Content Marketing – Pink Lemonade Social

The Complete Guide to Content Strategy for Nonprofits, Charities, and Not-for-Profits

Marc B — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 03:05:08 +0000

Guide to Content Strategy for Not-For-Profits

Your mission as a non-profit organisation is to raise public awareness about a particular issue or cause and to raise funds, generate engagement and advocacy from those who share your concerns. The global COVID-19 virus pandemic, on the other hand, has shown that the old ways of doing things don’t cut it anymore. You most likely find yourself in a situation where you need to:

Change your approach to fundraising
Continue to establish your credibility online (which may be completely new or challenging to you)
Apply for further government grants and stimulus opportunities
transform current business relationships into long-term sustainable models for success
look for ways to work together and be creative with others

At the heart of all of this is your brand. Make it crystal clear what your role is, what you do, and why you’re valuable. For future grant and assistance applications, you’ll also need to provide a compelling account of how the pandemic has impacted your business. As a result of the ever-changing digital realm, you’ll need a member of your team who can assist you in creating content for this new digital landscape. This kind of content includes:

Your website and other promotional materials
Facebook, Instagram and other social media channels
Advertising
Grant applications
Email marketing

Content Strategy for Nonprofits & Charities

It doesn’t matter what form your content takes, but it should all work together to help you get cut-through and thrive online. But if you lack a plan, you may find yourself in a bind. Non-profits, compared to normal B2B or B2C businesses, need a different approach to content strategy. Fortunately, the principles of content strategy are the same no matter what industry or environment you operate in.

If you want to tell a story, you need to use your content. Stories about your donors, volunteers, and those you’ve helped through your work are all examples of this in action. For more information on how to do this effectively, see the following points below. It’s not just the stories you tell that make a good content strategy. A non-content profit’s strategy should be based on three principles outlined in the article below.

But before that…

What is a Content Strategy?

Content strategy is a process, not a product. A content strategy is a process that helps you to create and manage content for your company or organisation. It’s not just about creating blog posts, it’s about understanding the audience, what they need and what they want. A good content strategy will start with defining the goals of your organisation and then deciding how to achieve them through content marketing.

What is the Purpose of a Content Strategy?

A content strategy is a plan for how an organisation will create, deliver, and manage content. It is a blueprint of sorts that outlines what types of content you’ll create and how you’ll distribute it to your target audience. Content strategy has many benefits: it enables you to cut down on the time spent on marketing and promotions; it improves customer engagement; it helps with SEO.

Benefits of Content Strategy for Nonprofits, Charities, and Not-for-Profits

Your non-profit can benefit from a well-planned content strategy in the following ways:

Aligning your mission, vision, and values via shared content
Increase credibility, trustworthiness and advocacy
Increase visibility
Differentiation from competitors
Contribute to the success of your company’s overall marketing objectives and goals

As part of your content strategy, you should think about the types of content you’re going to create and distribute. That way, you can ensure that it is in line with your values and goals.

Define Your Content Strategy’s Goals & Objectives

Defining your nonprofit’s definition of success is the first step to creating a successful content strategy and a good task to complete before tackling the 3 principles below.

Determine Which Platforms You Intend to Use.

Include your website, email campaigns, and any other owned properties, of course. However, you’ll also want to keep track of any social media you’re currently using. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter can help you connect with your target audience. Leave them out if you don’t use them often or don’t care about building a following on a platform that’s not working for you. Why waste your time? Instead, concentrate on the areas where you’re most likely to succeed.

Make a List of the Metrics That Matter Most to You (KPIs)

Make a list of the metrics you need to track to see if your strategy is working or not. You can use this to keep tabs on your online activity, build your email list, monitor the number of people who visit your website, or grow your newsletter list. These key performance indicators (KPIs) will be specific to your company and should demonstrate the overarching objective you’re aiming for.

Take a Look at Your Baseline Metrics.

