Winning Content Marketing Gold Takes This

Achieving athlete-level excellence in your content marketing can build your brand’s identity and boost sales. But it’s important to remember that when it comes to being successful at it, content marketing is more like a marathon, rather than a sprint. Sporadic social media posts and the occasional blog piece isn’t enough to tell your brand’s story or build relationships with customers. You need consistency and commitment to take the gold. So, here are a few simple ways to come out on top in your content marketing marathon. 1. Set your goals To prepare for a marathon, you need to know exactly what you’re goals are, your obstacles and how you define success. Only then can you create a plan to get you there. The same goes for content marketing. Do you want more visibility for your brand? Are you aiming for increased sales of a particular product? Whatever you define your goals, obstacles and success as, they’ll act as the building blocks for your entire content marketing strategy. 2. Make a timeline Marathon runners stick to a strict training schedule in order to meet their mileage goals. Similarly, each of your content marketing goals will probably take different amounts of time to achieve and, unless you use the right tools to stay organized, it’s easy to let your focus and productivity slide. So, use a content calendar to stay on top of every aspect of content creation – what to write, who will write it, when to publish it and how to promote it. 3. Be consistent If you only train once a week, every run is going to be difficult and progress will be slow. However, if you do it three or four times a week, you’ll find your stamina improves quickly and your runs are easier and faster. Content marketing works in much the same way – you can’t post every couple of months and expect to build or maintain an audience. Push yourself to create a consistent stream of quality content in order to stay on your audience’s radar and keep their attention. Anyone who’s serious about marathon training is sure to keep tabs on their progress. Content marketers may not be worried about personal records, but they certainly care about another important â€Å"PR† – their page rank! Use Google Analytics and other analytics tools to see how your content is performing over time. 5. Find ways to improve Runners are always striving to beat their own personal records. Similarly, content marketers should constantly try to make their campaigns more effective. Be sure to periodically evaluate your efforts to see what’s working and what needs to be tweaked. Stay in touch with the needs of your audience and make use of their feedback. Go for Gold You don’t have to be a real-life runner to take a â€Å"marathon† approach to your content marketing strategy. Just applying a few of these tips and tactics is enough to set you on the right track. Remember that content marketing is a long-term investment, so keep your efforts consistent and always strive to be even better. Once that’s done, you’ll be ready for gooooooooooooold!