Content With Benefits: The Top 10 Strategic Content Marketing Tips You Need to Know (Part 1)

Content marketing should be a key ingredient in your social media and digital marketing recipe.  It takes a lot of time, but when it’s done correctly it can be the gift that keeps on giving.  Great content begets great benefits; people – even prospects and customers – will like you more, your employees will be happier to work for your company, more people will talk with you and about you, and even better, they’ll trust and care about you.

How do you become the recipient of such great rewards?  You start by remembering the following Top 10 content marketing tips every time your lightning fast fingers prepare to make a keystroke on that keyboard sitting in front of you right now.

Paste the following words of wisdom on the wall above your computer screen (or on the outside of your laptop to share them with the world) and let them light the way to your content marketing success:

1.  Don’t write a word, share pictures or post videos unless you want to.  In life there are “have to’s” and “want to’s”.  We run away screaming from “have to’s” and wild horses can’t keep us from doing our “want to’s”.  If you don’t want to write, if content creation doesn’t turn you on, if you don’t smile when you finish posting content, then you need to hire someone who does to do create your content.   Otherwise, you’ll create very little content, and what content you do create will carry that feeling of being an uninspired chore rather than an attractive passionate expression.

2.  Focus on giving.  You’ll notice that the content you love to consume has an element of the author giving you something.  It may be inside information, helpful tips, funny videos, infographics that help to explain a complex topic, pictures that make you smile, or stories that you relate to and care about.  The point is that we love content that makes us feel good, so as a content creator, that’s the best kind of content for you to focus on.

3.  Know your business goals.  Not doing this is the #1 problem with online marketing.  You need to develop informed goals for your company and create content to support those goals.

4.  Reach the right audience.  Content marketing is attraction marketing, so post content that will attract the people that matter the most to your business, who care about your expertise, and who will share it with their like-minded friends.

5.  Communicate with a friendly tone and flavor.  Don’t come off like a robot.  The basis of why social media works is that people want to connect and be validated.  That means they want to read, see and hear content that reaffirms that they are in the right place, doing the right things with the right people.  The tone of your content needs to be similar to how you communicate with your closest friends and dearest neighbors, not how you communicate with the customer service robot at your least favorite telecom company whom you feel no connection to.

Digest these ideas, leave comments on how these content marketing tips have worked for you, and come back for the final five tips next week!

This post was originally posted in the Smart Simple Social Blog.