If you don’t know where you came from, you’ll never be successful. A baseline measurement should be taken before implementing a content strategy. This should give you a good idea of where you started and allow you to monitor your progress going forwards. This will cause an imbalance in your results, so resist the urge to reset the baseline too soon after implementing your new strategy. If you keep shifting the goal posts, you will never succeed!

Decide What You Want to Achieve and Stick To It.

What does success look like now that you know where you’re starting from and what you’re measuring? Is it possible to gain 1,000 new Instagram followers in an organic way? Increasing web traffic by a factor of 200???

Using your key performance indicators (KPIs), establish clear objectives and track your progress on a regular basis. That is all there is to it, in a nutshell.

Principles of Content Strategy for Not-for-profits

#1 – Identify What’s Working and What Isn’t

If you already have a website, blog, or social media presence, you need to conduct an audit to determine what worked and what didn’t work in the past and what is working and what isn’t working now. Analyse all your content channels; website, social media, email etc. It is also best practice to conduct an audit on a 3- or 6-month basis ongoing. It’s possible that the most popular parts of the website (and the content that led to the most traffic, donations or engagement) were geared towards things you can no longer do because of COVID, changes in the business, or offering. However, content that focuses on your organization, team and cause and you are delivering what you do may suddenly have more value. You can use a content audit to identify any gaps in your current content, as well as any areas that need to be worked on.

To get started, we suggest reviewing your Google Analytics data when analysing your website. It is important to pay attention to the following aspects of your website’s traffic: where it originates, what it is being used for, how long it is being viewed for, and where it is being abandoned. Look at audience behaviours and user journeys to discover what content your audience are discovering and how they are navigating through your website. Google Analytics can show you how people find your website in the first place (through paid ads, social media posts, or by googling), as well as which pages of your website are the most effective once they arrive (which are the most frequently visited?).

Remember it’s important to stick with what’s working and not abandon what has worked in the past. For things that aren’t working, it doesn’t mean stop all activity, but try to optimise and test before ruling specific content out. Be careful not to put all of your eggs in one basket.

As with your website, you should regularly analyse your social media content and its performance. You can use native in-app analysis tools in Facebook and Instagram, or choose from an abundant range of online software which you can find through a simple Google search.

Afterwards, go through and evaluate each piece of work you’ve done. Analyze all the data you can get your hands on to find out what is working and what isn’t for your website, blog, social media, or email marketing.

Organize your findings into a comprehensive report that will help you prioritise your efforts over the next three to six months.

#2 – Your Content Should Align With the User Journey

With your analysis complete, it’s now clear to you how your customers use your website and social media, and how they respond to your email marketing (both before and after the pandemic hit). Map out the user journey of the people you’re trying to reach with your content, remembering to focus on different audience groups – not just the one who donates/makes purchases, but also those who engage with your content, those who visit but don’t engage etc.

One of the most important aspects your user journey is how people move through it and the different paths they take. When considering your audiences, keep in mind:

What kind of help do we require?
What are we asking of our audience?
Is it still possible to rely on the help of our past supporters and engagers?
Is it possible that we need to find a new audience?
What are the best ways for people to show their support, both digitally and physically?
Is it simple for donors and engagers to help spread the word?

What kind of content you’ll need to create and for whom will be determined by mapping out your user journey for your different audiences.

After mapping out your user journeys and content ideas for audiences and before you get stuck in creating all your content, remember to ask yourself:

What is the purpose of this content?
Who is the audience it is for?
What method will they use to locate it and engage with it?

The answers to these questions are critical to ensuring that every piece of content you create is effective in moving your supporters through complete user journeys and bringing them closer to your organization. Creating content for the sake of creating content is a waste of time if you don’t know what you’re talking about or why you are doing it.

As a non-profit, you understand the importance of establishing meaningful relationships with your audience and supporters. It’s important to demonstrate your ability to empathise with your customers’ needs by answering the questions above, now more than ever.

