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Boosting Your Content Marketing Strategy in the New Year
Content marketing has become a widely established practice. Businesses use content marketing to engage customers, drive traffic to their website, and increase sales. With a greater focus being put on content marketing, comes an increase in competition. Boosting your content marketing strategy is less challenging than you may think. Business marketing loans can be used to employ content marketing strategies and improve your marketing techniques without breaking the bank. If you’re looking for advice, check out our five tips for boosting your content marketing strategy in the new year.
1. Analyze Data, Adjust, and Set Marketing Goals
Before altering your marketing technique, analyze your current efforts and results. Establish your strengths and pain points. From there, you can figure out what adjustments you can make to improve your overall strategy. For example, you may not be generating enough leads and may want to target a wider audience.
Maybe you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to get back to the gym or to eat healthier in 2019. What about setting a career-based resolution for the new year? Create a list of steps to improve your marketing action plan.
2. Identify and Influence Your Audience
There is no one-size-fits-all marketing technique that works for every type of user. That’s why you need to plan out ways to determine who your audience is and how to reach them. Defining your audience can help guide all your marketing strategies, such as business social media tactics, content creation, and advertising. Targeted content should address customers’ questions and help them solve a specific issue or challenge.
If you’ve been in business for a while, you probably know your target audience. You can choose specific demographics to target, based on age, location, gender, income, and occupation. Or you can think more about the personality traits of your typical consumer, including:
• Values
• Attitudes
• Lifestyles
• Behaviors
•Interests/passions
If you are uncertain of your ideal consumer, check out your competitors to see how their audiences affect their marketing tactics. Once you’ve figured out who your target customer is, you’ll have a better idea of how to boost your content marketing strategies to align with their interests.
3. Get Active on Social
According to a Social Media Examiner report, 96 percent of small business owners use social media, but only 92 percent strongly agree that it’s important for their business. Some small business owners don’t know the value social media has in boosting content marketing outcomes. Whether you’re onboard with social media or not, it’s here to stay.
If you haven’t already created a social media strategy, make sure you are proficient in all the major social media platforms. Then start working out how you can improve your social channels to attract and retain customers. Boosting your content marketing plan can be as simple as scheduling daily social posts. Or it could be as complex as monitoring the reach of every single post and searching for buzzwords. Ultimately, you decide how far you’ll go to increase your social media presence.
4. Vary Content for Different Stages of the Sales Funnel
Go Viral with Video
If you’ve scrolled through Facebook recently, you’ll notice the large presence of videos on your newsfeed. Creating video content is an effective way to boost your content marketing strategy and gives organizations an opportunity to reach customers in a natural, accessible way. Try making videos of product demonstrations, customer stories, and other insight related to your company. It’s important to keep your videos short: 1 to 2 minutes is a good benchmark.
According to Cyberclick, the format of the videos you present is as important as the content. Filming with smartphones and tablets tempts us to create vertical videos. However, videos in the square format have higher levels of engagement and take up 78 percent more space in the Facebook News section. Make use of additional features, like adding closed captions for the muted video watcher, to improve your view count and recognition. Also, consider the use of small business loans to offset the initial costs of video and production equipment.
Using Premium/Gated Assets
While video content draws in consumers at the top of the sales funnel, downloadable assets better suit folks who are closer to the purchase stage. This content might appear in the form of eBooks or white papers for which readers must enter their contact information to download. Or they could present themselves in the form of free consultations and product demos. Premium and gated assets can help shift a user from considering using your product to deciding to use it. Plus, you capture the contact information to nurture those leads.
5. Drive Your Data
It’s not just about content creation; using data is just as important in boosting your content marketing strategies. Consider employing A/B testing strategies. A/B testing is when you compare two versions of a single variable to determine which version is more effective. This might take place over the course of a few weeks or may happen over a few months’ time. A/B testing can be used to increase website conversion rates and improve the overall effectiveness of your marketing communication. Working capital can be used to invest in A/B testing software.
Use Small Business Loans to Propel Growth
Now that you have ideas for boosting your content marketing plan, it’s time to put them to action. Employing content marketing strategies may require supplementary cash. Here are some ways you can use capital from a small business loan to boost your content marketing plan:
• Invest in pay-per-click and other social media campaigns.
• Hire marketing and content experts.
• Advertise in industry-specific media.
• Use email and direct mail marketing.
• Invest in a content marketing platform.
At QuickBridge, we make accessing capital for your business easy. Our streamlined application process won’t require you to offer up collateral or submit a stack of documents to qualify. Our approval process is quick and customer service exceptional. If approved, you could see the funds in your account within 24 hours. Contact us today to get started.
