Content Marketing courtesy of http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/David Castillo Dominici

Maximising Your Content

Posted on in Small Business Tips, SME Marketing, Social Media

When you have a great idea and a blog post you’re pleased with, repurposing the content will help you reach as many would-be customers as possible.

Marketing yourself online can be a time-consuming business. Coming up with different subjects for your blog content takes time and brain power– so you should make the most of every great idea.

Why do you need content you may ask? Well, the way to build your following (and in turn hopefully increase your would-be customers or clients) is to first reach them and then engage them. As you do this with more followers, your brand’s popularity will increase and people’s trust in your company or brand will also rise.

There are a number of reasons for blogging, or creating news articles to post on your website:

  1. Updates your website with ‘fresh, unique and relevant content’ vital words for SEO (search engine optimisation) purposes, and fundamental for helping you with Google ranking (especially if you’re not conducting any paid-for search marketing, AdWords or other).
  2. Provides content and links that you can use on social media, thereby assisting your social footprint, again vital for SEO.
  3. Identifies you/your company as a thought leader and expert in your field by talking about a range of different yet relevant topics.
  4. Provides an update on your current situation, products and services so long as it is newsworthy and not just self-promotion – this type of post should be no more than about 1 in 6.
  5. It can be a historical record of your achievements, again so long as it is newsworthy and not just self-promotion.

Additionally, if you have a great blog, which you have written (or perhaps engaged an online marketer or copywriter to write for you), you could turn it into a white paper – copy the text into a document, style it up and save as a pdf – which your readers can then download potentially via a squeeze page on your website.

Or how about turning your content into a slideshow (see how to make better slideshows here) and upload to Slideshare – which works particularly well with LinkedIn – or Slideboom.

Some people like to read information but others prefer to watch videos. This medium also helps people to really engage with you as they will hear you speak, see your body language and really feel like they have ‘met’ you. So at the end of your blog include a link to a relevant video on your YouTube channel.

Another way to really engage people is by providing podcasts. Think about when you listen to the radio – in the car, when doing chores, walking to the station. You’re not doing anything very interesting, so your attention can really be grabbed by a great podcast.

When you decide on your content, make sure you plan the subjects and how each different element will fit together. If you have a great idea, use the different media to your advantage.

Your blog might include the details and benefits of your product or service and then perhaps a video will demonstrate something not easily described – show how a product works for instance.

Remember to spend some time planning your content in advance – set up a calendar for the next few months at least, and decide what your topics are going to be and how you can make the most of it across video, podcasts, slideshows and more.

You might also be interested in our blog reviewing why content marketing is important and another about integrated marketing communications.

If you would like to have a chat about your marketing requirements, including an online strategy, please call Alison Page on tel: 07963 002065 or email: hello@alisonpagemarketing.co.uk. You can of course browse our website to see what our existing clients have to say about our work.