15 Content Marketing Ideas

Content marketing is becoming one of the most popular methods of interacting with prospects because it effectively communicates the value of goods or services. When content can relate to someone on a personal level, it can also begin to lay the foundation of the relationship that is required to do business today. Good content shows a reader that a company stands by their work, has expertise to provide the best product possible, and will deliver on the perceived value being talked about.

It all begins with your ability to create content that is natural and based on solving a problem for your targeted audience. That’s where value really is when it comes to your sales funnel! If your content doesn’t show someone how their life can be better in some way, then these additional marketing ideas are going to be rather ineffective.

Content Marketing Ideas for Building Your Brand

1. Break It Up
To be effective, content marketing must be easy to read. Instead of having large paragraphs, limit your paragraph size to about three or four sentences each. Add in some bullet points occasionally or numbered lists to attract specific attention to important data. Limit the length of conjunction sentences so you don’t lose people in the length of the content.

2. Oxford? Or Not to Oxford?
Oxford sentences make sense to utilize in specific circumstances. Utilize the third comma when there may be confusion to the reader if one is not there. Although both ways are considered to be grammatically correct, the purpose is to eliminate confusion. Why? A confused prospect is not likely to enter into your sales funnel.

3. Provide Real Value
Content marketing isn’t about making the hard sell. Use your content to provide people with actual value they can use, including within the sales pitch itself. Using tips, tricks, secrets, or easy methods to solve certain problems will help to build loyalty and enhance the value of your goods or services as well.

4. Be Authentic
Not every writer can be a content writer. Even content writers can’t always work with certain types of content. In order to relate to someone, there must be an authentic experience that is documented by the writer to convey what goods or services can actually do.

5. Spintax Is a No-No
Spun content will never work well for content marketing. It might bring in traffic from associated blogs and might register as unique content, but people are smart. They know when they’re reading something that was carefully crafted… or was created by a computer program. Which one would you rather read if you’re thinking about purchasing something important to you?

6. Be Perfect
Errors in content might seem small, but they can create large problems for the reader. When a writer creates content, even the best writers will make an error that won’t get caught. Having a copy editor that is reliable to review all of the content before it gets published will eliminate any negative feelings that are caused by a simple spelling or grammatical error.

7. Don’t Make Lofty Claims
If anything sounds fishy on the internet today, the average consumer is going to believe you’re trying to scam them through your content. If you can prove your claims, then add links to the proof or the source material that is used for this proof. Don’t bother to generalize or make up statistics because it can be disproved in a couple clicks.

8. Think Long Tails
Google is looking at long form data as the most valuable at the time of this writing. Just having a lot of content isn’t good enough, however, because your content must also answer specific questions. Look at the long tail SEO keywords that are popular in your goods or services, answer questions related to those long searches, and you’ll have good content.

9. You Can’t Describe Too Much
Details are a good thing when it comes to content marketing. Details matter. The more specification about your goods or services you can provide, the better the response to your content marketing efforts are going to be.

10. Blogs Are Just the Start
Content marketing often focuses on blogs, but this is a mistake. Blogs are good, but content is found everywhere. Use your content marketing for emails that you send out. Apply these concepts to your newsletters. Even think about content marketing for your home page.

11. Always Follow-Up
The best content marketing campaign will give people the chance to ask questions. When you get these questions, follow-up as quickly as possible so that you keep people on the hook. Every minute you delay is a minute that might make someone choose to go with your competition instead.

12. You Can Be Too Busy
Good content is in the words that are said, not the color of the words that are said. Instead of using blue or red text to emphasize a point, try using a [strong] tag or underline the text instead. You’ll get the same emphasis points, but in a more naturalized setting that most folks are used to seeing.

13. Keep Journalism In Mind
Have you ever read a news story that put a new sentence from the same quote on a different paragraph line? It’s an awkward experience to read each sentence because a paragraph indicates a pause. Do you take a deep breath after each sentence when you speak? Most people do not. They’ll complete a thought and then pause. Do the same with your content structure and complete your thought to be more effective.

14. Be Excited
When you use amazing adjectives in your content, you’ll create a stunning result. Would you get excited about wearing a blue shirt? Or would you rather wear an amazing, comfortable blue shirt that’s 100% cotton?

15. Failure Is Part of the Program
Most content marketing campaigns fail because they try to please everyone. You’re not going to please everyone. Follow the 80/20 rule instead and you’ll have more consistency and better overall results.