Content Marketing Blueprint How to do Content Marketing Right Contents Chapter 1: Why Content Marketing Matters 4 What is Content Marketing?Reason #2: It's Versatile The variable cost of content marketing is just one example of how flexible content marketing is. There are a range of different ways you can use content marketing to reach your audience, but likewise there are also a range of different uses for it. Content marketing doesn't just have to be about generating sales, it can also be an invaluable tool for generating leads, for building trust and even for opening a dialog for crowdsourcing purposes.4 Chapter 2: Why Content Marketing is Crucial for Selling 7 How Content Marketing Creates Fans and Buyers 8 An Example: Thai Lopez 10 Chapter 3: The Logistics and the Numbers 13 Types of Content Marketing 13 Frequency, Length and More Factors 15 Chapter 4: Creating the Best Content 19 How to Write Good - The Anatomy of a Great Blog Post 19 Why Infographics Are Fantastic for Internet Marketers 23 Why Your Brand is Crucial for Your Content 24 Chapter 5: Marketing Your Content 26 Your Articles As Products - How You Should Really be Selling Your Site Content 26 Guest Posting 31 Chapter 6: Getting More Content 35 How to Get Your Visitors to Write Your Content For You 36 Your Guide to Fast and Effective Content Curation 38 Chapter 7: Tools and Resources for Your Content Marketing 40 Chapter 8: Closing Words on Content Marketing - More Reasons it's Perfect for Your Marketing Strategy 43 There's No Time Like the Present 46 Chapter 1: Why Content Marketing Matters If you're at all interested in digital marketing and in making a name for your brand online, then it is crucial that you understand how to properly make use of content marketing.Content marketing is currently one of the biggest trends in digital marketing as a whole and is an area that many website owners and brands are investing in heavily right now thanks to the impressive returns that they are seeing.Other options include: o Video o Live video o Podcast o Images o Quizzes/tests/games o Music And even within the most basic written version of content marketing, you still have many different forms: from the trashy, short-form humorous content that is shared on Buzzfeed, to the more in-depth, challenging pieces shared on something like Brain Pickings.This could be a forum or it could be a comments section on your individual articles, but if you give visitors somewhere to discuss the subject then you'll find it quickly amounts to a lot of content that provides more for the search engines to index and more value for readers who come to the site.On the other hand though, larger scale operations can invest more into content marketing along with SEO and SMO (Social Media Optimization) in order to create a truly formidable online presence.Most social media marketing strategies involve sharing posts and links on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and very often these will include content that is on the brand's own website.Infographics are more attractive than simple charts or graphs though and will normally be a combination of various data visualizations alongside large typographic quotes, statistics and other data.Your Guide to Fast and Effective Content Curation Another option for speeding up content creation and still providing value is to use content curation.The essential idea behind content curation is simple: you are making blog posts and pages that are entirely comprised of other content you have found around the web.Word Processing Software: A good word processor can help you with your content marketing this by correcting mistakes and through useful features such as word count, the ability to insert formatting and more.Content marketing that is good enough will encourage visitors to bookmark your site and to visit it regularly as part of their routine in order to see what new posts you've uploaded and what more they can learn.In other words, content marketing here involves writing regular blog posts and articles and then posting them on a blog or website.Each different kind of content has its advantages and disadvantages, and depending on your audience and your goals, you are going to take different approach to regularity, length etc.Conversely, if your content varies in length, then it looks more as though you're focussed on delivering good content for your readers without concern for how it might impact your SEO.Alternatively, you can simply use some image editing software like Illustrator or even MSPaint if you tidy it up with some effects in PhotoShop afterward.Promotion SEO will help people find your articles, but you should also try and promote your content and generate hype for it in the same way that Apple might generate buzz for its next iPhone.The point I'm making here though broadly is that you don't have to just release your article then leave it at that - by tweaking it and improving it you can ensure it's the best it can possibly be, always up-to-date (which Google appreciates) and well suited to the audience reading it and what they tell you they want from their articles.Normally when you think about 'link building' this will mean submitting articles to content farms and sites like E-Zine articles, or it will mean submitting them to link directories that no one reads.One way you can do that is by using the technique called 'follow that blogger' in which you simply find a guest blogger who is posting on the same subject as you, and then just search for all the different blogs that they have already posted on. No doubt these blogs are accepting guest posts in your niche and will thus be highly likely to accept yours.Likewise new social platforms are continuously providing new opportunities and we're getting better and better at creating the kind of content that provides