Communicate Your Way to Success|Day 2: The ABC’s of Content Marketing

byrebeccas

4.4K followers

Updated 9 years ago

On Day 2 of Communicate Your Way to Success—Effective Communication Tips, we explore how to engage a loyal blog readership with the ABC’s of content marketing. Content marketing is a powerful communication strategy that savvy marketers use to build trust and authority among ideal blog readers who can be influenced to purchase the products and services they promote.

Effective communication builds understanding.Understanding builds trust. Trust builds relationships and relationships build business. That is the process in a nutshell.

Effective content marketing builds relationships and a sense of community that creates loyalty to you as a thought leader as well as to the online brand you build via your website. You can see effective content marketing in action in the way Kyle and Carson have built Wealthy Affiliate.

By creating a strong brand and a strong sense of community, Kyle and Carson have positioned themselves as thought leaders in the world of online business start-ups. Once you are recognized as a thought leader, you can drive more sales to your site without using “hard sell” tactics that so many traditional closers are taught.

A-CREATING A SIMPLE CONTENT PLAN FOR YOUR AUDIENCE

I like to start any developmental project with an overall plan. The “plan” doesn’t have to be monumental; in fact the more simple it is, the easier it will be to execute. I find Excel works best for this type of plan.

The basic elements to be addressed in your content plan are:

-1- Who is my Target Audience/Ideal Client?

-2- What is my Core Message to them? (What problem am I trying to help them solve and what benefits do I offer them?)

-3- What are the Secondary Messages I want to convey?

-4-What are the keywords my target audience will likely type into a search engine to locate my content?

When you think about it, that’s really how you develop content for each blog post. Start with a big picture of your Core Message. Know who you are targeting and what challenge you are helping them overcome.State your premise and then in the subsequent paragraphs, substantiate the claim in your headline and first summary paragraph.

B-USE CONTENT MARKETING TO GROW YOUR ONLINE BUSINESS

An important step in your overall content marketing strategy is to determine how you will use content marketing to grow your online business. Each article you write for your blog should have a specific purpose.

Your purpose could fall into any one of these categories:

• Inform your readers (Educate)
• Attract new customers (Prospect)
• Create interest in products/services (Marketing)
• Develop raving fans (Social Interaction)
• Help customers gain more value from the product (Customer Support)
• Develop brand name recognition and industry influence (Thought Leadership)

There is no right or wrong way to use content marketing on your website. In fact, well-developed websites integrate a combination of purposes for their article posts.

C- COMMUNICATE TO YOUR AUDIENCE WITH A CORE MESSAGE

In marketing speak, your core message is simply a statement of the primary benefit you offer to your customers. You could bottom line it into the one thing, much like the character “Curly” said to Billy Chrystal in the movie, “City Slickers”.

If you could say one and only one thing to your customers to help them remember you, what would you say?

Your core message is the “why” you are in business and the “how” you make a difference. It boils down to your 15 Second Message or Elevator Pitch.

Answer these questions and phrase your answers in two or three sentences and you have your core message.

-1- What do you want to do for your customers?

-2- What impact or influence do you want to have on their lives?

-3- What is the BIG BENEFIT you want followers to get by engaging with your content?

-4- What is the burning question they have that you can answer?

Once you have determined your Core Message, make a list of half a dozen secondary messages that will create the underpinnings to support your message. Having done that, you now have a consistent theme for all of your website articles.

OK, WA fans and friends, that’s it for Day 2.If you have enjoyed this post please do three things for me—1) “LIKE” it, 2) LEAVE YOUR COMMENT and 3) SHARE IT on Facebook and Google+

For Your Success!