Here’s Why Content Marketing Rocks…
You may have noticed how expensive paid advertising can be.
It’s even more expensive, if you have no clue how much it costs to generate a lead, and more importantly, how much your average lead is worth.
For that reason, content marketing might be a much better way to generate leads if you’re just getting started, because it’s relatively risk free in comparison to “paid” advertising methods.
But, you’ve probably noticed that the word “content marketing” is thrown around so frequently these days, that it’s so easy to get lost in the massive labrynth that is Google.
For that reason, I’d like to showcase some of the content marketing methods that have worked beautifully for me, and I promise, many of the methods I use to build authority might be shocking to you. (Mostly because some of these methods aren’t really considered to be “content marketing” mechanisms, but please provide an opportunity for me to prove my case!).
So, without ranting and raving, here are some cool content marketing methods that are working for me right now:
Content Marketing Method # 01 – Blogging And Blog Tribes
Every single time I write a blog post, I share it to my awesome blog tribes where it has the potential to reach a boatload of awesome bloggers who read and share my content. (I also share their content every single day, which enables me to automate much of my social media content on Twitter and LinkedIn. Very cool).
If you’re not sure what a blog tribe is, it’s basically a massive collection of RSS feeds where you can invite others bloggers to “plug in” their blogs. This collection of blogs is known as a “tribe”, or “stream”.
Even more powerful, is that the streams make it super easy for your content to get noticed, and yes, shared. You’ll also have access to a ton of awesome content that you can share on your social media profiles, and automate content curation in this way.
Content Marketing Method # 02 – Pinterest Group Boards
If you’re not on Pinterest, you should be! It’s by far my favorite social media network, and I congregate with a boatload of very inspirational bloggers every single day via Pinterest group boards.
The thing about Pinterest, is that it’s one of the fastest growing social media networks, and group boards are awesome because you can tap into a massive audience without having one for yourself.
(There are a ton of Pinterest group boards in just about any niche. So it doesn’t matter if you’re a lifestyle blogger, Internet marketer, or if you write about baked gourmet cookies).
So, what are the benefits of group boards? You can see what’s popular in your niche, establish goodwill by sharing other people’s blog content, and arguably even better, share your own content with a potentially massive audience.
Content Marketing Method # 03 – Online Teaching
Most people don’t consider online teaching to be a content marketing method. But it most certainly is! When you start to teach online, your content has the potential to reach a ton of people who would otherwise be impossible to reach.
One little known benefit to teaching online, is that you can promote your lead capture page in every single course, thereby turning your courses into email list building machines. Very powerful, this is.
(So at the end of your course, you could briefly introduce a cool bonus that your students can claim by visiting your lead capture page. Course creation can definitely become a beautiful lead generation method if you put forth effort).
Content Marketing Method # 04 – Book Publishing
In 2016 I launched over 40 books!
Now, you might think I’m a crazy person for publishing this many books, and I am. The truth is that the majority of my books were relatively short in length (around 3,000 – 10,000 words), and as a seasoned ghostwriter I do write very quickly.
That being said, you can easily promote your blogs and your lead capture pages in your books tastefully and artfully, making book publishing one of the most powerful content marketing ideas around, period.
Content Marketing Method # 05 – “Modern Day” Forum Marketing
Back in the day, small niche forums were all the rage. Over the years, I’ve accumulated many thousands of blog posts and have answered a ton of questions from people who had questions about tech stuff, marketing, email list building, and other topics that I love to chat about.
These days, massive forums such as Quora and Reddit have made it even easier to generate authority in almost any niche, simply by helping others and answering their questions.
The master secret to making forum marketing worthy of your time, is by providing content that actually helps and impresses others.
If you provide lame answers, then nobody is going to notice you. However, if you provide content that’s actually worthwhile, your prospects might actually investigate to learn more about you.
The master secret to making content marketing work?
There are two secrets to content marketing. The first secret, is to actually care enough to provide awesome content that’s worth reading.
The second secret, is to study your end users and the frustrations they have like your life was on the line. That way, all of the content you ever create will be custom tailored for them to the point where your content just SCREAMS to your ideal audience.
So, spend as much time asking yourself the following questions about your ideal audience:
- What are the top 10 frustrations that your audience has?
- What are the top 10 questions that your audience has?
- What’s the ONE thing that annoys them the most?
- What do they really want?
- What would truly make them happy?
- What would they do almost ANYTHING to get?
- What are they so scared of?
What happens when you can answer these questions better than anybody else? Your content is going to win.
If you’re always cognizant of these questions, then you’re going to have a significant edge over your competitors, because in all probability they won’t be putting as much effort studying the deep core desire of their audience.
More importantly, all of your content creation can be based upon the very pains, frustrations, and core desires of your audience.
Enabling you to communicate to them in a way that most people are never able, because they don’t put in the effort getting to know them.
So, let your brainstorming prowess, become your greatest content marketing asset.
Thanks so much for reading, and please have a beautiful day!
Mike “Content That Wins” DeVincent
MrComputerScience.com