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Creating and distributing compelling content is one of the most effective ways to market your business and increase sales. Businesses that do content marketing have conversion rates six times higher than competitors that don’t. And content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing, on average.
But if you’re new to the whole thing, getting started can be daunting — especially when it comes to thinking of content marketing ideas you can easily produce.
Here are four super-easy ways to rev up your content marketing program:
1. Start posting serialized content.
If you’re finding you don’t have the time to go whole hog on your blog (ideally, you’d work up to posting three to five times a week), try doing a weekly, serialized post. The topic should be something that’s in your wheelhouse. That makes it as easy as possible for you to create the content — and as unique and compelling as possible for your readers.
If you’re a specialty tea store, for example, try posting a “Plant of the Week” column every week, where you highlight a certain type of tea leaf and explain its flavor profile and health benefits. If you’re a clothing boutique, use recent photos of celebrity outfits along with similar items from your store.
Don’t forget to promote your post on social media. With that in mind, make sure to include sharp, aesthetically pleasing visuals to accompany your content — especially when you’re posting on Instagram.
2. Publish a thought-leadership piece.
If you’re viewed as a leader in your industry, more people trust you with their business. A great way to establish that expertise is to write and distribute a longer thought-leadership piece — something that gives your take on an important, trending issue.
Make sure to post the piece across your social platforms, and especially on LinkedIn, which is a particularly effective venue for this type of content. It may also be worth pitching your idea to relevant press outlets as a contributed article.
3. Play up the seasons.
Look to the seasons for inspiration. Holidays and changes in the weather provide natural opportunities to create fresh content around your brand.
For spring cleaning, for example, a housecleaning service could write about “5 Sneaky Places Germs Are Hiding in Your Kitchen,” or a contractor might write about “Tell-Tale Signs Your House Needs Some Spring Maintenance.” Holidays like Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day are some of the lowest-hanging content marketing fruit.
4. Send targeted email.
Content marketing doesn’t just mean blog posts and social media (though that is a cornerstone). You should leverage your email marketing tool as well.
You don’t want to spam your audience, so try sending a monthly email roundup of your best-performing blog content. (You can look to either your blog traffic or social media engagement numbers to figure this out.)
Test a number of different subject lines to determine the formula that yields the best clickthrough and conversion rate. This is all easy to do with Square Email Marketing.
We hope these content marketing ideas get your juices flowing. But whatever strategy you decide to pursue, make sure you’re integrating touchpoints that drive sales (with call-to-action buttons like “sign up” or “order now” infused in the content) and increase brand awareness.