The last and one of the most important parts about planning for your content is to use your content across multiple channels; don’t just write a blog and post it, promote it in your emails, on your social media. Squeeze that content for all it’s worth.

#3 – Storytelling Is at the Heart of a Content Strategy

A common problem we see in non-profit content is the promotion of the organisations themselves rather than content aimed their audience (and the people who help them help). There’s an old marketing adage “Facts tell, while stories sell” which has been around for decades for a reason. To put it another way, stories are essential if you want to persuade people to support or engage with you. This is especially important at a time when electronic connections are frequently disrupted.

Work to make your supporters, volunteers and the people you help feel like heroes.

As soon as you’ve found a story that you like, try to describe it in terms of its beginning, middle and end. For each story, you don’t have to go into great detail. However, showing your supporters that they matter by including stories about them in your content is a powerful way to engage your audience. At a time when we’re all feeling overwhelmed or frustrated, this will demonstrate to potential supporters the impact they can have. The use of new stories and the repurposing of old ones to appeal to new audiences can both be effective strategies.

So, rather than focusing on your not-for-profit organisation’s overall impact, tell the story from the perspective of your supporters. You might be surprised at how many more people want to help if you demonstrate the impact they are having.

Once Complete, Promote and Share, Then Do It All Over Again

We mentioned earlier that you need to know where your audience is finding and reading your content in point #1. Due to the fact that your content does not operate on the premise that “if you write it, they will come,” it does not matter how strategically written it is.

You need to spread the word about the content to your audience, which means posting it on the social media sites and sharing it in newsletter. Sharing more frequently than you think is necessary and is a common occurrence. Keep in mind that while people are spending more time online, they are also busier and may not see everything you post, so don’t be afraid to share your stories across multiple platforms and mediums.

You can also reuse some of your best content, as previously mentioned (from pre-pandemic and post pandemic – you can always update older content to make it more relevant). What this means is repurposing content that you’ve already written for one medium into another (perhaps a series of social media posts or a blog). Saving time, effort, and money while simultaneously reinforcing a story or piece of content is a great way to go!

Don’t stop there. Encourage the people who are already following you to spread the word. In this new world, your current supporters will always be your best referral source. If your current supporters are no longer able to support you in the ways they once did, you can still make them feel useful and connected by asking them to share your content digitally. Show them how they can get others to join and support your organisation by making it easy for them to share your content with their friends and loved ones.

In these difficult times and beyond, following the three principles outlined above will help you identify how to implement an effective content strategy.

The Importance of Having an Effective Content Strategy for NPOs

Summing up, the importance of having an effective content strategy cannot be emphasized enough. Content marketing has become a crucial aspect in the success of any business and it is imperative to have a strategy in place to ensure that you are reaching your goals. The greater the focus and, in turn, the results from content marketing, the less reliance your organization will have on advertising.

When it comes to running a non-profit with limited resources, at Pink Lemonade Social we understand that it can be a challenge. To assist you in determining the best content strategy for your non-profit, we’re are always available to chat and offer free consultations for your NFP.

BOOK YOUR FREE NFP CONSULT TODAY!

Your non-profit’s content strategy may benefit from our assistance. As a strategic content marketing agency, Pink Lemonade Social takes pride in assisting companies with bold ideas to confidently connect with their audiences. We specialise in content strategy, creating content and amplification of the content. Check out our case study on Content Marketing for Auski Australia.

Some of our Not-For-Profit Experience includes

14 Top Reasons Why Blogging is an Important Content Marketing Strategy for Tourism Businesses

Marc B — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 00:21:09 +0000

14 Top Reasons Why Blogging is an Important Content Marketing Strategy for Tourism Businesses

In the tourism industry, blogging and content marketing is one of the most important tactics for telling your story and engaging your ideal customers in your brand. All of your social media posts and email newsletters are essentially driven by your blog posts because they are a form of content marketing. Destination marketing is built on the foundation of storytelling. Communicating the story of your destination is more difficult than simply understanding it. Branding and awareness campaigns can help you get your message across, but the ‘real’ stories about your destination and the ‘actual’ experiences visitors can have when they visit are what will pique their interest and keep bringing them back.

