Maybe you’ve heard this before but it’s worth repeating: Content is King. Content marketing has many benefits to your business including, building authority, growing trust with your audience, having a higher ROI, and helping you rank better on google.
Convinced yet that you should be using content marketing in your business?
Hopefully, you are, and here are 5 ways you can use content marketing right now.
- Social Media
- Use short-form video content
- Leverage User Generated Content
- Email Marketing
- Lead Magnets
Social media
Social media is the best way you should be using content marketing. I don’t know if you have noticed recently but social media is not a bulletin board for your promotions anymore.
To succeed on social media you need to know your audience and what your audience wants. Spoiler alert, what they want is value. This is where content marketing comes in.
Develop a content strategy that best matches your audience’s pain points, wants, and needs and you are all set.
The real value of social media content marketing is gaining the trust and connection with an audience who will then buy your product or service.
Use Short-form Video Content
This strategy fits in perfectly for social media. Short-form video content has taken the internet by storm. Virtually every social media platform has incorporated 9:16 videos into its platform. So why not try it yourself?
The best thing about short-form video content is how easy it is to make. All you need is your phone and simple editing software. I recommend using CapCut because of how well it integrates with big platforms like TikTok and Instagram.
When creating your content strategy any time where you would create a long-form text post or even a short-form text post, try making a video instead.
These videos can be simple talking head videos where you are emphasizing value to your audience through education, inspiration, or entertainment. You might also want to hop on some trends, check out our Instagram for a weekly trend report!
Leverage User-Generated Content (UGC)
User-generated content is content that is shared by consumers directly rather than the brand itself.
This content could come organically from users who choose to make a video around your product or service or can be purchased on sites like Upwork or Fivver.
UGC is a great way to build trust as a survey by BrightLocal found that 84% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations from friends and family.
UGC can be a great option if you find yourself having little time to produce your own content.
Email Marketing
Guess what?! Email marketing is still highly effective in 2023. This is great news as it is an impactful place to include content marketing to grow your business.
Email marketing is so important because your audience is already bought in, at least enough to give you their emails. So it’s wise to yield that information carefully.
Adding valuable content to your emails is a great way to, I’ll say it again, build trust and connection with your audience.
You can do this by acting as a curator for your audience by adding resources or product recommendations based on the lifestyle stage of the consumer.
If you aren’t already using an automated email strategy I recommend looking into HubSpot or Constant Contact for these services.
Lead Magnets
Last but certainly not least is using content marketing in your lead magnets. Rather than just offering a discount in exchange for their email, tap into your knowledge of your consumers’ biggest struggles and make a downloadable pdf and in return ask for their email address.
This works perfectly in tandem if you are already using content marketing in your email strategy. Offering any free resource to your ideal target audience is a great way to increase sales. In fact, a study by MarketingSherpa found that offering a lead magnet can result in an average conversion rate of 23.1%.
Ultimately, you do not have to do all these things to see the advantages of content marketing in growing your business. Here at Merit, we believe in sustainable growth and that means implementing sustainable strategies into your business. If you try any of these out we would love to hear back on how it went for you!