How to Launch and Grow with Content Marketing

Content Is The Glue Of Community

Over the past 8 years, I’ve used content marketing at various companies to build an audience of potential customers and drive growth.

Our agency Grow and Convert has grown completely off of content marketing and our previous company Wordable, that was acquired, was launched and grew solely from content marketing as well.

Below I’ll share some tips that can be used to grow your business with content marketing.

Keep It Unique

More and more companies are producing content and it’s becoming harder for companies to stand out with content marketing. We think there are two things that can help your content be seen by your audience – 1. Writing about unique topics 2. Keeping the posts as specific as possible.

In order to figure out unique topics to write about, listen to your customers and prospects on sales calls, then conversations and write answers to their questions in the form of a blog post.

Why? Chances are if one prospect has a question, there are many more prospects that have the same question.

Also, ask them open ended questions about the product or service you’re selling, as well as the industry. You’ll want to ask questions such as:

What challenge were you facing prior to using the product or service?

What are some of the biggest challenges you face in your role?

What are your 3-6 month goals in your role?

Here’s a full list of survey questions you can ask to figure out topics to write about.

Taking this approach to ideation will help you come up with more unique ideas to write about and help you stand out in your content marketing efforts.
 

Hit On the Pain Points

If you know what the biggest pain points are for your target audience write content around them. In the content marketing space I knew there were a lot of people who wanted to learn how to drive traffic to their blogs so I began to make my own content teaching them how I drove traffic to my website. This was something the community was hungry for and the content did quite well.

Teach Them How

It’s even better if you can show thought leadership by teaching the community how to do something through your content. What makes these types of posts successful is that we walk through a step by step process and show the thinking behind what we’re doing. We aim to share everything and not just share the high level details.
 

Case Studies With Metrics

I also like to create case studies on what I’ve tried in the past and how it’s worked out for me. When I do these I share real metrics so it’s coming from an open and authentic place. I ask the community to give me feedback on the tactics I’ve shared and if they’ve had any similar results to share.
 

Post Personally

By authoring all my posts personally I’m owning everything I’m putting out there. I’m clear about who the content is for and why I made it for them.

I’m not letting a third party dictate my message so when someone comes back to me with questions I can take on the responsibility of answering them.

These interactions are exactly what you’re looking for from your content marketing efforts, they lead to more engagement and work to build that community you’re seeking.
 

Ask For Feedback

It’s good to ask for feedback from time to time and check in with the community on how your content has been resonating. I tend to leave my audience with a question that brings people back to our website.

Once they’re on our site I usually have a content upgrade to offer them that also works as an opt-in to our email list. Using this technique has been one of the primary drivers of our list growth.
 

Action Steps

1. Find communities online that contain your target audience. For example, if you’re selling to marketers, there’s tons of communities on Facebook and LinkedIn, as well as standalone communities such as GrowthHackers and Inbound that you could tap into.
2. Don’t create commonly found content for these spaces, be unique.
3. Create content around the communities biggest pain points.
4. Use your own experience to create content that teaches what you know.
5. Add in case studies with your real tactics and metrics.
6. Solicit questions and feedback as a CTA for your content.
7. Have a content upgrade to act as an opt-in on your website.

 

Result You Will Achieve

Content for targeted communities that will drive traffic back to your website and list.

 
This article is based on an EHQ interview with the mentor.