In this article we’ve outlined the 14 reasons why blogging should be a key part of your Tourism Marketing Strategy that can complement your other channels and avenues of attracting visitors. You can also read our guide How Travel and Tourism Brands Can Attract New Customers Using Social Media.

14 Amazing Reasons Why Blogging & Content Marketing Is Essential for a Tourism Business

1. Your Tourism Blog & Content is Yours

Unlike the content you post on social media, which you don’t control or can be taken, shared or plagiarised, your blog posts on your own website you do own and control.

Your Tourism Business’ blog content will always be accessible to your readers, whereas Facebook and Instagram’s constantly changing algorithms make it harder each year for your content to be discovered and show up in followers’ news feeds. With the reach of organic social posts diminishing all the time, your blog content does not suffer from the over-saturation and algorithms of social media.

2. Blogs and Content Marketing are Great for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation)

It is critical for tourist attractions and destinations to have an SEO strategy in place and to put it into action. Search engines love fresh content, and blogs are an excellent way to add that content to your website, which can help it rise in the rankings making your business more discoverable. Typically, the number of websites with blogs has increased indexed pages by 434% on average. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can help your articles show up in the results of your customers questions and searches typed into their smartphones before and while travelling. In turn, search engines will see your website as a valuable resource that needs to be discovered and help to increase your impressions.

3. Blog Content is ‘Evergreen’ Content

Social content disappears into the ether after 24 hours and email content is gone once it’s deleted, whereas blog content remains evergreen – content that is continually relevant and stays fresh for readers over time. Within a few seconds of receiving an email or seeing a social media post from you, your customers have already moved on to the next one. With evergreen content being discovered every month, this simply means that they are always available to new visitors on your website. As a bonus, blog posts can be easily shared by you or others, which is a great SEO strategy and helps even more people discover your brand!

4. Blogs Attracts More Visitors to Your Website

The core of SEO is content, and search engines are always on the lookout for high-quality, interesting, and authoritative content to populate their results pages. If you engage an agency for SEO work, a majority of that work is going to be writing content that sits on the pages of your website (but not a blog). As a result, having a range of content your website can be found by people looking for a variety of experiences, not just those looking for your destination’s name in the search engine results, because each blog post can target specific and relevant search terms. Blogs also help to bring your current audience to your site. In order to read a blog post you’ve shared via social media or email, your audience has to go to your website to do so. People (who are already interested in your brand) will be more likely to visit your tourism business or purchase your product if they visit your website, so take advantage of the opportunity while you have them!

There are many factors that go into search engine rankings, including the quality of your content and how much attention it receives on social media as well as your blog, as well as the number of shares and comments it receives. When your authoritative posts receive an increase in qualified visitors to your website, you have the opportunity to convert them into actual visitors to your destination.

Discovery Parks great example of a blog.

5. Blog Content is Shareable

As mentioned earlier, creating and sharing awesome blog content that resonates with your ideal customer will help spread the word about your product, destination and brand because it will bring more people to read your blog post on your website.

6. Blogs Build Trust and Loyalty

Keep in touch with your customers by writing a blog for both current, former and future customers. Blogs help to keep your business at the forefront of your customers’ minds (brand awareness and retention) and to remind them about your tourism business, product/service and destination. Whether they are ready to engage or visit for the first time or are repeat purchasers, be sure to share new blog posts on social media and send out eNewsletters to them, helping to achieve brand loyalty.