real value for visitors.You'll receive a completely content marketing blueprint that you can adapt to your own brand and that you can use to build immense authority and a huge list of readers.Thai is a controversial digital marketer and a house-hold name thanks to his series of adverts that show on YouTube before other videos.Thai is bragging about his sports cars and books and his attempts at authenticity are so thinly veiled that you can almost feel the slime.This provides a base where your viewers can come to enjoy your content and it will allow you to benefit from the SEO that comes from regularly adding content to your website.Providing Value We've already discussed the importance of providing value, but let's just ram this idea home a little further: if you're going to create any kind of blog post, YouTube video or infographic, then it needs to offer some form of value.On the other hand with guest blogging you have a chance to get your links onto some genuinely really good websites that can not only help increase your page rank, but also help to bring you organic visitors and massively increase your reputation.At the same time you can try searching your niche (e.g. 'bodybuilding') and a phrase that indicates they are looking for guest posts, e.g.: 'bodybuilding submit your article', or 'bodybuilding guest poster'.Thus it follows too that you should spend a fair deal of your time developing content, or alternatively that you should be investing some of your profits into writing that you can buy to use on your site.Your aim here is to create a blog post that provides several times the value of a conventional blog post because it combines the best parts of many posts into a single resource.This then allows you to access all of the folders on your website and to delete them, rename them, replace them, edit them etc.Of course you'll likely use WordPress as your main CMS (content management solution) but you'll want Filezilla when you accidentally damage your WordPress site or when you want to manually edit an image.For the past few years we've been watching as traditional advertising methods like television and print media get gradually overtaken by content marketing.Content marketing allows you to craft your reputation with great precision, create a 'personality' for your organization and ultimately convey a much more powerful message.While there is no such thing as a 'magic bullet' when it comes to getting your brand known and encouraging sales, content marketing is perhaps the closest thing to such a notion and can help you to drastically increase your visibility as well as your authority and trust.This means that you could consider SEO to be a form of content marketing - in as much as you are creating content that Google will be able to index.(Assuming they were local.) This is the power of content marketing and it's something that you can see used effectively in countless sales funnels and by many other marketer.But this sales funnel - like all sales funnels - also relies heavily on content, making it an example of content marketing as well.In that case, we can make some useful suggestions as to the regularity and methods you'll use for publishing your content.If you are an entrepreneur hoping to make money from a website or a blog - hoping to earn enough that you can quit your day job - then the main activity you should be engaging in is writing your content and then promoting your content.In terms of length, most SEOs and marketing experts now recommend aiming for longer-form content.This basically outlines all the content you need to create and shows you when and how you will post it. This will help you to ensure your marketing strategy fits within your routine and your schedule and can that way help you to avoid missing posts or getting bogged down with other work.For example, choosing one turn of phrase over another might mean that your reader spends a little longer, but if it better describes the scene or better conveys the tone you want your message to carry, then those words were not wasted.One thing to keep in mind when creating content for the web, is that a lot of people are in a rush when they're online and don't have time to sift through dense paragraphs of information.When combined in this way, these can be very appealing and really draw the viewer in while presenting the data concisely and effectively.You want to create a blog that has its own ethos and principles as this is what will help to create consistency between your posts (so that people know what your site represents) and so that they feel they can get behind your message.Your Articles As Products - How You Should Really be Selling Your Site Content Using SEO is a fantastic way to bring people to your site, and by writing great content, building lots of links and designing your site in a spider- friendly way you can get a lot more traffic from visitors who are looking for the information or the service you provide.Some great places to share your content include: o Google Plus o Reddit o Facebook groups o Forums Another big tip?Guest Posting If you want to increase the visibility of your website and to help increase your position in the SERPs then there are many ways to do this and you will likely be struggling to know which method is likely to bring you the most success.Guest blogging is particularly relevant to those using content marketing as essentially, this is just an extension of what you have already been doing.This is actually often easier than you might think however and if your content is genuinely good, and your site will offer value to the readers of the blog you are targeting, then you might be surprised to find that these blog owners are guys just like you who are willing and able to help you out.Here are some tips to help you do just that: o Mimic their editorial