The Cheater’s Guide to Content Marketing: 15 Tips (from Research to Distribution) + 10 Marketing Automation Tools

Okay, so someone mentions content marketing in a conversation and you’re supposed to know exactly what it is, but the thing is, you’re not a content marketing guru. In fact, you’re even kind of embarrassed to ask people about the ins and outs of it. Sounds familiar? Well, congratulations — this article is just for you.

Today we’re going to talk about the power of content marketing, give handy tips on leveling up your content marketing strategy and share excellent automation tools. Let’s go!

Okay, so What is Content Marketing and How Can it Benefit Your Company?

Long story short, content marketing is about communicating with customers and promoting your brand via content generation and distribution. You create, publish and distribute valuable content (videos, blog posts, images, etc.) that attracts new clients. Ideally, it helps them solve their problem and makes them trust you. And when people trust you, they’re more likely to listen to you and get interested in your product. Pretty simple, right? Let’s go on.

Content marketing is actually a powerful weapon that can benefit your company in a number of ways, and here are some of the most prominent ones:

It’s a Great Source of Inbound Leads

Every company is after inbound traffic, and for a good reason. Unlike outbound leads, inbound prospects come to you voluntarily — that is, you don’t have to beg for attention and pitch sales. Inbound leads will have higher trust in your brand than, say, in companies hassling prospects with “Buy me!” billboards.

So, content marketing is an excellent source of organic traffic and interested prospects.

It Helps to Build Expertise

Expertise is a pretty underestimated aspect of any business. Too bad. With an outstanding level of expertise, you boost your credibility and reputation.

If you present yourself as a skilled expert, people trust you. And when the time comes to choose between two similar companies to buy from, guess who’s going to win? The answer is obvious — the expert one.

It Allows the Creation of Community

Having a community genuinely interested in your brand is a real game-changer. Loyal customers can help spread the word about the launch of a new product, tell friends about your company and just be a valuable part of your project. A relevant and engaged community is a valuable asset.

It Can (and Should) Be Run on Autopilot

When you automate content marketing and publish articles regularly, users consistently visit your page, read your posts and engage with your company. And you put much less effort than if it was chaotic and done by hand. In other words, the process is easily automated and systemized.

And systematic content generation gets you a steady flow of income and new leads (not too bad for time efficiency, right?).

What Not to Do When it Comes to Content Marketing

Are there any myths surrounding content marketing? Absolutely. The digital world is swarming with stereotypes about the industry, and here are the most widespread ones:

Myth #1 — It’s Enough to Just Create Content

No matter how fun and engaging your content is, don’t stop at the creation stage — move on to promotion. If you don’t advertise your work, no one will see it. As a result, people won’t go to your website and won’t purchase your product.

It’s strategically important to tell people about your brand. So spread the word about it on your social media, company website, partners’ pages, and pretty much everywhere you can. You get the idea, right? Be proactive.

Myth #2 — SEO Above All

Yes, SEO is essential to succeed in the content industry, but it’s not the only thing to pay attention to and certainly not the most important one. On the contrary, texts that are clearly stuffed with keywords and are hard to read can be really annoying.

What you want to focus on instead is the quality of your content. What is the message of your post? What idea are you trying to convey? Is the topic relevant? If you want to make your content viral, it should be exciting and captivating from the get-go. And SEO is just a helpful tool for bringing you more organic traffic.

Myth #3 — Content Marketing is Too Expensive

You may be thinking, “Decent content marketing takes too much: you gotta pay professional copywriters, graphic designers, buy high-priced software and spend 24/7 brainstorming.” And you’re not the only one. A great deal of prospects also believe that it costs an arm and leg. But thank God it’s the content marketing automation era and we can now rely on artificial intelligence to help our businesses grow.

AI-based tools not only save you time and energy but also a bunch of money. In fact, it’s often cheaper than what you’d typically pay for your content marketing campaign.

Myth #4 — Outbound Techniques are More Efficient than Inbound, Including Content Marketing

Some are sceptical content marketing and other inbound techniques and go for outbound marketing only. However, content marketing has many advantages, including:

Content Marketing is More Interactive

In direct advertising, for example, companies tell their prospects about their product and its benefits. Basically, they’re having a monologue.

With content marketing, though, things are different. Customers can leave comments on social media, interact with the company in podcasts and ask any questions on the website. Simply put, there’s a dialogue going on. This approach allows brands to get closely acquainted with their potential audience and gain their trust.

Content Marketing Focuses on Targeting

Direct advertising wants to convey the message to as many prospects as possible. Content marketing, on the other hand, focuses on getting it only in front of relevant people. This way, your content reaches those leads who are genuinely interested in your content and products — no need to waste time and money on the wrong folks.

Content Marketing is Peer-Driven

Outbound techniques are often business-driven, meaning that each business decides for itself how and where to get promoted. But content is consumed and shared directly by the readers, which makes content marketing a peer-driven thing. How is that better? Consumers are more likely to buy from a company their friend/coworker/acquaintance recommended to them.

As you can see, there are no excuses not to use such a marketing weapon, so, it’s time to embrace the rules of content marketing. But what are they? What should you know? And how do you become a content marketing guru? Stay calm and keep reading 🙂

Tips to Beef Up Your Content Marketing Game

Content marketing is a walk in the park if you know what to do. Here are some tips you may want to check out:

Be Prepared

Let’s start with the groundwork. Although most people (read: newbies) think it all starts with the content generation process, there’s actually one more crucial stage before you put pen to paper — research.

Chances are, you’re not the only company in the niche trying to attract customers with your content. And that’s okay — as long as you use it to your advantage. Research your competitors: What are their strengths and weaknesses? What formats do they use? How are their clients responding? It’s important to know who you’re dealing with.