7. Credibility for Your Brand and Company

Blogs are an excellent way to establish yourself as an authority in your area and to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Suppose you were comparing two accommodation options, both of which had essentially the same product offerings, but one had a lot more helpful blog articles than the other, which would you continue to browse and potentially visit? It would be far more appealing to visitors if they could be greeted by someone who seemed to have an intimate knowledge of the area and its offering.

You can gain more credibility with your audience and enhance your brand image while also establishing yourself as an expert by using blogs to disseminate accurate and valuable information. Online, where building trust between a company and its target audience can take a long time, this is as good as gold. Writing a blog is a great way to quickly build trust with your audience. Remember there are a range of blog post styles; educational, informational, topical, transactional etc.

Taronga Zoo‘s Blog.

8. Blogs Are Low Cost, High Conversion & Time-Effective

Aside from the time and money it takes to hire a web developer to set up a blog on your website (or if you have WordPress, Shopify or another user-friendly platform, it’s quite easy to do yourself), blogging is a low-cost marketing strategy with a high return on investment. More leads will come your way, and you’ll save money and time doing it. It takes time and money to generate leads, but blogging is an efficient way to do so while also increasing the number of leads. Over time, blogs are also more cost and time effective than other forms of marketing; social and google advertising require continual financial outlay, while blogs only take time but recuperate this 10-fold.

9. Share Your Brand’s Knowledge, Opinion and Point of View

As well as sharing information on your products, destination and brand, your blog can also be used to share your knowledge with your audience. From topical news where you can share your opinion and point of view, to interests where you can share your knowledge and expertise, it is easy to craft and communicate your brands voice and message to your audience.

10. Blogs Build Brand Advocacy & a Dynamic Online Presence for Your Destination

The vast majority of websites promoting travel and tourism in Australia are two-dimensional or flat. In addition to a never-ending list of tourist attractions, these sites provide comprehensive details on the region, upcoming events, and the ability to search for and book accommodations, tours and services. A wish list or itinerary builder may offer a small amount of interactivity, but in my experience, these features don’t increase conversions. None of these features, however, are designed to inspire a desire to travel to a specific location.

Instead of just telling potential visitors “what to do,” destinations can use blogs to tell their stories and build relationships with them by showing them the real experiences they can have while visiting the area. Through great storytelling, brands can share real experiences, behind the scenes, tips and more that are all genuine to readers compared to tourism sites that just promote venues for affiliate purposes.

Blog posts also help brand advocacy by allowing readers to interact and respond to them. An additional selling point is the ability for readers to interact with real people who actually visit and live in the area by commenting on blog posts. This engagement will help the tourism businesses convert more visitors. A blog’s social value is enhanced by the ease with which it can be shared on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Adding social media share buttons to your blog can also encourage your readers to spread the word about your content, all in turn increasing online visibility.

11. Blogs Lead To More Links

Your blog’s SEO will benefit greatly if a high-ranking website and other websites links back to your blog post. As a result of high-quality blog content, companies that blog receive nearly 100 percent more links to their site than those that do not. Links help lead to more readers as well as increased ranking for search terms, and your blogs.

Meriton Suites‘ Tourism Blog

12. Content Marketing Leads To Brand Partnerships and Collaboration

Isn’t it true that “two heads are better than one”? In business, the same is true. As a business owner, collaboration is often the key to success in marketing your brand. With the help of collaborating with other businesses, you’ll be able to better accomplish your marketing objectives. In the end, both parties benefit from a mutually beneficial partnership in which they work together. Digital advertising can cost as much as 25% more than brand collaborations. Partnerships and collaborative marketing don’t mean both businesses necessarily need to go all out; you can start small with a series of co-posted blog articles, promoting each other, and then shared via social to help increase the visibility of both businesses. When you work together, make it about helping the audience and customer rather than making money. In the end, the result should be about creating connections.

