Getting traffic to your website or engagement on your posts is often thought to be a game of luck. When something goes viral, it can look like a miraculous event in which the stars just aligned. Let’s be real: success in the content marketing world is rarely quick and random. For the vast majority of the time, it is a result of consistent, effective strategies.
A content marketing strategy can take anywhere from months to years to become effective. Here’s how to make your content marketing campaigns perform as strongly and efficiently as possible.
It is important to know that traffic growth in content marketing moves in a non-linear fashion. Make sure you’re following all the steps to success and consistently creating quality content, expanding your vault over time. The growth starts slowly, but having more content under your belt expedites everything. It’s important to really commit to the path of the content marketing world. With creativity, monitoring, and patience, the success will come.
Here is a little 5-step guide to content marketing, making it easier to gauge exactly how quickly you can reach success with your campaigns.
1. Build Your Content Marketing Strategy
By deciding to invest in content marketing, you will spend 62% less and generate 3x more leads than outbound marketing. To get there, you’ll need a precise plan for high-quality content. You’ll want to decide on your brand mission, build your integrity, and plant those trees that yield long-term results.
It’s realistic to see a bit of success at first, and then go through “the slog”, where things will fizzle out for a while. It is important to stay strong and keep your eye on the prize during the slog. It’s a good time to reevaluate what’s working and what isn’t, and adjust your strategy as needed. Most people quit during the slog. If you stick with a quality content marketing strategy, a more steady flow of traffic and leads will come your way.
How long will it take to see results after creating a solid content marketing strategy? It could take 6-9 months or less, if you go into overdrive and up the frequency and quality of everything you put out there.
2. Find Your Audience and Adjust to the Content Marketing Funnel
You definitely do not want to overgeneralize who your customers are. It is crucial to create a model of your target audience member, down to their gender, age, job, salary, hobbies, interests, and problems. A great way to find specific kinds of people is by digging in places like niche subreddits that are relevant to your brand. There, you can find pain points and characteristics that your ideal customers may have.
Make sure your content is appealing to the audience you want, and on the platforms that they typically use. For example, 57% of 45-54 year olds are open to seeing brand communication via email, but only 22% of millennials are. Make sure you know the statistics on your target audience and what they would like to see.
However, you don’t want to be too similar to what they’re used to seeing. You want to present your uniqueness in a way that is underused and underrated. That way, you’ll get a leg up in the content marketing world. Trend-hopping yields short-term results.
Build an email list, or any form of consistent communication to retain engagement from your audience. Make sure all content that you present is specified with audiences at different stages of a content marketing funnel. Make sure you are familiar with all the stages and do not skip any of them!
Having trouble finding where you fit in on social media? Here are some tips on solidifying your brand voice and tone.
3. SEO Improvement
Often, it can take 3 months minimum to get a decent amount of search engine based traffic. To get a significant increase, it can take 6 months. Along with your rigid strategy, you’ll want to solidify your SEO, and support that with consistent interaction with your audience on social media and/or via email.
There are plenty of resources out there that will show you how to improve SEO. It’s also helpful to use a tool for SEO – Here’s a list of free SEO tools that you can use.
4. Don’t Be Afraid to Invest in Content Marketing
Influencer marketing is one of the best ways to gain traction with your audience. Network with influencers and other business owners in the content marketing world, and don’t be afraid to spend a little on shoutouts from popular instagram accounts.
70% of marketers are truly investing in content marketing and brands are spending about 46% of their budgets on quality content.
Content marketing gives people a reason to keep coming back, and promotes a brand without exposing itself as an obvious advertisement. It’s appealing to people, and the numbers show that it’s the future of marketing.
Invest in the promotion of your content, but also invest in its quality. Many of your customers are going to find you from your collection of evergreen content. That is content that pertains to your mission and is able to be used for a long time. That could be blog posts, ebooks, courses, videos, and more.
5. Keep Track of your Content Marketing Strategy
Know what your audience thinks of your content, and update your goals every 3-6 months. It’s also important to document your progress along the way. Keep a tight publishing schedule, have patience, and keep updating your plan. According to 51% of companies, refreshing and updating older content has been the most effective strategy put in place.
Think about how realistic your goals are in relation to how well you’re following through on them. Are you sticking to your schedule, or does it need to change? At this point, find out what posts are getting the most conversions via tools like Google Analytics. The collective posts that received 80% of your conversions are the types of posts that you should commit to creating. Find out what drives the best traffic per hour, and find out who your best customers are.
How Long Will it Take to Find Success in the Content Marketing World?
To reach significant monetization from your content marketing, it could take 15-17 months. The great thing about content marketing is that the success builds on itself, because the evergreen content doesn’t go away. The success compounds.
If your numbers are moving in an upward direction within the first 6 months, you’re on the right path. It could take anywhere from 6 months to a year or more to see results in the content marketing world. Of course, you can reach success earlier than that, if you really pedal to the metal with your content.
However, it’s important to think realistically and not spread yourself too thin. It’s great to get a balance between planting seeds for long-term results, and doing things that give you a burst of short-term results. Find your balance, and keep at it. Keep improving your understanding of the content marketing world and updating your approach – it can dramatically change your brand for the better.
