4 Ways Content Marketing Will Help Grow Your Brand

Content Marketing is an effective way to market yourself. As a keynote speaker, it’s crucial that you’re able to get your name out there to the right people.

And content marketing is one of the best ways to do that. You may think that content marketing is more expensive than traditional marketing, but the data says otherwise.

According to this study, content marketing is 62% cheaper than outbound marketing and gets you triple the leads. Outbound marketing is the old school way of doing things. And get this, it also generates more leads! Wow, that’s impressive! I always thought that you had to pay to get leads.

You need to know your audience, (the people who hire you for for engagements for example). Then you need to plan your content, recycle your content, and know your goals. Then you can make more impact with your content and generate more revenue. So let’s go into more detail about these four steps to use to grow your brand.

Number one, the first step is Know Your Audience.

 We all think we know our audience, but do we really. Don’t assume you know everything about your audience. You need to be crystal clear about who your audience is, in order to create the right content to reach them. You may find variety in the people who hire you for speaking engagements, or the professionals who take your online courses or buy your book.

One great way to maintain and grow an audience is to find out what kind of problems they are experiencing and create blogs or videos that show how your products and services will solve these problems. You want to start collecting demographics on your visitors to your website, your email subscribers, and your social media followers.

All of these analytics will give you the data you need on your audience’s age, their gender, education, and their income. Those demographics are important to know when you’re determining what kind of content to host on your website. Use Google Analytics to get key information on your audience. Google Analytics will show you the market segments your website visitors fit into.

Another good way to get demographics about your audience is to use your Facebook business fanpage insights tab to get to your insights Page tab, click on More at the top of the dashboard on your page and then click insights. The insights page tells you what percentage of women and men follow your page. It also lets you know when is the best time to post, how many people are liking and engaging with your posts, and a whole lot more. There’s so much valuable information to be found on that page.Use surveys and buyer persona templates. It can help you get a good idea of your audience’s needs, wants and desires, then you can tailor your content to them.

The second way is to Plan Your Content.

 Start out by using an Editorial Calendar to organize your ideas and blogs. If you use WordPress, try their Editorial Calendar plugin. Or you can try Google calendar or use Trello.

Start out by determining how often you would like to post content. Once a week is a good number to start out with. But if that’s too much for you, then post content once a month at least. And brainstorm your audience’s problems and needs and come up with ideas that speak to them. Or ask a lot of questions in your Facebook Group or Facebook Pages.

You also can create polls to find out what kind of problem or needs or pain points that they’re having. That’s a great way to get ideas. And don’t forget to add events to your Editorial Calendar, such as special dates, holidays, industry events, etc. And just for fun, there are calendars that give crazy holidays that you can add to your Editorial Calendar. I use this website called BrownieLocks.com to do that. Check it out. 

The third way is to  Recycle Your Content.

Don’t think you had to create content every single week. I think a lot of people get stuck on this principle. I know I did. I always thought that I needed to create a new article for my website. So I would procrastinate on creating content. And the reason I would procrastinate is because I hate to write. I’m sure I’m not the only person who feels this way. Can you relate too?

Do you like writing? I know I don’t. So I’m going to save you a lot of time and effort  with these ways of recycling your content. I mean, I know. It’s not the right time now to be asking, but I’m going to ask anyway. And if so, I’m just going to continue on with my live.

So you can save time and effort by repurposing content that you already have. Now that was a game changer for me. As creators, we put so much time and effort into every piece of content we produce, that we should always be looking for ways to get the most bang out of our existing content. Don’t you agree? So here are some ways to recycle your content.

Let’s say you have an ebook about leadership skills. You can use that ebook and create a checklist. Got some great video clips of your best tips on networking? Use those video clips in an email course. Take your best articles on sales skills and put them together in an ebook. Use one of your articles and turn it into a podcast. Turn your blog content into a slide presentation. It’s a great way to reach a very motivated, targeted audience. People who visit sites like SlideShare are looking for high value, insight rich content that gets them to where they want to be. Take one of your articles and turn it into a video.

Now, here’s another valuable tip. Keep repurposing and reusing in mind when you create new content. Know what you want to do with the material ahead of time, so you can easily repurpose it for later. 

And the fourth way is to Know Your Goals.

We all have different reasons for creating content and different goals. It’s important you define what success looks like for you. Obviously, revenue is important, but it’s not the only measure of success. You want to look at factors such as how much website traffic has increased. Have you been tracking that information? Have the quality of leads your content is getting changed? Your lead generation? In other words. Are you using a free resource on your site to collect email addresses? What’s the levels of user engagement on your site and your social media accounts? You can track that information by going to your insight page. Is it brand awareness that you want to achieve? You want people to think of your brand when they think of your industry or main product line. So knowing your goals and having a plan is extremely important.

Creating a tribe takes time. It’s a lot like farming. You plant seeds, then water and fertilize them. They sprout and with loving care, they grow into healthy plants with root systems. Your content is like seeds, water and fertilizer. Compelling content raises up great followers who are eager each time you offer them something new to consume. 

Like farming, growing a loyal following is part tried and true practices and part artful experience with the unique soil you grow in. It takes a balance of trade secrets and personal experiences to raise up a loyal following.