content marketing industry

Content marketing. Year after year, it continues to explode. From B2B to B2C, everyone is getting in on the action. In fact, according to the Content Marketing Institute, 89% of B2B marketers are either already using content marketing or plan to do so in 2017. The thing is, most of them have very little idea what they’re doing. And, because of this, they’re outsourcing a large portion of their content marketing efforts. So what does that mean for you? Well, it means there’s a whole lot of opportunity to grab a piece of the pie if you’re willing to get in the trenches and learn about the content marketing industry. And we’re going to help you do just that. Let’s get started. What Can Content Marketing Help You Accomplish? The beauty of content marketing lies in the fact that it can help marketers and organizations accomplish multiple business goals at once. As Content Marketing Institute contributor Andrea Fryrear puts it, “Content marketing is kind of like a Swiss Army knife; it can do almost anything if you set it up the right way.” Some of the main goals that it can help accomplish include: In order to accomplish these goals, however, you’ll need to develop a deeper understanding of the components that make up the content marketing industry. How to Learn About the Content Marketing Industry Billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk currently heads three different companies in three completely different industries (SpaceX, Tesla, and SolarCity). But what in the world can Musk teach us about content marketing? It starts with his views on learning. In an AMA that Musk took part in on Reddit, he was asked a question about how he’s able to learn so much so fast. His response? The part we want to hone in on is his advice that, when attempting to learn something, you need to understand the fundamentals first before moving onto the leaves and details. There are so many different aspects of content marketing. If you try to learn the ins and outs of the industry without first understanding the fundamentals, you’ll get lost quickly. Fundamentals first. Details second. [clickToTweet tweet=”Check out the beginner’s guide to #ContentMarketing via @ExpWriters! It shares the six fundamentals you need to know!” quote=”Check out the beginner’s guide to #ContentMarketing via @ExpWriters! It shares the six fundamentals you need to know!”] The Fundamentals of Content Marketing Let’s take a look at the six main fundamentals of content marketing. They include: Creating an Audience Persona Understanding SEO & Identifying High-Value Keywords Determining Content Types Creating an Editorial Calendar Understanding Content Publishing & Promotion Content Maintenance & Tracking Results 1. What You Need to Know About Creating an Audience Persona The first rule of content marketing is simple; create audience-centric content. As Neil Patel says, one of the biggest mistakes that content creators make is that they create content that isn’t ideal for their audience: “When creating content with the ultimate goal of marketing a good or service, you have to know who your audience is. Understanding and targeting your audience is crucial to a successful content marketing campaign.” Instead of being audience-centric, where they identify their audience and produce content that’s useful and relevant to them, these marketers instead create content and then try to find an audience for it. This is a crushing mistake that will almost always lead to a failed content marketing strategy. For this reason, creating an audience persona should be the first step when developing your content marketing strategy. The personas you create serve as the catalyst for making sure that your content is relevant and useful to the audience you’re targeting. And, in the end, content marketing success comes down to creating an audience persona where you’re able to identify your target audience, research them thoroughly, and figure out what THEY want you to talk about. Where to Learn About Creating an Audience Persona While there are quite a few resources to help guide you on how to create an audience persona, the two that I’ve found to offer the most actionable information on the topic include: Buffer – The Complete, Actionable Guide to Marketing Persona Express Writers – Guide on How to Develop a Target Persona and Reach Your Audience 2. What You Need to Know About SEO The first thing you need to know is that SEO is actually all about content marketing, and vice versa. One of the biggest problems with the mindset of modern content marketers is that, as Copyblogger founder Brian Clark mentions, they have, “…a misguided impulse to put various tactics into separate boxes instead of seeing each as an aspect of one overarching strategic process.” Instead of thinking of SEO and content marketing as two totally different tactics, Clark advises that, “The smart way to practice effective online marketing is to treat social media and search engine results as aspects of a holistic strategy that centers around compelling content.” While there was certainly a time when marketers could generate positive organic search results by focusing solely on technical SEO – and not on creating great content – that time has long since passed. Today, SEO and content need to work together, along with social media, to form an online marketing combination capable of winning over customers that will stick around for the long term. What You Need to Know About Identifying High-Value Keywords The main thing you need to know about high-value keywords is that they have the power to transform your website, and business, when identified and used properly. Interestingly enough, identifying high-value keywords, and building great content around those keywords, has been the main strategy that has helped turn Express Writers into a multi-million dollar agency. In fact, using this strategy, we’ve gone from ranking for about 3,000 keywords back in November 2015 to ranking for over 11,000 as recently as June of 2017. Take a look at this graphic from our case study about how we gained over 300 keyword positions in one … Read more