Content is so incredibly important as part of your success as an online marketer. It doesn't matter which niche you’re in, you have to have content – and a lot of it. You need to have content up everywhere on the web.
How much content do you have up right now? Do you have much up? Have you been meaning to get more content up on the web to grow your business? Do an assessment and be honest with yourself.
Do you have a blog? Do you write guest posts? Do you have social media content? Do you give away free content? Do you have paid content? Do you have video or audio content?
Consider where the holes are in your content strategy. If you don't have enough up, why? What are you waiting for? Is the content you do have serving its intended purpose? It could be that you lack strategy – that you’re not motivated enough to put content up because you don't have a strategy behind it. That's all about to change.
If you want to succeed as an online marketer, you should have the following types of content:
· article content
· blog posts
· guest post content
· video/YouTube content
· free downloadable content/reports
· audio content/podcasts
· paid/premium content
· social media content
Let's talk about each of those types of content, in turn.
Article content is important because it shows your expertise. You can put article content up on your website. Usually, this is premium content that's designed to be evergreen and last for the ages.
Blog posts are important because you should have a blog as a marketer. This is where you can review others' products, share your thoughts, share what’s going on in your life, curate others’ content, and so on.
Guest post content is important because it helps you share your expertise across the web. It helps you drive traffic back to your web properties, helps you connect with other readers and marketers, and so on.
YouTube is a powerhouse when it comes to driving traffic. It's easy to host Google Hangouts and put up YouTube videos that rank really well in the search engines. You can build up a whole audience on YouTube and lead them back to your website and really build yourself up as an expert.
Free downloadable content is great for building your list, getting affiliates to promote for you, and showcasing your expertise. It can be hard to get people to pay attention to you, but they’ll be willing to give you a chance when you give them free content. When they download your free content, they’ll be much more likely to check out your paid, premium content.
Podcasts are an excellent way to attract an audience these days. Podcasting may or may not be for you, but I know of marketers who claim that much if not most of their traffic comes from their podcast.
Paid and premium content is how you're going to make your money. You need to have paid and premium content out there to show your work and expertise. This is the content that's really going to provide value to your buyers.
Social media content is how you're going to build relationships with others in your niche. Facebook and Twitter are very popular, along with other social media networks. Spending a little time sharing content on social media each day can go a long way.
It can seem like a lot to provide content on these different platforms and in all these different ways. But really, you can mix and match. You can use all the content you create in more than one way.
That means, for every piece of content you create, you can use it in a few different places.
For example, you can gather 10 blog posts you've written to create a free report to give away to build your list.
You can take an article you've written and turn it into a video. All you would need to do is add a few images and a voiceover or some music.
You can take the podcasts you've recorded and turn it into a video. Again, all you would need to do is add a few images and a voiceover or some music.
You can take a free report you've written and break it up into blog posts.
You can take a premium product you've created and take it off the market to give it away as a free report.
It's definitely worth it for you to use all the content you create in more than one way. I highly encourage you to do this because you'll save a lot of time and get a lot more out of it.
Using all of your content more than one way can absolutely boost your business. As a marketer, you need to be everywhere. People need to run into your content everywhere on the web. If there are people in your niche on a certain area of the web, they need to run into your content. If you produce a lot of content and use it in more than one way, it's inevitable that they will. This is how you get people into your funnel. This content boosting strategy helps you do that.
If you're struggling to create content, then go ahead and hire people to help you. You can hire writers and others to help you get more content out there. But again, if you use each piece of content you create in more than one way, you shouldn't have to struggle much longer to get a lot of content on the web.
I also recommend that you create content challenge days for yourself. Challenge yourself to write 10 articles in a day, for instance. This challenge can light a fire under you to get a lot done. A challenge feels a lot like a game, and it can give you that rush that helps you get it done. You can also challenge yourself to write three free reports in a day, for instance.
The point is that creating content can actually be a lot of fun. It doesn't have to be the ho-hum experience that you probably thought it was in the past. Your content should be in line with your personality as well. It should be reflective of who you are and what your audience needs. Make content fun, get more of it out there, and you should see your business grow by leaps and bounds.