The Secret to Great Content Marketing is Simpler Than You Think

Everyone claims to have some great, secret technique for content marketing success. Whether it's "guaranteed" tips for making your social media campaign a success, the "perfect" balance of SEO, or creating the "most intriguing" story-selling model, every content marketing guru claims to have the ideal technique to make you into an overnight success. After a while it all begins to sound like those programs that promise you 6-pack abs and perfectly cut biceps if you'll just buy their product, use their program, or take their supplements.

All of these approaches are useful, and they all have their place in the grand scheme of your campaign. The secret to great content marketing, however, is much more basic.

What Is It?

Produce engaging, useful, valuable content.

According to Jay Baer, and reported by Forbes, that's the basic thing you have to do if you want success. If your content is boring, doesn't add any value to the viewer's life, and isn't useful, then it doesn't matter which images you pair it with, how great the video quality is, or how skilled your SEO engineers are; your content won't take off.

An Example: Let's say, for a moment, that you were trying to sell dish soap. You could make a great commercial about it, or put together a series of blog posts that detail customer satisfaction with your product. While that won't negatively affect you, those particular pieces of content aren't likely to catch and hold the audience's attention.

Instead, you might decide to create a list of life hacks telling your audience unusual, money-saving ways they can use your dish soap for other problems. You make sure the content has engaging text, and possibly an entertaining video or two. What you've done is provide your audience with a useful piece of content that is both engaging, and valuable. People are more likely to favorite that content, and to share it with others than they would with a more promotional piece.

So, that's the great secret. While good SEO, a viral marketing campaign, and a perfectly composed social media presence are great tools, content that engages the viewer while providing value to that person is the corner-stone of successful content marketing. For more information on how to improve your content marketing, simply contact us today.