We see marketing content all day long but how making content that sticks are the key to content marketing success. If you are like me your phone is across the room to force you to get out of bed to turn it off so that you don't wake the rest of the family sleeping. This not only forces me to get going at 4am but also gives me my first dose of content; my daily calendar. Content is around us and that content needs to engage us so that we want more of it. Today we added our first full-time content writer with the second already set to start early next year. To get her started in writing stories not only for our clients but those that aren't our clients I started writing at 5am seven core aspects that will help our clients or any business grow with their art of storytelling. Let's delve in and see what the first seven items are and in no particular order of importance as they are all important.
- Include targeted keywords – Yes, we write for a human by design but we can't forget Google, Bing, and the other search engines that help people find out websites. This helps in your organic search engine optimization or SEO. With a 1/3 of our clients doing pay-per-click or PPC you would not expect that to be on the list. The goal in any content marketing is to grow your business organically (e.g. stop paying money to the search engines – just pay it to your content marketing company).
- Does it answer the "intent" of the content that you are trying to get across? If you are writing about the latest limited-edition item does the person reading your content know it's a limited edition and understand the urgency you are trying to convey to them?
- Does the "voice" stay consistent with the brand? Having a consistent voice for many businesses is key. For ours, we mix it up and let each of our expert voices shine as they are equally important. There is no figure head defining our company but rather a team of experts that help growing small businesses. For many businesses this voice should not change and needs to be consistent across all platforms (web, print, and social media).
- Does it tell a story people want to read? Some businesses have a strong following and they could write about a grain of sand and get the engagement and reach others only wish they could get. Others struggle to achieve that level of engagement and reach. Knowing this allows you to define your writing style for your specific audience so that you can build your audience and get them invested in your brand to get that engagement and reach.
- Will the content stand the test of time (e.g. is the content evergreen)? Evergreen for many writers is a completely new subject that they must be aware of. As you write you need to think about your audience today, months, and even years from now.
- Is the content marketing hitting the right demographic? What we write will be read, seen, or listened to by a specific group of individuals. You don't want to target race or politics for sure but you need to be aware of your target age range, gender, and even education level.
- Going off of the education level are you writing to the proper reading level of your audience. We have seen our content written for college level fail miserably for some industries while others it goes through the roof. This goes back to knowing your audience and giving them what they want and need to answer the questions they are presently presented with.
Writing a compelling story that builds your business engagement and reach with all of the above is often not possible in every piece of content marketing. You should strive for it every time you write. If you miss a point or two that's okay. Get them on the next piece of content marketing and you'll do great. As your style starts to grow and come out your audience will engage more and your overall reach on the Internet will grow. Don't focus on likes as they should be a small part of your overall content marketing strategy. Focus on your engagement and reach as your audience will grow and your results will come through.