The 5 I’s of Content Marketing
By Team EtchRock in Content Marketing,EtchRock
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Content Marketing Made Easy
Content marketing. You know you should be doing it, and you are putting loads of material out there. But why isn’t your content standing out from the crowd?
First, you need to adjust your content strategy about what you are actually posting. You need to be applying the ’80/20 rule’ to all your content marketing activity. This means only 20% of your content should be based around promoting your brand and the remaining 80% should be targeted towards creating engaging content for your target audience.
People use social networks to be social and if you flood them with too much sales rhetoric about your event, it will have a negative effect. It is important to remember that not everyone is ready to buy when you are ready to sell. Supply your audience with content they will enjoy viewing and position yourself for the long term.
Implement the ‘5 I’s’ into your content strategy to make it stand out from the crowd.
Inform:
Whenever you think of a topic to write about keep in mind that you are writing it to solve a problem that someone is potentially having. For instance, this post is written for people that are looking to improve their content marketing. They have a problem, we are providing the solution. This will then guide you along the path to what your keywords should be for that particular piece of content.
Impact:
You content has to be of use to whoever is reading it, it has to have an impact. There is no use in recycling other people’s material and using it as you own because that information is already out there. If you are stuck for things to write about, try to put a new spin on an old theory. ‘This is the old way of doing things, this is why it doesn’t work and this is what it needs to be successful’.
Inspire:
Your content should inspire a response from the reader, it must evoke an action. We mentioned earlier that it is important to solve a problem for the reader; we want them to finish reading the article and feeling inspired to take action. Your article should create a state of decisiveness in the reader; you want them to follow what you suggest.
Influence:
When you write your piece, you really need to articulate yourself well. Remember that are essentially asking someone to implement a change and as I’m sure you have found out, people are naturally resistant to change. This is especially true when promoting your own business. To do this, you really need to understand your target audience. If you really do understand why they may be open to change, then you have a great opportunity to provide a solution in your content.
Income:
It’s easy to forget, especially when using the ‘80/20’ rule, that you all your content is geared towards one thing, boosting sales. Always keep in the back of your mind that each piece of content that you put out should be systematically moving the reader along the buying sequence. How your site is build also plays a large part in this. You need to make it easy for people to share, engage and subscribe to your content so that you can target these people later with your sales messaging.
Content marketing won’t be for every business, as it requires a lot of time and effort to reap the benefits. That being said, if you are willing to invest the appropriate resources, you will see great results. Not only can you increase your sales, you will also see a boost in the following:
-Improved brand reputation
-Higher visibility on search engines (SEO)
-Followers on social media
-An engaged audience
-Referral traffic
-Increased conversion potential
The biggest investment that you will have to make in your content marketing strategy will always be time. Try not to fall in love with the end game and making sales, if you enjoy the process of producing content then you are on the way to winning formula!
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