We’ve all seen it — the lazy, haphazardly cobbled together Facebook posts from small businesses, and even larger brands from time to time. This is often the product of a well-meaning but poorly planned content-marketing strategy instituted without having real thought given to the semantics. These businesses might be posting every day across multiple channels, despite not having the time or resources to do so in a professional manner that adds value for their clients. Unfortunately, there’s no getting around the reality — if you want to set up a killer marketing strategy, you’re going to have to make sure that you’re creating high-quality content. Cobbling together something to post for the sake of posting just isn’t going to cut it.
Why? Well, the type of content you put out says a lot about your brand and will impact the way your consumers view you. That’s why it needs to be taken seriously. Your customers would almost certainly rather see one or two quality pieces of content a week than see subpar content day after day.
But how can you ensure that your content is, in fact, up to snuff? Well, you can start by prioritizing the following when creating and distributing your marketing content.
Always Be Adding Value.
If you’re not adding value for your audience, you’re not doing much of anything. The posts, blogs, and emails that get scrolled past are the ones that are less about what your customers want and need and more about you. For example, you may think that your social media followers enjoy seeing materials about your latest promotions and sales day after day on your Facebook page, but research would suggest that they don’t. After all, they have your sales emails for that.
When you make your social media pages — or blog — all about trying to sell, you are pushing your base away. They don’t need to be told on every channel what you’re offering, because if they’re following you, they typically already know. Instead, get their feedback on what they find interesting and educational — and provide quality content based on those topics.
Make It Personal.
Brands that want to make a personal connection resonate with consumers. That’s why testimonials, firsthand accounts, and intimate advertising are so much more successful than generic content. Consider interviewing some of your biggest fans and tell their stories. Keep an emphasis on not just your brand, but how your product or service helped to improve someone’s quality of life. That will certainly be more valuable than a simple sales pitch or premade graphic.
Get Feedback.
The best way to know if your customers are connecting with your content is to get feedback from them. See what topics and posts they favor the most and ask what they would like to see in the future. This is an easy way to fit your high-quality content into more of a niche and start building rapport as an expert in your specific field.
Analyze Data.
While anecdotal feedback can provide a lot of insights that cold, hard data cannot, you should never underestimate the importance of collecting data and analyzing it. This will allow you to see firsthand which posts or blogs were the most successful, which garnered the most engagement, and what topics seemed to resonate the most. This can be very helpful when selecting and scheduling quality content.
Take Advantage Of Crowdsourcing.
Realistically, there are going to be times when you are out of ideas for creating content. Or perhaps you just don’t have the time to put together something that you know will resonate with your audience and don’t want to opt for putting out something sloppy. But not to worry, there is a hidden dark horse in the content marketing world: crowdsourcing.Â
Crowdsourcing is where you can obtain quality content ideas from sources outside of your organization. For example, you might encourage clients to post testimonials or pictures of themselves using your product on your Facebook or Instagram pages. Not only does this content tend to resonate very well because it’s based on user feedback, but it also saves you time and energy that would otherwise be used to create content. That’s why it’s important to always be incentivizing positive participation with your brand.
If you keep these factors in mind, it will be much easier to consistently create great content. Great content can help you to grow your audience, connect with your current audience, and increase your referral rates. That’s the power of high-quality content.
