How To Outsmart Your Competition With Content Marketing Tricks
Table of Contents
Spy on What They Are Publishing
Find Out What Clients Are Saying About Your Competitors
Have Knowledge on How Their Sites Are Performing
Find Out Where They Get Their Backlinks From
Conduct SEO Audit on Your Competitor’s Sites
Segment Your Audience
Finding your target audience is hard work, but it’s also one of the most important parts of content marketing. Once you’ve found your ideal customer, you need to segment them. Segmenting means looking at all aspects of your audience—location, age, gender, income level, and so on—and deciding how best to speak to each of these segments.
Create a Funnel
It’s not enough just to have content. You need a way for people who might be interested in your product or service to discover it. That’s where a sales funnel comes in. A sales funnel is a process that leads customers through three stages: awareness, consideration and purchase. The more you can guide prospects through each stage of the funnel, from top to bottom, the better. For example, if you run an e-commerce site selling running shoes, you could start by creating content about running (awareness), then show them some products (consideration) and then try to get them to buy something (purchase). For content marketing tricks like these to work best—and keep working over time—you should create a long-term strategy around them.
Automate Content Delivery
Without tools to help you manage and grow your content, it’s all too easy for your marketing strategy to slip through your fingers. Here are ten tricks that will help you automate content delivery without losing sight of your core marketing message. Create a Content Publishing Pipeline: To keep up with today’s fast-paced web environment, every piece of content must get delivered to each one of your customer segments on time—and in multiple formats, if possible.
Tell Stories
One of our favorite content marketing tricks is storytelling. Good stories are much more likely to be shared, often go viral, and generate traffic on their own. A well-told story will engage customers by making them curious or inspiring them; content that informs while it entertains is always powerful. Tell stories and make your business memorable.
Get Influencers on Board
If you’re launching a new product or service, it helps to have an influencer on board. It can help increase your credibility, get potential clients interested in your offering, and spread word-of-mouth marketing. Even if you’re not launching anything, taking some time to develop relationships with influencers in your industry is never a bad thing—you may just want them to write about something else later on down the road.
Make it Easy to Share
The more likely people are to share your content, and therefore get it in front of more eyeballs, you will get exposure for your company. People are much more likely to share information if it is easy for them. In addition, make sure your content has plenty of shareable material. For example, a tweet can have an image or even just a link but no text.
Run Contests
Some content marketing tricks are simple and low-tech, like running contests that your audience will love. Contests are a great way to gather more leads for your mailing list and get more engagement on social media—but they also keep people coming back time and again to see what kind of new giveaway you have in store.
Engage Directly With Your Audience
If you’re trying to market your company or product on social media, make it a point to engage directly with your audience. Answer questions, respond to comments and concerns, and show people that you care about what they have to say. If you show people that you’re accessible and are interested in their thoughts, they’ll be more likely to share them—and will stick around longer.
Play The Long Game
Too many business owners focus on short-term sales. But, if you’re serious about content marketing and SEO, you need to create content for long-term results. Remember, your goal isn’t short-term gains—it’s long-term traffic growth.
Offer Exclusive Access
Make an offer they can’t refuse. A surefire way to get someone’s attention is by promising exclusive access to something of value. Offering a free digital guide, report, or tool that no one else has access to is a great way to gain traction quickly and make a name for yourself in your niche. Just make sure you deliver on your promise!
If you’re in the content marketing game, you know how important it is to get an edge on your competition by using the right tactics at the right time to grow your audience and boost your sales. The only way to do that? Use these above-mentioned tried-and-true content marketing tricks to gain ground and make your brand shine