Congratulations! If you are facing content marketing challenges, that means you have started to invest in content marketing – and that is worth a round of applause! Content marketing is the best form of marketing, and that is not just my bias; check out these statistics:
- Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads.
- Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%).
- 82% of marketers who blog see positive ROI for their inbound marketing.
- Organic search leads have a 14.6% close rate, while outbound marketing leads have a 1.7% close rate.
So, congratulations on investing in the future of your company (and if you haven’t implemented content marketing, here is a good starting point).
But let’s be honest, content marketing is hard – if it was easy, quality content wouldn’t set your company apart. If you are running into some issues keeping your content marketing strategy on track, or getting the ROI you desire, you are not alone. Content Marketing Institute’s B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends – North America report found that there are three major challenges that content marketers across the nation face – lack of time, producing enough content and producing engaging content. We want to see your content marketing strategy succeed, so we have compiled some tips on how to address these challenges.
How to fix your content marketing problems
Lack of time
Unfortunately, there is no way to make a 25-hour day, but here a few, almost as good, ways to make time for content marketing:
- Create a content calendar – A content calendar will save you time during the month and allow you to see what’s happening on every channel.
- Schedule posts – Use a scheduling tool to schedule an entire day/week/month’s worth of posts at once. Just make sure you know what is being posted each day so you can avoid scandal and still check-in so you are engaging with your followers in real-time, too.
- Reuse content – You don’t need to reinvent the wheel every day. Rework some of your popular content to make something new!
Producing enough content
If you are currently scrambling at the last minute to figure out what to post, you are doing it wrong. Planning is a huge part of creating enough content. At the beginning of each month, look into what’s going on in your company, industry or city and take note. Think about content you can post before, during and after an event. Find obscure holidays that you can use as an excuse to plug your message. You will be surprised at how quickly your content needs are met when you plan ahead and strategically post around special occasions.
Producing engaging content
The answer to this challenge is easier said than done – stop posting just because you need to post. Quality over quantity. Yes, quantity does matter because you need to be consistently active, but master quality first. Here are a few things to consider:
- Are you on the correct channels? Your content may be engaging, but you are just not in the right place.
- Are you varying your content by channel? Different channels have different requirements for engaging content.
- Talk with your audience, not at them. Ask questions, listen to them and respond appropriately.
- Monitor and analyze your success. Did you have a few popular posts last month? Find out what they had in common – time, day, format – and use that information to create new posts.
Want some more advice on time management and content creation? Download our Best Practices in Social Media eBook; it’s 28 (easy-to-read) pages of tips for streamlining your content marketing process. There is even a content calendar template included!
Still not convinced you can handle all the content alone? Give us a call. We can help you do anything from setting up a strategy to writing your blog posts to monitoring your social media channels. Seriously, we are nice. Give us a call.
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