This is the second part of the post “35 Ways to Get More From Content Marketing”. The first part introduced 20 ways your business can improve the results and performance of your content marketing efforts. Here are the remaining tips.

21. Identify Your Audience Right From The Start

A lot of the earlier content on our blog was written with the needs of other Internet marketing & web experts. It took us a year to realise that is was not the ideal market for our business to target. To do well, we needed to target other small businesses that lacked awareness about what it takes to succeed online but realised its importance and wanted to implement a successful strategy.  We still write about the same topics but we use less jargon and even those without expert knowledge of online marketing can read and understand our posts. As a result, we are now able to attract small businesses as well as anyone interested in marketing their  business online. Needless to say, our site not generates more leads from businesses that wish to avail of our Web design and Internet marketing services.

Generating leads is a key objective of business blogs and targeting the right audience is a must to do this effectively.

22. Focus On Quality Not Quantity

Creating new content frequently is essential to a successful content marketing strategy. Most experts recommend publishing new content every week if not daily.  It is very easy to get carried away and compromise on quality just to be able to meet targets or maintain a good publishing frequency. Most businesses and marketers make this mistake at some stage or the other. It is always better to focus on quality even if it means publishing less often. In the long run, the benefits of good quality content far outweigh that of poor quality content published regularly.

23. Have a Plan

Doing content marketing in a haphazard manner can lead to a drain on your resources and prevent your business from getting the desired results. This is where a content marketing plan or publishing schedule can help. Your plan should be fluid and you should be able to adapt and refine your strategy till you find what works best for your business. Publishing schedule also brings consistency which can improve your results further.

24. Take Advantage of Web 2.0 Content Sites

In addition to traditional content sites article directories, there are many other free Web 2.0 sites and document sharing sites where you can promote your content.  Many of these sites rank high on search engines and have an ever-increasing user base. These include user generate content sites like Squidoo and Hubpages as well document sharing sites like Slideshare and Scribd.

Publishing on these sites regularly will improve your brand presence online and get more coverage and back-links for your content.

25. Don’t Limit Yourself to Your Content Only

This may sound counterproductive at first but it is very important if you want to succeed in content marketing. As you have probably already realised, there is more to content marketing than producing your own content.

The main objective is to distribute quality information to your audience which cannot be achieved by your content only.

Whether using social media or content curation services, there is always room for including or referencing content from other sources. This not only ensures your audience receives the best value but also helps to build relationships with other users who will often take notice and reciprocate.

26. Leverage The Power Of EBooks

Although we have already discussed the importance of using several mediums to promote your content, eBooks deserve a special. Ebooks offer several benefits. They are a great way to deliver content and can increase your reach manifold.

The demand for eBooks have increased significantly with the rise in the use of mobile devices such as tablets and eBook readers like Kindle. More and more businesses are now using eBooks to engage with their readers and you don’t want to be left behind.

27. Use The Right Tools

Content marketing can take up a lot of time and resources. Using the right tools is a very effective way to increase your efficiency and boost your productivity. The right tools can make the process faster and improve the results. There are many free content marketing tools that you can take advantage of to help you with various aspects of content marketing.

Tools like Google Reader, HootSuite or Evernote have become household names among content marketers.

I find the following tools very useful:

Contently – a free platform to manage your entire publishing process including, schedule, manage multiple writers, topics, assinments, etc.

Google Reader- to research topics and get ideas

HootSuite or Buffer - to post your new content to several social networks at once

Prezi or Powerpoint – to Create presentations quickly that you can then share on document and content sites.

28. Master the art of Repurposing Content

• Convert content into podcasts through services such as Podomatic.
• Combine relevant content on a topic e.g. articles, blog posts into an eBook
• Use content curation services such as Paper.li and Scoop.it
• Convert blog posts and articles into documents and presentations to share on document sharing sites like Scribd and Slideshare.
• Covert tutorials to videos

29. Good Linking

It is common for businesses to produce several types of content regularly. Interlinking relevant content together is a great way to cross promote your content and get the most from content marketing efforts. I also find linking to older content very effective for generating fresh interest in content that was produces years ago.

30. Take Advantage of Automation

If done correctly, your business can benefit from automation. However, it should be done with caution. Most of your content marketing should still be done manually.

Following are some places where automation can help:

• Automate sharing of new posts from your blog to your social networks
• Connect different social networks together so content can share e.g. Facebook and Twitter
• Display images from Pinterest automatically on your Facebook page with free Facebook apps such as Pinvolve

There are many popular automation tools that your business can take advantage of. IFTTT is one free service that I find to be very useful for automating your content marketing. It is a very powerful tool that supports over 50 distribution channels.

31. Syndicate Your Content

Syndication involves making website material available to multiple other sites, typically done via web feeds (RSS). Syndication holds a special place in content marketing. It is a great way to tap into the audience-base of popular sites by letting them know of your latest content.

E.g. you can syndicate content from your website or blog to your social profiles. Most social networks including Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn allow you to do so by adding your RSS Feed. The possibilities are endless.

32. Contribute On Other Sites (Guest Posting)

Guest posting is a very important aspect of content marketing however it is often neglected, particularly by small businesses.  Most marketing experts agree that guest posting is essential if you want to take your content marketing to the next level.

Inviting others to write on your website or blog can be excellent source for obtaining new content for your site. Guest posting on other popular site can provide more coverage for your content whilst allowing you to tap into the audience of the site.

33. Take Advantage of Auto-Responders

Auto-responders can be a very useful tool in content marketing. It offers another way to deliver your content. Auto-responders allow you to deliver content by email to those who sign-up automatically.

Setting up a series of emails e.g. tutorials is a very effective way to deliver content and engage with your audience. Best of all, the process can be fully automated.  There are many auto-responder services that your business can take advantage of. Most professional email marketing software have this built-in.

34. Monitor Your Stats

It is important to monitor your stats and measure the performance of any content produced as part of your marketing efforts. This goes for content that is published on your site as well content that you publish on other sites.

There are several aspects that can be tracked e.g.

• Total readership (page views or unique visitors)
• Referral traffic to your company’s website or blog generated from content published elsewhere
• Conversion rates from your content e.g. email sign-ups, enquiries, downloads, etc.

35. Persevere and Don’t Give Up

Perseverance is key to content marketing success. It is a continuous process that needs to be done regularly and consistently. Businesses that do well are constantly refining their strategy to get the most out of their content marketing efforts.

Conclusion

This two part series on how to get the most out of content marketing can help any business, however large or small, to improve the performance and benefits of their content marketing efforts. You will find these tips useful whether you are just starting out or are looking for ways to improve your results.

What About You?

How is content marketing working for your business? What methods do you find useful? We would like to hear from you. Please share your responses by leaving a comment below.