You may even want to go on Google and check which sites are outranking you. Analyze why they’re so popular and what you can implement to send your articles to the first page of Google.

Don’t know where to look for competitors? Type in a couple of keywords, and Curata will show you top-notch content on the desired topic.

Content Creation

Okay, you’ve researched the market and know exactly which direction to look in. Now let’s create content!

Generate Ideas Based on Real-Time Data

Choosing the right topic is quite a challenge. And you certainly don’t want to take a shot in the dark by picking the first idea that pops up in your mind — it’ll just be a waste of money.

Instead, rely on statistical data and dwell on topics that’ll definitely go viral. How do you know which ones have great potential? To find out, analyze your audience’s common searches, their interests and preferences, problems and misconceptions — pretty much anything your prospects care about. Your content should be relevant to your leads in every possible way, so take the time to research the topic.

And if you’re still on the fence, give BuzzSumo a try.

Based on popular keywords, it’ll suggest what topics to post on to get maximum shares and likes. Idea generation has never been easier!

Take Advantage of AI-Driven Content Generation Tools

Seriously, they’re game-changers. AI-driven content marketing platforms are fun, easy-to-use and budget-friendly.

Here are some of our favorites:

ArticleForge

This platform will create wholly unique, relevant and high-quality text based on the keywords you type in. Just a few clicks, and you’re supplied with fantastic articles.

Kafkai

Kafkai’s motto is “Unique content for cents instead of dollars.” The platform writes articles from scratch after analyzing the existing online text you supply it with.

Oh, and it translates posts from English into six different languages!

Rytr

Rytr can produce nearly any type of content you want: from blog posts to ad copies. And it’ll save you “25 hours and $500 per month.”

Investigate Real Case Scenarios

Why not use real-life examples to illustrate how this and that works? Case studies vividly explain any topic, which makes the texts more understandable. This tactic will help your audience resonate with your articles.

Personalize

How many times did you leave an email/article/social media post unread simply because it sounded too generic from the start? Probably at least a hundred. To have prospects read your content, it’s vital to personalize it.

Data-driven personalization is one of the most decisive factors of a successful content marketing campaign. Why? Because it makes your audience feel special, cared for and respected. Good thing in 2024, we have plenty of AI-powered automation tools to help you personalize your content.

Bring Value

Your posts should solve your audience’s problems and be informative. Always put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think from their point of view. How can you help them? What value can you bring to their lives? Always attempt to be helpful.

Maintain the Same Tone of Voice Across All Channels

Your tone of voice is one of your brand’s identity elements. To make people recognize you, optimize your content to have the same voice and style on all channels (website, social media, etc.). Don’t confuse your audience — your brand should be easily recognized in seconds.

Still struggling? Semrush will help you.

Keep it Up-to-Date and Consistent

It’s naive to hope for prosperity if you only post once in a while. Regularity is key. Create a schedule that’ll help you keep track of all your content and remind you of deadlines. And follow the trends unless you want to sound like a Grandma. 🙂 That is to say, make sure your posts are up-to-date.

Content Format

The way you present your content makes a huge difference. It’s critical that your posts are fun, easy to read, and have enough catchy visuals.

So, for a successful content marketing campaign:

Ensure Readability

This tip is primarily for longreads, but the same principle goes for short articles and social media posts. Make sure your text is easy to understand. What do we mean? Divide it into short, single-idea paragraphs, create tags and menus, and add active links when relevant. Basically, respect your reader and do everything you can to make your customers’ journey enjoyable.

SEO isn’t the last thing when it comes to readability — good thing platforms like Clearscope can help optimize your content.

Experiment

Don’t limit yourself to just blog posts when there are so many options to try out. Play around with various rubrics, infographics and quizzes.

And platforms like Outgrow will help you with that. The tool creates interactive polls, surveys and even application forms. So experiment and have fun!

Create Your Own Images

Images help spice up any post as they increase the time readers spend on your page. But who said the only way to get cool visuals is from stock markets? With AI, you can create your own unique and relevant pics!

For example, a neural network called DALL·E can generate high-resolution images from text descriptions. Just enter a few keywords — and voilà, your unique illustration is ready.

Repurpose

Some content pieces can actually be slightly modified and then posted again. For instance, a long blog post can be turned into a PDF guide; images used from articles can become a great Instagram story; and a slide show can be transformed into a fun infographic.

So, as you create your content, keep this in mind and leave space for potential repurposing in the future.

Content Distribution

Creating awesome content isn’t all it takes to win the content marketing game. It’s just as important to tell the world about it — otherwise, people won’t know how cool you are.

Take a look at our top tips for effectively sharing your content:

Research Relevant Sources

Start with researching and following credible sources where you can potentially spread the word about your brand. These can be popular websites, Facebook groups, and other communities where you can leave a link to your site or article.

Bonus tip: make sure these platforms have similar values as you so that the whole collaboration looks organic and on-point.

Go on Reddit and Twitter

When it comes to content marketing, Reddit and Twitter are your best friends. This is where your content will most likely go viral (which is your main goal), so focus on them. It’s also a great idea to tag famous influences, bloggers and thought leads. You won’t believe what a single viral post can do for your company.

Don’t Neglect Outreach

No matter how amazing your content is and how many times you’ve left a link to your blog in a Facebook group, there’s always room for outbound techniques. Cold outreach can attract new prospects to your platform if done right. Sending the right content to the right person at the right time can be highly effective. Signum.AI can assist in this.

So contact trustworthy people and credible sources to make great friendships that’ll bring your business to the next level. We’re talking articles, guest posts, and other win-win collaborations. Think outside the box!

Wrapping Up

Hopefully, we inspired you to get the hang of content marketing. As you can tell, it’s not as hard as it seems to be on the surface. So hop on the content marketing train and use our tips to stay ahead of the game. ?

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