13. Gain Audience Insights & Sign-ups With Blogs

Having a blog where readers can post comments and feedback, as well as subscribe, has a lot of advantages. In this way, you’ll be able to discover what people are interested in and why they’re there. When managing the content for your blog, part of your content strategy will include regular analysis to determine the best types of content for your blog. Blogs will also be able to build a database of subscribers and learn more about them.

14. Content Marketing Help With Your Business’ Competition

Most likely some of your competitors have a blog on their website, meaning they are taking advantage of all these advantages that you aren’t. Because they have a blog and you don’t, your competitors have better SEO, more leads, a larger network, more links, and most likely more customers. Blogs can help your business stay competitive online through traffic acquisition, keyword ranking, visibility and advocacy. Check out our case study for Auski Australia here, in one year, blogs helped to bring in an additional 130,000 readers to the website, increasing brand awareness as well as revenue.

The Key to Destination and Tourism Content Marketing is creating Exceptional Content

Content creation is what attracts and influences customers in the consideration stage of their purchasing funnel. Blogs, reviews, and customer comments are among the top 10 sources of information people use before purchasing a product or engaging with a business. Because of this, destinations and tourism businesses should focus their efforts on word-of-mouth marketing, as well as the creation of unique, engaging, and relevant content on a blog.

Why all Tourism Businesses & Destinations Should Be Doing Content Marketing & Blogs

It’s a smart way to invest money on blogging and content !

Many tourist businesses destinations are pouring resources into building a presence on third-party platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Social media isn’t a waste of time; on the contrary, it provides an excellent opportunity for interaction. However, because of the short shelf life of social content, no content should be created specifically for it.

Evergreen content on your blog means that it will always be accessible and can therefore be re-posted, ensuring that it will have an infinite lifespan. Consequently, all content should be developed, posted, and then disseminated through your blog and other social media channels. You can continue to share your fantastic content while also encouraging people to visit your website in order to access it, increasing the likelihood that your destination will be considered as a prime choice to convert by potential visitors.

Setting up a Blog for Your Tourism Business

Instead of using a subdomain like ‘blog.tourism.com’ or a separate domain like ‘www.tourismblog.com,’ you should always host your blog in a subfolder of your main domain, such as ‘www.tourism.com/blog.’ Because your blog is a subfolder of your main website, search engines will treat it as a single site and rank your posts higher because of the authority of your main site. Inbound links and social media activity on your blog posts will also help your website because they are all pointing to your main domain.

Have any questions about how blogs and content marketing can help your business? Get in touch today (we respond quickly :P)!

3 High Performing Types of Content Marketing & Why Content Marketing is Valuable

Marc B — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 03:56:03 +0000

The Complete Guide on Why Content Marketing is Still a Valuable Marketing Strategy for Businesses

What is Content Marketing and Why Should I Care?

Content marketing is a strategy that businesses use to promote their products and services by producing and distributing content to attract a specific audience. It is one of the most effective types of marketing for small businesses. Content marketing has been around for a while, but it has become more popular in recent years because people are looking for more information before they make purchasing decisions or researching before interacting with a brand.

There are many benefits of content marketing, but the most important one is that it helps you build your reputation as an expert in your industry and connects to your audience. It also helps you build trust with your customers which can lead to increased sales or traffic.

What are the Benefits of Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the use of content to attract, engage, and retain customers. It is a way of promoting products or services using content to create awareness, interest, and engagement.

Content marketing benefits are immense. It helps businesses increase their reach by being published on various platforms such as blogs, social media channels, videos etc. without paying for advertising. Content marketing also helps in customer retention by providing them with valuable information about products, services or topics they are interested in. The best part about content marketing is that it can be done at any time and cost-effectively too! When done right, content marketing is extremely time and cost-effective and can have long term benefits.

How Does Content Marketing Work?

Content marketing is a form of marketing that has been around for decades. It is the process of creating and distributing valuable content to attract customers, leads, and prospects, with the most common being blogs. The most common way to create content for your blog is to write posts that are directly related to your business or niche as well as their lateral interests to garner a new audience. However, there are other ways you can create content for your blog as well. You could create videos, printables, podcasts, infographics, eBooks, etc. The possibilities are endless!

