Content Marketing 101: Superheroes
By Cari Mostert
When life hands you a lemon, make lemonade
Marketing: The lemonade factor
Consider the kid down the block who uses content marketing when he gets mom to paint some juicy
lemons on his lemonade stand. Outsourcing at its most basic!
That little bit of detail tells you a lot. He cares about his product, he wants to catch the eye of the
passerby and his lemonade is likely better than his competitor’s, who hasn’t even bothered to make a
sign. Elementary offline content marketing – no rocket science involved.
In the beginning, the potential for online content marketing had us all enthralled…
Evidently, the answer to every entrepreneur’s dream lay in the content on their business website,
driving enthusiastic customers – credit card in hand – to buy whatever was on offer.
Only, sometimes the results were less than stellar.
For content marketing to work, all the players need to understand the process. And, you have to start at
the beginning.
Content marketing can be intricate and complex – like a finely tuned, high-performance Lamborghini –
requiring in-house staff or outsourcing to a specialist agency. But there is also a beginning – the
dependable old Honda – the foundation you or your content writer creates, where customers can begin
to know, like and trust you. Because, nobody buys from a total stranger.
In a small business – the key people are often just the business owner, the webmaster and possibly a
freelance writer. Higher up the Totem pole, there may be a person in charge of marketing and a sales
department. The goal will always be the same, to grow the business up.
But, just what is content marketing? If you need to ask, go read this post by Neil Patel. You can come
back later, I’ll still be here.
Work that website!
With landing pages in place and your warm and friendly “About” page, you set the stage to establish
your position as an authority or thought leader in your field. One of the best, and most cost effective
ways to do this, is through your internet presence and your business blog.
Every pixel on your website should be working for your success. Where else can your business reach out
to so many potential customers and turn them into loyal clients and raving fans. A website isn’t just a
place to display your products; it’s an unbeatable advertising, marketing and promotion machine, open
24 hours a day.
And where does that leave you, your business and your competitors?
When it comes to websites, all entrepreneurs should have a plan. The local service pro needs a map as
much as the tech expert with his revolutionary software. It’s the same map, just a different route.
Keeping up with internet developments and Google’s algorithms is a full time job. What worked for SEO
two years ago won’t work today!
Of all the major changes driven by Google, the evolution of internet content is ongoing and has had the
most impact. Quality reigns supreme, “evergreen” is essential and “value” is the byword. Your website
has to deliver valuable content to your readers on a regular basis.
Mediocre is not a choice.
Long-form content will raise your ranking in the search engine results pages. How long varies, depending
on the industry.
High value content will get more engagement on social media. Good writers know their job, grabbing
and holding the reader’s attention, creating quality material for shareable articles.
Format counts?
You’re so busy getting your business to grow; there isn’t time to keep up with every update and
innovation trending on the web. The layout of your articles baffles you. Who knows where the keywords
go, how many you should have and when to use , or ? And images?
Images?
Yeah, everyone knows images are important but do you know how to optimize yours for the internet?
What about infographics?
Sure, they’re great, but with graphic designers charging four figures for custom designs, your article on
industry trends is likely to stay unadorned.
You need a plan
Enter the content marketing writer!
This new breed of superhero is a hybrid brought about by the internet evolution.
Today’s professional writer will understand the psychology of business, your customer’s journey and the
sales funnel. A good writer knows that content marketing begins with a story – the story of your
business, whatever your business.
A content marketing writer will fill in all the blanks, delivering the tweetable phrase, the Pinterest pin or
the Facebook quote. Professional content marketing writers will find you the perfect image or create the
ideal graphic to fit the words they write.
A content marketing writer is your – disposable – business partner. This partner will lay out a strategy,
conceptualize your articles and write your content with one goal in mind.
Growing your business up into the best it can be.