5 Things That Every Content Marketer Should Know

Over the years, online content has improved significantly to meet the evolving requirements of the users. And surprisingly, it has played a crucial role in the success of online businesses. In fact, conversion rates for content marketing are 6 times higher than traditional marketing. That’s why 9 out of 10 marketers are using or are planning to use content marketing to boost their businesses.

However, the job of a content marketer isn’t exactly a cakewalk. He/she needs to carry out a number of duties and responsibilities to ensure better traffic to the website as well as better conversion. More importantly, the individual needs to be aware of a number of things that are essential for success in this competitive market.

1- Change is the only constant thing:

No matter how philosophical that may sound, it is the ultimate truth of life. And surprisingly enough, content marketing seems to share a similarity with life in this context. One of the major goals of content marketing is to provide satisfying answers to user queries in order to attract them to the website. And since the user requirements are constantly changing, content needs to change as well.

Every year, there’s a new trend in content marketing. And a content marketer needs to acknowledge that trend and create a strategy around it. As you have seen, influencer marketing was all rage and every other business went leveraging it. Similarly, live videos became popular in the past few years. A content marketer not only needs to identify the changing trends but also needs to act on it if he/she wants to sustain in the market.

Moreover, Google changes its algorithm way too often than one can possibly remember. According to Moz.com, Google made over 3,000 improvements in its search engine in 2018 alone. Since the algorithm changes affect how a page rank on the search engine results page, a content marketer also needs to keep track of the changes and prepare his/her content marketing strategy accordingly.

2- It is important to post regularly:

You must have heard the phrase “Out of sight, out of mind.” Well, that seems to be the case for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These SMEs rely more on content marketing for lead generation and conversion than large enterprises in the market. And to establish the business as a brand, the content marketing team needs to be efficient and regular with their posts.

Huffington Post, which is the biggest blog in the world, publishes a new blog post every 58 seconds. Why? Because Google has this ranking factor called QDF (query deserves freshness) that prioritizes fresh, insightful content in the ranking than older posts. That is the reason why content marketers need to focus on publishing fresh content rather frequently.

However, posting every day is not a brilliant idea for SMEs. It is okay to make several social media posts a day. Even that depends on the platform and the type of audience you are targeting. For blogs, however, posting regularly can hurt the subscriber count as the readers have very little time to read. Ideally, two blog posts per week is a decent target to aim for. It is important to be visible, but it is more important to provide quality content.

3- Content marketing is more than just publishing blog posts:

There’s a misconception among a lot of people regarding the content marketing operations. Some people believe that content marketing is only about publishing blog posts. Sorry to burst your bubbles, but that’s far from the truth. Blog publishing is only a small part of content marketing. A content marketer needs to do much more than that.

Content includes emails, e-books, case studies, website content, whitepapers, infographics, images, videos, GIFs, memes, podcasts, social media posts and a lot more things. A content marketer, who is responsible for the lead generation of a company, needs to know his/her way around all forms of content that can be a part of the content marketing strategy.

Even if you consider just the blogging part, there is more to it than just choosing a topic and writing a 750-word long content. You need to do the following things as well:

• Conduct keyword research to understand user intent
• Brainstorm for blog ideas that resonate with the audience
• Prepare SEO friendly content (with right keyword density)
• Add visual elements (images, GIFs, video clips)
• Add useful hyperlinks
• Write the metadata
• Upload the content on right platforms

Well, a content marketer needs to go through a similar kind of process while working on other forms of content as well. The approaches may be different, but the intent is the same – to target, reach and convert a maximum number of audiences.

4- Analytics is the key:

A content marketer, who does not know how to measure the effectiveness and relevance of his/her content, usually finds it difficult to succeed. In order to prepare a successful content marketing strategy, the marketer needs to know what kind of content is performing well on the internet, and which is failing to get the attention of the prospects.

Google Analytics happens to be one of the most useful tools in a content marketer’s arsenal. It helps a marketer gain greater insights into the metrics like traffic, conversions, the ideal time to promote content, average time spent on page and much more. Moreover, this tool allows the user to track content marketing goals. In fact, a marketer can boost the content marketing ROI using this tool. Here’s how:

Besides content analysis, a marketer also needs to know keyword analysis. Such analyses can help find SEO opportunities as well.

5- Customer retention is also the job of a content marketer:

Even though a majority of the businesses directs their content marketing efforts into acquiring new customers, earning the loyalty of the existing customers is also one of the objectives of content marketing. 81% of B2C content marketers agree that content can be an effective tool to drive loyalty with existing customers.

According to the report of Harvard Business Review, acquisition of a new customer can cost 5 to 25 times more than retaining an existing customer. So when a content marketer focuses on boosting customer retention through his/her efforts, he/she actually contributes to the ROI, just like he/she usually does by generating leads and closing sales.

According to Hubspot Academy, happy customers stick around longer than those who have a neutral or negative experience. And your content can delight the customers once their immediate problem is solved. Hubspot reveals that doing these following things consistently during the customer’s experience can not only make them happy but also compel them to come back:

• Solve their problems
• Be timely
• Be helpful
• Help them reach their goals
• Be enthusiastic
• Be unexpected
• Build a community

It is also important for the content marketer to provide content that allows the customer to see value in your product or service. Creating a content marketing strategy that prioritizes lead nurturing and customer delight is something that every content marketer should know in 2019.

In conclusion,

A content marketer needs to be prepared for challenges. And while the knowledge of these aforementioned points can help content marketers go a long distance, they are certainly not going to be enough for the journey. And the more informed a content marketer is, the more successful he/she is likely to be.

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