3 High Performing Types of Content Marketing

Content marketing relies on creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience. When it comes to getting your website discovered by search engines and seen by your target audience, content marketing is the way to go. Even the world’s most well-known brands spend more money on content marketing than on television commercials. With well-known and established companies changing to keep up with the times, the internet is quickly displacing traditional forms of marketing. It’s clear that developing a content marketing plan is the way to go, but how should you go about doing so? There are many ways to generate content for this type of marketing (as mentioned above), but the three we will discuss in detail are the 3 best and high performing types of content marketing.

Blog Marketing

When it comes to efficient content development, blogs are at the absolute top of the list. They increase traffic and conversions for a variety of reasons, the most important of which is that they provide many opportunities for relevant and related keywords to be included in their text. The precise terms and phrases that someone searches for while looking for a specific topic are very certainly included in blog entries. Even if the person isn’t interested in reading a full-length article, it makes keywords more likely to be picked up by search engines. The average blog post length was 1,050 words in 2021, but the longer the better, with longform articles delivering higher google rankings and traffic to your website. Blogs are also one of the most effective strategies to boost SEO and increase organic search traffic to your website. You will find most search engine optimisation agencies (not us!) will utilise ‘on-page’ content to help SEO; the downfall is they aren’t highly skilled in copywriting, or writing for different audiences (that’s why you should always go with content marketers who specialise in communicating to different audiences – like us!). As a business you can complement any advertising with inbound marketing such as content to make the best of your limited budget, as well as to bring in your target audience. According to Forbes, websites with a blog typically have 434% more indexed pages than ones without one.

Check out our case study helping Auski Australia smash their content marketing!

Check out the full article at auski.com.au

Video Content Marketing

The second type of high performing content for content marketing is video – which is no surprise in this day and age. Consumers are watching more video content than they have in the past. In fact, video material accounts for one-third of all online activity. Because of this, video is one of the most effective forms of content marketing for reaching and engaging your target audience, regardless of industry. Receiving information via video is the quickest and most convenient option in today’s environment. It’s critical to create high-quality video material if you want your product or service to appeal to a wide range of people. There are numerous platforms for displaying videos, whether they are a few seconds or minutes long, the main priority is ensuring they are optimised for mobile, and your audience. You’ll find high-quality videos from all of your favourite businesses on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and other platforms. If you want to stay competitive in today’s crowded digital economy, start planning your video content and get on those platforms for some research. It’s critical that you find a way to quickly capture and engage your target audience’s attention.

Social Media Marketing

You might be confused wondering why social media is on this list, but do you create photos or videos to engage an audience? Yep that’s what content marketing is! Social media is a popular form of content marketing that is becoming more relevant and popular by the day. As more businesses realise that social media is an important tool for marketing, more companies are hiring social media managers – again there is a difference between someone to manage the tasks involved, versus the creative and strategy needed. The most tempting aspect of social media is that they are free to run and follow for businesses and the general public. This, combined with the fact that social media posts can instantly communicate a message, makes them crucial to the business. A well-planned social media post can quickly capture anyone’s attention, whether it’s through a photo with a well-thought-out text or a minute-long video. Furthermore, social sharing and engagement (social proof)are one of the most effective strategies to raise brand recognition.

3 Reasons Why Content Marketing Works!

Genuine Connection with Target Audiences

Great tales travel far; let go of the pressure to generate material that appeals to everyone and deliver ultimate entertainment in every piece of content.

