$6,925.60…
That was the trifecta payout for a $2 wager in the 2013 Kentucky Derby. Needless to say, if you get all the moving parts together in the right order, the payoff can be huge.
That’s as true for content marketing as it is for betting on horse races.
Oftentimes, we see companies taking part in content marketing initiatives using a fragmented approach and this always leads to disappointment.
They may be publishing solid blog content, but their promotion is lacking and the blog isn’t growing.
Sometimes they have a well-designed website, but the content is static, mostly unhelpful, and sales-y.
They may even have great content and a blog that is attracting people, but they’re failing to capture those people with appropriate calls to action and email subscription forms.
The challenging part of content marketing is consistently getting all the pieces to work in tandem, because none of these individual pieces make for good marketing on their own.
Let’s break down the three major aspects of a winning content marketing presence and how the parts should synchronize!
Your Website and Blog as the Starting Gate
Everything related to your digital marketing should start (and end) with your website and blog, as this is where you have the greatest amount of control over a potential customer’s brand experience.
The primary purpose of your website is to deliver trustworthy and authoritative information that:
Makes your customers aware that they have a problem.
Exemplifies how your product or service helps solve that problem.
Provides a means to acquire your product or service.
Whether you portray this authority and trustworthiness in the form of blog posts, eBooks, case studies, or other online content, the important point is to maintain your website as the “Content Command Center” of your digital marketing efforts.
Social Media Marketing: Your Attraction Tool
With a central digital marketing hub in place, you can begin expanding outwards knowing you have a solid foundation and funnel to direct people through.
Now, of course, you need to attract people to the content on your site, partially by being on the right social networks at the right times. In the words of Jay Baer…
Content is fire, and social media is gasoline.
An “if you build it, they will come” approach isn’t going to get you far. It’s not enough to publish content — no matter how great it is — to your website and hope people catch on.
The purpose of social media marketing, then, is two-fold:
One, you should use social media as a listening tool to learn what types of content people need.
What problems are they expressing on social media?
What about your industry or business do they need to know more about to make a confident purchase?
What content is or isn’t performing well?
Two, social media can and should be used for self-promotion if the content is genuinely valuable — if it helps solve a problem.
There’s no reason to write a blog post or spend hours writing an eBook if you’re not going to actively and openly promote it with the intention of attracting new customers.
As Derek Halpern often discusses, most people spend far too much time generating new content and far too little time promoting their existing content. He recommends people roughly use the 80/20 rule, where 20% of your time is dedicated to producing amazing content and 80% of your time is dedicated to promoting that amazing content.
If your content is genuinely valuable to potential and existing customers, there’s no shame in pushing it toward them. In theory, people need that content and they’re going to thank you, not shun you, when they realize you helped them solve a problem in their lives.
Of course, social media marketing isn’t as simple as posting a link on Facebook to your blog post and calling it a day. You need to maintain a balanced approach that entertains people and gives off the impression that you’re trying to help, not sell.
Email Marketing: Your Retention Tool
So, you have great content on your website/blog and you have the means of attracting people to that content. What now?
The final piece of the content marketing trifecta is a consistent email marketing strategy.
Your email list is arguably even more important than your social media following, so it’s imperative that you place emphasis on turning website visitors into email subscribers. This is your golden ticket to converting people from one-time visitors into frequently-returning loyalists.
Beyond publishing valuable content, a great way to build your list is by offering sign-up incentives to visitors. For example, offering an exclusive eBook or access to a “Members Only” message board to someone who joins your email list can drastically improve subscription rates.
The role of email in your content marketing strategy is to maintain consistent communication with your readers and potential customers. It’s unlikely these people will visit your website every day to check for new content, but they will check their email every day.
Having access to their email inbox is your opportunity to retain their attention and continue delivering valuable, helpful information that solves problems and moves them closer to a purchase.
Summarizing the Flow of Content Marketing
That’s a lot of information to chew on, so I want to highlight again how the pieces work together and why it’s so important to avoid a fragmented approach to content marketing.
As we covered, your website and blog is the central hub of all your content marketing efforts.
After you’ve produced the content on your website and blog, social media marketing should be used to attract new people to that content. Additionally, social media should be used to listen to your customers, so you know what content they need in the future.
Finally, after you’ve managed to drive people from social media to the content on your website, you need to capture visitors’ email addresses by providing email subscription incentives. This allows you to keep open the doors of long-term communication, build lasting relationships, and drive people to content you produce in the future.
The major point of emphasis here is that none of these marketing tactics exist in a vacuum and they’re not truly separate from one another. The success of your content marketing strategy hinges on how well you can make the three pieces — the trifecta — of the puzzle connect.
Not sure where to get started with content marketing? Need help putting the pieces together? Join us on May 21st for a free social media marketing seminar!