract, engage, convert and retain your customers, chances are you will not get the results you want from the marketing automation investments you have made. Just know you don't have to lose your mind figuring this out on your own. There's plenty of ways to learn to get better at the content marketing game if you are willing to learn or pay for help.
It's essential for business owners and leaders to understand how critical content is to success in marketing and sales these days. What gets in the way the most is the fear of what to say or write, how to generate meaningful messages and distribute them to the people who count the most when it comes to your success in business.
As you look to improve your content marketing for lead generation, sales enablement or whatever your goals may be, consider these questions and points to make it easier to produce better content.
- Why do you do what it is you do in business? This is all about your purpose and motivation to serve. Great content starts here. Start with your why. (Thanks, Simon Sinek!)
- Who do you serve the best in your business? This helps you get really clear on your target market. You can't be all things to all people. Stop trying unless you enjoy being frustrated and blowing lots of money.
- What problem do you really solve for your customers? Get clear on this point and you'll be able to crank out content that helps people understand the real value of what you do. Solve problems and add value.
- How do you do what you do best to solve problems for customers? This empowers you to knock out more "How To" content marketing that can be very useful for your target market. Again, see what Simon Sinek says about this on the video link above. (I can't wait to get a TED Talk!)
- How can you be a better teacher and student? Putting yourself in the mindset of both gives you a bold position from which to more easily generate better content. All great teachers love being a lifelong student. Never stop learning and teach people your why and how to help them make their pain go away.
- How "On Purpose" are you, really? This gets to being more authentic and real with your target market. People can tell when you are serious about helping them, or not. This is all about being on purpose and passionate about what you do. Care more!
- What will it take for you to be super consistent? Consistency is crucial in creating better content marketing, whether it's by blog, video, eBooks, white papers, slide decks, speeches, etc. Being consistent is the key to all marketing because it's the consistent effort and output of content that separates the people who really break through versus the masses who quit after the first week. Or second!
Once you find your flow by learning and applying these steps to your content marketing process you will hopefully discover that you have more stories to tell. People can relate well to stories and tend to remember them, when told well. Learn to be a better storyteller.
In closing, content really is the key to attracting, engaging, converting and retaining more of your ideal customers. Almost anyone can learn to do it themselves and if not, to realize the importance of outsourcing the content creation and distribution work to people you can trust: people who walk the walk by exhibiting the seven ways for creating better content marketing.
We always appreciate your comments, questions and suggestions here on the Conversion Marketing Experts blog.
To your continued success and happiness.