The first thing you want to do is create a customer persona. You need to be as detailed about this as possible – gender, income status, types of jobs/careers they may hold, marital status, urban/rural/suburban lifestyles, etc.

This will take research and looking at data  about the people who are buying from your competitors. All of this information is out there, and you need to go get it.

Once you have your customer persona, it is time to learn where they hang out online. You will always find a good customer base on Facebook, but where else? There is now great data  that will tell you not only the preferred social media hangouts of your target audience, but even what days and times of day they are on those sites.

Why is this important? Because you will want to use social media platforms to drive your target audience to your website and blog. Keep in mind that most of your sells won’t go through social media. You are entertaining and intriguing. You are establishing connections and relationships. And if your posts are amazing, they will be shared – spreading your brand to new audiences you have not reached directly.

Don’t forget about foreign-speaking audiences, either within your own locale or abroad. As you grow, you will want to appeal to them as well. For this, you will need to have your content translated and/or localized for non-native speaking audiences. You can achieve this relying on your own skills or through online resources like IsAccurate , a site that provides names and summaries of the translation agencies.

     2. Understand a Buyer’s Journey

There are three stages in any buyer’s journey – awareness of you and the products/services you offer, consideration of what you offer, and then the purchase decision.

You will have targets in all three of these stages, so any content you create must be differentiated by these. This is especially true as you develop email lists, or as you track visitors to your website.

If you are new to the concept of a buyer’s journey, you can get a better understanding by reading a great article by Pardot.  

Image source: picjumbo 

     3. Now About that Content

There are oceans of marketing content out there, and you have to stand out among the competition, if you intend to get a decent market share. It takes time, creativity, and a good understanding of what consumers want in the way of content today. Here are a few guidelines:

• Consumers are busy. They don’t want to struggle through walls of text to get the information they want.

• Consumers are using mobile devices more than PC’s, and so content must be designed for those devices.

• Consumers love visuals and videos – they will focus on those more than text and they will retain what they have viewed.

• Text should be “snackable” – simple language, divided into small chunks with bold sections and sub-headings.

The other thing about content? It has to be engaging. People need to be motivated to stick with it. This requires creativity and stunning visuals.

If you are not an expert in marketing content creation, then you have some work to do. First, spy on your competition. Find out what content they have that is most popular. Second, get some help.

Here are some tools and sources:

1. Buzzsumo: This great site will let you enter keywords that relate to your niche and pull up all of the popular content that has been produced by others. You can take that content, curate it, make it better, and publish it on your blog or social media platforms.

2. FlashEssay: This is a writing service company that works in the area of marketing content creation. It has a huge department of creatives and journalists who are experts in digital marketing.

3. Canva: If you want to give creating your own visuals a try, this is a great source. You can create graphics, drawings, and other types of visuals easily and quickly

4. Movavi Video Suite: Making your own videos is much easier than you think. If you have the time, give it a whirl.

5. AllTopReviews: This is a writing service review site that ranks content writing agencies according to actual customer experiences and the quality of staff and products they have delivered to customers.
   
   

A few other tips: 

Keep anything you write simple, personal, and conversational. You are trying to develop personal relationships with your audience, not sell stuff.

Get known for a certain tone or style – have a joke of the day; have an inspirational quote of the day; tell your story; give something to your readers that will keep them coming back for more.

This part of content is probably the most challenging, because you have to keep a consistent schedule of postings, and it takes time to come up with ideas and topics.

You can contract this out at relatively reasonable pricing by using such services as Freelancer, SupremeDissertations, Upwork, GetGoodGrade, and Fiverr. You can find individual freelance copywriters, or, in the case of writing services, entire departments of copywriters with a variety of backgrounds.

Shorter content is obviously for social media platforms. Longer content is for your website and blog. And when visitors get to that blog or website, solve their problems. What do they need and want? Show how you can give them that – that’s the value-added piece you must have.

Image source: Pexels 

     4. Promote that Content

This is where social media truly comes into play. Use short amazing posts with teasers that will drive folks to your site or blog.

But there are other things to do as well:

• Offer incentives for folks to subscribe to your email list. Send out newsletters with important information and help; offer special pricing and discounts for readers to share your emails with their tribes.

• Reach out to influencers in your niche. As to re-post some of their content; ask to post an amazing article you have written on their blogs

• Run sponsored advertising

Chelsea Ann Dowdell, Chief Content Officer for RewardedEssays, puts it this way: “You don’t have to be everywhere; you have to be where your customers are, and you have to find those platforms they most use. Once you do find those platforms, post often and regularly. Your following will grow.

     5. Use Analytics to Measure Content Effectiveness

You can just throw content out there and hope that some of it sticks with the right audience. Or, you can use the available tools to measure what content is “sticking” and what is not. If you don’t do this, you will be wasting time and money.

Amanda Sparks, Marketer for EssaySupply, puts it this way: “Too many content marketers think their jobs are finished once they have created great stuff on a publishing schedule and keep pumping out that content. If they are not tracking popularity, stickiness, and ROI, they are just blowing in the wind.”

You can use a lot of tools, like those offered by Google Analytics or Buffer.  

     Conclusion

Your business is launched. It’s a good feeling. Now the real work begins – bringing in those customers. And you can only do that with a solid and strong content marketing strategy. These five tips should get you well on your way.

Author Bio: Jessica Fender is a professional freelance writer and independent blogger. She is passionate about content marketing and leading other marketers to success in this new age of digital marketing. You can find her articles on Freelancer.com and Addicted2Success. Or follow her on Twitter.