The Most Effective yet Overlooked Content Marketing Strategies

Content marketing strategies continue to evolve with time. Those who have spent a considerable amount of time in any of the fields related to it would agree with the statement. Companies keep on changing their strategies while continuously bring about innovations in their approach to stay ahead of the game. Since the competition is so tough, complying with old school methods may not be the best option in the world of marketing.

Related: Twitter Hashtags: How to use them to benefit your business.

Having said that, these innovative marketing and content marketing strategies do not always pay off. They tend to back fire on many occasions. In some cases, it can be seriously damaging to an organization’s cause. It is quite astonishing that even after intense meetings and discussions with the best professionals, you just don’t get the desired results. One of the main reasons for this is that companies often ignore important marketing methods.

Some of the most obvious and efficient marketing techniques and strategies that companies overlook happen because they tend to overthink things while attempting to think out of the box. Which is not bad, however, sticking to the basics is an important part of any marketing plan. A little bit of refined innovative touches are most welcome, but in general, there are some key aspects you need to remember before you throw your plan out into the market.

This article will help you to reflect upon some of the basic mistakes that you might be making in your efforts to succeed.

The Need to Be Visually Appealing

This is a basic ingredient in content marketing strategies. Eye catching content is probably the most important element in any marketing strategy. Visitors to website pages continue reading the content displayed only when they find it to be visually engaging. So if you can catch their eye, you have better chances of succeeding.

Catchy Images Help Content Marketing Strategies

Posting a good image or graphics on your main page is probably the first step in visual engagement. So here is what we suggest:

Go for images and pictures that are simple yet intriguing. Remember, it is just to get the visitor’s attention. You don’t need to fill the image or picture with unneeded facts and figures. However, the image should speak about the product or content you wish to market. It is probably the ice breaker between you and your customer.

Good color scheming is also vital as many customers do not like it too bright and colorful. Use simpler and sober colors in the images.

Slide Shows and Presentations

Another technique to visually engage a customer is the use of slideshows and presentations. Many customers are not fond of scrolling down the page to read everything. Introducing slide shows and presentations is a good option.

While making slide shows, it is important to keep it precise and ‘to the point’. This is a common mistake. People tend to overdo things while making presentations. Your core objective is to convey your message so keeping it concise is pretty much what you need.

Slideshare is a great platform for such tactics. It’s simple and effective, try it!

Visual Facts and Figures

If your content is word oriented and as long as a raccoon’s tail, it can bore the readers. To keep the readers interested in your articles and content descriptions, relevant infographics are necessary. Make sure to add images, charts and graphs that support your ideas and enhance their authenticity. This is probably the only way you can have your customers read your 5000 word article.

Nowadays, several online applications have made it easy to design your own graphics using simple drag and drop methods. Literally anyone can create perfect infographics. According to research, traffic on your website can be doubled by simply using infographics.

Your Blog is Just Another Marketing Tool

Some businesses view a blog as the primary source of content marketing strategies. It is a major misconception which needs to be addressed. People write blogs for many reasons. They tend to put everything into their blogs. Hence, if the blog isn’t successful, they either stop blogging or change their tactics.

You need to go easy on the blogs. Keeping it updated is a good thing, but you should ask yourself before starting a blog for your business: “Is it necessary?” Your business may not need a blog, so it is better to analyze everything to save yourself time and resources.

Your Audience

If you are to buy vegetables for your meal, you don’t go to the meat shop. You go to a vegetable market.  Similarly, there is a big need to understand where your audience lies and how you can connect to them when it comes to setting your content marketing strategies.

One of the failures of marketing plans is that the content does not reach the concerned group of people. It is mainly because of a lack of research that the businesses do not know where to market themselves.

It depends on the company how it carries out its search for its audience. Introducing an innovative idea about a product on social platforms is possibly one idea to engage people. Online social groups such as LinkedIn are also places where businesses can address their audience. The main objective is to get your audience listening to and following you.

Social media pages that suit your business type are a potential hub for your audience. Search for your audience, it is important to a better marketing strategy.

Your Content Is the Key

After finding your audience, and getting their attention. You can engage them through your visual graphics so that your content ideas will help you succeed. According to research, a survey of more than a hundred million articles suggested that the articles that were most read by the users had some of the following characteristics:

• The longer the better.

People like sharing and reading intellectual material which is visually longer and comprehensive. According to NY Times, longer contents are much more likely to be emailed than shorter content. Articles having a word count of more than 3,000 words are more likely to be published and shared than shorter ones.

• Emotionally engaging.

Articles that address emotions and feelings are much more likely to connect with people. People are fond of reading material that engages them emotionally.

• Keep it hilarious.

Your content should include an element of humor. No one likes reading lengthy and seriously boring articles. Regardless of the background a reader may have, there is always room for humorous and witty content.

• Listicles and tutorials

Article writers understand that long paragraphs and texts tend to be boring and sometimes put off customers. Therefore, shorter paragraphs, bullet points and more subheadings can make content more attractive and readable. People like learning from such articles so listicles and tutorial articles are much readable by most viewers.

• Influential people can be helpful.

Research suggests that the content of articles shared by public figures are read more often. This is because that person has followers who want to know everything he or she does or shares. It also authenticates the article’s content.

Share Your Content

One of the major flaws of content marketing strategies is that once your content is done and dusted, it doesn’t get its fair share of time on social media. Blogs and websites do not get recognition because they are not shared enough on social platforms. So if you have designed a social media page, you need to regularly update it with the latest blog posts so that your followers can be updated.