Well-planned and effectively executed content marketing can bring your company many benefits: increased website traffic, expert positioning of those who create content and brand recognition, increased customer awareness of the value that you offer and, what we’re all striving for – sales.
But how does one conduct content marketing without going bankrupt?
The trap of quality at any cost
The knowledge needed to prepare substantive articles can lead you into the first trap of high costs of creating content. Sometimes writing articles becomes the responsibility of professionals (e.g. programmers) whose working hours are incomparably more expensive than that of a copywriter. Moreover, they often lack the skills of writing clear and easily understandable texts in a short time. As a result, the time used for working on the content is prolonged, its price increases, and its understandability decreases.
In these kinds of situations, it’s a good idea to leave it to the writing experts, while the participation of professionals should be limited to regular, short meetings. During these meetings, a well-prepared editor should present a list of articles and the outlines of their content, and the specialists can then share their knowledge on problematic issues. It can be useful to prepare a list of specific questions and topics that are unclear in advance. Such mini-interviews should be recorded so that no important information gets lost.
Sometimes within the companies we consult, the CEO participates in the process of creating content. In practice, however, the CEO has tasks with a higher priority than writing, which means that they can also become a major bottleneck in the whole process. Although the described situation results from focusing on the quality of the created materials, it usually causes great delays. This can lead to increased production costs of marketing content and, in extreme cases, lead to a halt in its production.
Cooperating with the right person
If neither the CEO nor the specialists should take on the task of creating content, then who’s job should it be? If your team doesn’t include a copywriter who deals with these kind of topics comprehensively, you can outsource the process of creating marketing content. It could be a freelancer or a part-time employee who will come to the office at least once a week. However, remember that cooperating with the wrong person will cost you a lot of money and stress. The person you are looking for in terms of cooperation should be:
- Flexible – able to write on a variety of topics and in many ways to efficiently create content for different audiences. Such flexibility translates into a willingness to change, and this is a very important trait if you wish to test, draw conclusions and learn something while creating content.
- Focused on deadlines – the texts must appear on time and must be published according to a schedule. Any deviations from this rule cause delays in achieving results and raises the cost of creating marketing content.
- Substantively prepared – even if key information comes from your specialist, the copywriter should be able to acquire and understand it. They should also understand the audience as well as the needs and goals of your company.
Creating attractive content
Simply creating content is not enough. To get the benefits and achieve goals, you need to create content that consumers find attractive. What does this mean? If the text is to be substantively attractive, it must match the needs of your customers. It must also be credible, that is, coherent, logical and objective. Avoid pushy sales messages in your content. Good content sells because it is helpful. Meet the SEO guidelines in the texts you create:
- make sure that the text is of appropriate length (min. 1000 characters)
- use internal links
- mind keyword density within the text
- use the keyword in the title, the first sentence and the headers
- use synonyms and variations of the keyword
- make sure that the headers are of similar length while the subsequent paragraphs are evenly organised (the text is legible on a mobile device, and its size won’t cause problems for the user)
- write in accordance with the spelling and punctuation rules of the language and watch out for typos
- bind the article with the offer – CTA, add links to products
However, make sure to keep it balanced. After all, you write for people, so be natural. Don’t force an excessive amount of keywords in each text. When writing a text, follow the AIDA model – Attention (attracting the customer’s attention, indicating a problem), Interest (making the customer interested in the features of the product), Desire (presenting advantages, creating the need for a product), Action (call to action). Finally, make sure to create visually appealing content – it should include headers, graphics, photos, and they must be clearly visible on mobile devices.
Strategy? What for?
Before you invest your time or spend money on the production of marketing content, consider what you want to achieve through it and when this should happen. Also think to whom, where, when and through which channels you will provide the content. Of course, it’s all about preparing a simple content marketing strategy thanks to which you will choose articles and topics relevant to your business and you will also plan their distribution. Lack of ideas on the distribution of content is one of the most common mistakes, and its effects are very costly. Even content prepared in the best possible way won’t work if it doesn’t reach its audience. Then all your efforts won’t translate into the expected results, and there will be no return on the investment.
When deciding on content marketing activities, you can gain a lot. But before you decide, analyse the current situation of your company and carefully plan the objectives and strategy to avoid multiplying costs and achieve the expected results.
