While many marketers are confident that content marketing will play an increasingly important role for businesses in 2013, especially in light of the mighty Google Author Rank, many small businesses are wary of it and feel uncomfortable with the thought of becoming publishers.
In an effort to help firms understand what content marketing is all about and how they can build their strategy, Future Simple website offers a few basic tips. The key to creating engaging content is to establish a team that can deliver appealing, credible and professional content. Doing this on a regular basis and on a number of topics is hard for one person, so setting up a team and establishing roles is an important step.
Once the team has been selected, the next move should be to prepare a content calendar that will put things into perspective. It can help the team follow tasks and deadlines and monitor progress. But it is also useful for readers, letting them know what to expect and when.
In order to keep readers interested and make them come back for more, the content needs to be varied. This means that a company should not just restrict their publishing to blog posts but should make use of the entire range of available formats, including infographics, images, videos, podcasts, interviews, etc.
Finally, it´s good for businesses to keep in mind that the main purpose of content marketing is to make their business more visible and to build on their reputation, so that consumers see them as trustworthy and providing value. That is why it is essential to create a “buzz” around a company´s products and make consumers decide that this is what they need and want.