Nothing is so exciting as knowing that your product is ready to go. You’ve run the gauntlet from the first inklings of the idea of being ready for a final roll out of the company that is going be home for the fruits of that idea. You may think the hardest and most confusing days are behind you. Unfortunate as it may be, this is just not the case.
For many companies, the easiest part is that which is connected to your passion. You had the valuable idea and willed it into existence. Now you have to find a way to get your idea and resulting product out to the masses in the marketplace. Following these 7 golden rules of content marketing, you will be able to mitigate the stress and setbacks that can arise from not attracting enough clients.
- Be Yourself
Remember that your talents and ideas are what makes your operation unique and successful. The first mistake you could make in your campaign to draw clientele to your website is to fib or fidget around with your identity. Your website should be an extension of the soul of your company.
If what your site offers is serious professional advice and services, adopt a serious look and tone. If you are selling something lighter and pleasure based create a website that is colorful and makes those who traffic it feel buoyed up. There are caveats to when you should rein yourself in or stretch to get out of your comfort zone. This is more difficult and this guide will help you in those situations.
- Tailor Your Content for Mobile
Your potential clients are using their phones all of the time. If you want to convince people that you have something that they will value you are going to need to go where they are. It is more important than ever to keep this mind.
Most websites are built using a desktop computer. This often means that the finished website looks and works great on other desktops. It is critical to check the layout and functionality of your page on a mobile device to ensure that it serves your potential clients. Very few things will drive away visitors like a cluttered site or broken link. Click here for a resource on site formatting.
- Keep Schedule
One way to draw clients to your brand is to be consistent with your content. If you are able to produce new content that is exciting and desirable on a time table that keeps your brand at the forefront of a user’s mind then you have cultivated something really special. If a client is always looking forward to the “next big thing” you will get better word of mouth publicity as well as client retention.
Another benefit to following this rule is it helps you in the evaluation process. As you look at your website metrics you will be able to tie high and low periods of visits to your site to something that you posted. For instance, you may notice that when you post “how to” blogs you see more people visit your website. If something like this is happening you may want to increase how often you drop new blogs of that type.
If you let yourself get off schedule and are releasing content or making changes intermittently it will be much harder to draw conclusions as to why people are or are not trafficking your website.
- Make it Relevant
It is easy to know what was working but it is harder to know what will work in the future. Clients are going to be drawn to sources and products that serve them in the here and now. What was good even just a few months or years ago may not serve them today, especially within the context of an online marketplace.
Ask yourself what people are going to search the web for tomorrow. By doing this you will be able to brainstorm what you need to be said by your website to show up in their search results. This doesn’t mean that you need to be ultra-hip or fall for every political wind. Still, follow the rule about being yourself, but work to introduce yourself to the client of tomorrow.
- Engage with Your Clients
In this digital age, people are starting to see less and less of human and personal touch in the service industry, let alone online businesses. This golden rule of content marketing is downright old fashioned: Let them know you are there and that you care about their experience.
One great way to get personal with your clientele is to include an “about us” section to the home page of your website. For some context on “about us pages try looking here. Giving customers access to your background helps them feel like they are engaging with a person that understands them.
More than just words on a page, include a quick video letting them know that you appreciate their business.
- Have Patience
Most of the other golden rules of content marketing are focused around actions that you may have to proactively take. A more reserved rule is that of patience. Especially when just getting started with a new campaign or even getting started in general, there isn’t a need to rush to get the perfect content situation.
Decide on a course of action, publish what you have and give it enough time to let metrics become meaningful. After a good amount of time you can look at how many clients you are gaining and determine how that correlates with your marketing scheme. If you see results you don’t like then you can start to make changes.
If you are in a state of constant change then patterns will become murky if apparent at all and you will lose a valuable chance at evaluation.
- Stick with What Works
In the same vein of being patient, there is no reason not to keep doing something that works. Often times content managers become uneasy if they haven’t stirred the pot in a while. It might seem like you have been publishing the same style of blog or video for a while and at the same steady rate. It might seem like you should change what you are doing. This isn’t necessarily the case.
It may surprise you to discover that many of the most successful operations are able to draw new clients in using recycled material. The rule here is that you can use something for as long as it works.
