In the past, marketing primarily focused on garnering attention through TV ads and signposts. However, the proliferation of media outlets has entirely changed the marketing landscape over the past two decades. Websites created for cat selfies and family portraits have been gradually transformed into profitable marketing platforms. Even digital service providers (DSPs) are now tailoring their new services to marketers and businesses.
As a marketer in this present age, your primary focus should be to get your content to the target audience at all costs. DSPs are a very reliable way of presenting your product to the world.
But how can you create a marketing campaign that will keep your audience engaged and loyal to your product? The answer is: through thorough introspection and high-level market research. Then, you’ll need to create engaging written content to accompany your social media posts.
In this article, we will go through some useful hacks every marketer should master in the modern socio-economic landscape.
Know your audience
As a marketer, in-depth knowledge of your consumers or audience will help you craft engaging content. For example, if you are trying to promote a gaming site, you should focus your posts on gaming-related content. Posting cat videos and entertaining blog posts is cool, but it won’t grow your audience at all.
A perfect way of getting to know your audience during the initial stages is to create a survey or conduct market outreach. Even if only ten people respond to the survey, it is a big enough sample size. Focus your content on the ten persons and make adjustments along the way.
Also, you need to grow your following on social media platforms. Hashtags are an effective means of finding related content easily. Try to combine generic and unique hashtags in your posts.
If your audience is predominantly young people, you should optimize the mobile experience — young people spend more time on their phones than on other devices.
Keep your content engaging
After identifying your audience, you should develop a content strategy. The most common approach is to analyze your competition to see what they are working on. However, this strategy often leads to copy-cat content that offers nothing new to your audience. You can rehash the same content and add a unique spin to make it stand out.
Furthermore, you can always start by asking people what they want and base your content on their responses.
Stay consistent and relevant
Engaging content can only keep your audience transfixed if you are consistent. This is why you need to create a content plan over a specific timeframe. For example, you can come up with a weekly top-10 series for your content.
Also, you should always bear in mind that the average human has a limited attention span. Even if your initial content is mesmerizing, visitors will move on to the next product once you are no longer available. You always want to give your audience something to anticipate.
If you lack the writing skills, you can always outsource content creation to freelancers or other writing experts. Marketing your product with error-ridden content is an indicator of a lack of proper attention to detail.
Set your expected goals
Always evaluate your performance periodically to determine possible areas of adjustment. For example, you can use Google Analytics to discover what brings the most traffic to your content as well as consumer behavior. This data will help you set goals and adjust your approach towards achieving them.
Participate in forums
Forums like Quora and Reddit are useful because they have niche communities. You can easily identify your niche and participate in them. Some of the information you can gather from these forums include:
- Consumer behavior
- Interests and needs
- New trends
- Common problems
You can create a rapport with these users by answering their questions on these forums. Use this opportunity to recommend your product, but don’t spam the community with content.
Consider guest posting
Unfortunately, if you are building a base from scratch, you will need some external help. An effective way of attracting more eyes to your content is through guest posts. Let’s assume that you post an article on a reputable website; your article gets more attention and traffic. If your content is excellent, you will get a high retention rate.
Also, if a highly-placed blog adds a link to your post, more users are likely to visit your page. This method is called a backlink — an online stamp of approval from your peer.
Most importantly, consider linking up with other writers and marketers in the same industry for cooperation.
Learn about SEO
Every marketer must have a basic knowledge of SEO. This understanding will play a significant role in your content’s discoverability.
Here are some SEO tricks you should know off the bat:
1. Create engaging titles (not clickbait)
Always look at your title like at a newspaper headline — if it is lackluster, nobody will buy it. But try to avoid the sensationalization of content unless you can back it up with words. If a reader goes through your post and it does not address the problem in the title, they will not share it with others, thus reducing the product’s exposure.
2. Research keywords
There are common words or phrases people use when looking up specific topics. Include some of these keywords in your engaging content organically to improve your discoverability on search engines. This way, customers will find your product way faster.
3. Keep the content simple
Always remember that your potential consumer is someone who wants to read the post without scratching their head. Use common expressions and simplify the meaning of your sentences. Break your content into sections with relevant subheadings. You can also include questions in the content for more engagement.
4. A picture is worth a thousand words
Add pictures and other visuals to your post for more context. People feel more obliged to read a post when it has photos. You can also include keywords in the image’s alt-text.
Every marketer should not only learn everything about writing content but also know how to capture a target audience. But first, you should identify your market and analyze the common problems faced by the consumers. Then, you should develop a content strategy that addresses those issues. Visit public forums to discover new trends. Also, be consistent with your content if you want to retain your audience. Consider cooperating with other writers and SEO specialists. Keep your content fresh and entertaining.
