Content is the king. This overused metaphor has led to a frenzy of articles, blogs, posts, videos, presentations, white papers, infographics, tweets and what not. Have you ever come across a blog with great information but with paltry followers? What could have gone wrong? In the marketing world, thousands of blogs are being published every day that it is veritably an ocean. Your content is just a drop in this ocean which has lost its identity.
Your valuable content is losing its identity…
You are mistaken if you think that this kingship is about position. It is about action. The way you get your content to your digital audience is what makes the difference.
Goals before Reach:
Whom are you trying to reach? – Your Customers or a broader audience?
What is it you look for? – Likes, Shares, Followers, Awareness, Traffic or conversions?
Reach them first:
SEO optimization helps drive traffic to your content but shouldn’t be the only trick up your sleeves. Today’s audience is self driven and is half way down the buyer’s journey before they connect with a brand. You have to reach them even before they need your product or service.
Reach them right:
How do you plan to distribute your content – Paid vehicle, Free vehicle or own vehicle? Own vehicles include your website, social media pages, newsletters, mail networks, RSS subscribers, etc. Free vehicles include Slideshare, Youtube, Quora, etc. Paid, Free or Owned – each distribution channel operates differently and requires different level of efforts and approach.
Reach them often:
The prime lifetime of any content on facebook is 2-5 hours, on twitter is 18 minutes and on LinkedIn is 24 hours of publishing. The key to gain traction is to share your content multiple times and make it easily shareable. Keep your content ever green through updation.
Make yourself useful:
Even the most powerful of the monarchs were overthrown when they overstayed their usefulness. Understand the need of your audience and create content based on their needs and experiences. The usefulness can be delivered in many ways, some of which can be awareness, advice, empowerment, opinion, entertainment, news, guides, etc.
Measure yourself:
Measure the usefulness of your content to know what content is being consumed and how well. Time spent on a page, A/B testing, mouse movement, scroll reach heat maps and live user testing are some of the ways to measure your success.