Rather, just be yourself. Focus on delivering engaging and consumable content, whether it’s informative, educational etc. but do it in your own voice, your way. Beef up your content marketing output with material that highlights you, your team, the services you provide, and the how and why of your company. Authentic content is frequently the easiest to create. It’s also more likely to engage with and ignite the curiosity of your ideal customer, as well as generate consistent leads for your company. And, just as a strong tale relies on a few common rules, there are content strategy principles you can follow to ensure you get the most bang for your buck when it comes to writing. You can engage your audience and cut through the daily sea of content they are bombarded with by following a solid approach, consistently.

Content Marketing Saves Money and is Better than Paid Advertising

Content marketing vs. paid advertising can be compared in a variety of ways, and yes paid advertising delivers great results in the short term, yet content marketing wins in terms of long-term return on investment. Hands-down. This is because paid ads such as Facebook ads or Google Ads only pay off for as long as you have them running, and you need to have money coming out to keep them running.

Content marketing, on the other hand, is timeless. It can stay on your website for free as long as you want it to, bringing in a new audience time and time again.

Not only that, but content marketing increases brand trust and engagement. Your audience does not perceive you as someone who is simply promoting ad after ad in order to make a profit. Instead, people discover your brand and look to you for helpful information, relevant material, and continuous value. The added bonus is that once you have attracted and engaged an audience, they will continue to discover your business and keep coming back to you in the future.

2 Birds, 1 Stone – It’s Strategically Compatible & Beneficial

If you want to attract more visitors to your website, you must ideally rank first on Google searches, although this is extremely difficult, but you want your primary keywords to be on the first 1-2 pages of google results. Yes SEO can help you increase Google ranking, but so can content marketing – they are inextricably linked. As mentioned above, most SEO companies will do ‘on page-content’ as part of their delivery, but this doesn’t cover content marketing. The quality and quantity of visits to your site are maximised when content and SEO are in sync, as well as when content and paid advertising are in sync.

With content marketing, you’re not only drawing a large number of visitors; they’re also the correct kind of visitors — people who are interested, engaged, and eager to connect with you as they are searching for your content.

To accomplish this, try to keep in mind your material should:

Meet your audience where they are – the terms and phrases in your content should correspond to what they’re looking for on the internet and be helpful, informative, educational, engaging etc.
Address your company’s needs, brand and story – the words on your website should tell your story in an interesting and SEO-friendly style, and they should correspond to the services you provide, as well as communicating who you are to your audience
Emphasize your point of difference – the tone of your material should be consistent with your brand and help you stand out from the crowd. You’ll appeal to your audience more powerfully if you highlight your unique ideals and capabilities.

Why You Should Stop Thinking about Your Blog as a Self-Exclusive Platform and Start Treating it as Part of Your Digital Strategy!

A blog is a powerful tool to communicate with your audience and build your brand. But many bloggers and businesses make the mistake of treating their blog like an exclusive platform. Blogs are often seen as an extension of the content marketing strategy for businesses, but they can be far more than that. Blogs can act as a digital hub for the company’s content marketing efforts, acting as a central place to publish all content. They also provide a great opportunity for brands to connect with their customers on a more personal level by providing insights into who they are and what they do. The key is to start thinking about your blog as part of your digital strategy and not just another outlet for self-promotion.

Conclusion & Next Steps: Consider Using A Content Marketing Specialist To Cut Through the Noise

Most small businesses either struggle with limited budget or they assume they have hired a digital manager or social media manager to already complete the work needed. But, is that person a unicorn? Trust us, no unicorns exist sadly. There is so much work for a Social Manager or a Digital Manager to do, that they don’t have enough time to manage creating all the actual content marketing themselves. Even with limited budget and resources you can outsource effective blog copywriting or social media advertising to help your business succeed. Did you know 1/2 our of Pink Lemonade clients get us to do their content marketing, and all of them have a social and/or digital manager working already working full time!

What about those AI blog writing software programs I see? We should not think of these AI writers as a replacement for human copywriters. They just provide assistance by getting rid of writer’s block and generating content ideas at scale.

Have any other questions about content marketing? Get in touch, we’re happy to answer any and all of your questions!