style - this is important to ensure that your content fits with the content of their blog, and that their readers will enjoy what you make for them.This means ensuring that you use the same style of punctuation, avoid 1st person narrative if they do, and generally mimic them as closely as possible.This should be content that is meaty and interesting and you need to ensure that you have something interesting and useful to say about it. It is not enough to simply post a selection of copy-pasted snippets from other sites at random.Grammarly: If you struggle with your writing style, then a tool like Grammarly can help by making suggestions to fix and improve your grammar, spelling and punctuation.If you are making logos, or editing images to accompany articles, then it is worth learning just a little about using this software.Combine this with good photography skills and you'll have an endless supply of images to add to your articles.Scheduling: For scheduling posts so that you have a steady stream of content coming in, Buffer and IFTTT are two of the best tools out there!For a small start-up, creating a compelling blog and doing some basic SEO (Search Engine Optimization) is an easy and affordable job that can cost as little as necessary.Reason #4: It's Growing Content marketing is highly popular right now but it's only going to gain momentum as time goes on. The number of people carrying web-enabled devices 24/7 is still growing with no signs of slowing down.That means creating your own content marketing schedule, writing blog posts on a regular basis and then sharing that content on other sites.And once you've done that, you'll start to see this rewarding and enjoyable form of marketing pay you back in huge dividends!But content marketing is a complex and broad term that encompasses a number of different strategies and activities.What you will learn in this book is how content marketing works, why it is crucial for your business and how to harness it in a way that completely transforms your success.This ensures that liking the page provides readers with a constant stream of interesting information and it helps to gain more likes as a result.Once someone is visiting your site directly and without being encouraged to do so by an advert or by Google, then they have evolved beyond being a simple visitor.Chapter 2: Why Content Marketing is Crucial for Selling Content marketing doesn't only ensure greater loyalty and give you a big audience to sell to though: it also gives you more impact and authority.This is why the shoe that Under Armor designed with huge online influencer Dwayne Johnson was the fastest selling of 2017.How Content Marketing Creates Fans and Buyers a 'cold lead' all the way to a 'buyer'?Chapter 3: The Logistics and the Numbers Now you know what content marketing is, why it matters and how other creators are using it to grow their visibility and their trust, all while making more sales.Frequency, Length and More Factors Frequency If you want to build a following on your blog, then you need to be frequent and consistent.What is far preferable is that you aim to produce multiple blog posts in a single day.They additionally have a greater chance of ending up in Google's curated 'news' section - which is fantastic for increased visibility and more visitors.Thus a better strategy might be to aim for shorter content - perhaps 500-700 words - for most posts and then to write a few longer ones.Other Forms of Content and Advice for Scheduling If you're going to be posting other types of content as well, then these might adhere to slightly different schedules.YouTube videos for example will more likely be once a week (this is fairly standard for YouTube creators), while social media posts should certainly be multiple times a day.For those social media sites that don't support this feature, you can use external tools like IFTTT.com or Buffer.Another tip is to consider creating a content marketing scheduling calendar.You can do this either by working with partners, or by using freelancing sites and webmaster forums where people will advertise their skills.Blog content is best when it is conversational, but only if that doesn't undermine your authority!Why Infographics Are Fantastic for Internet Marketers If you're looking for a fresh type of content to use on your own website, or to use for guest posts, then using infographics is a great choice.An infographic is the perfect antidote to this reality then, as it lets people very quickly get the 'gist' of what you're trying to convey at a glance.Your brand should perfectly identify the type of person who should be reading your site (the type of person who will appreciate your content) and it should qualify itself by implicitly stating who shouldn't visit your site.This is a great way to sell a product because it grabs attention, it promises results and it has a personal interest element to it. And that's how you should be writing each of your article titles - by creating it the same way you'd create sales pitch and using all the same tropes.These are articles that have titles that encourage curiosity and that sound amazing and thereby 'bait' people to click them.Use high quality images, use different fonts and break your content up into paragraphs and sections.The same goes for your articles - so don't just rewrite the news as you read it, or regurgitate samey lists of tips.Iteration The iteration cycle in business is a process of subtly tweaking a product over time in order to perfect it in response to market feedback.This is particularly pertinent as many of the methods that we are sold can in fact be ineffectual and end up causing us to get penalized by Google.You can meet partners at networking events for example, or if you've targeted someone in particular, you can even consider 'hiring them' for advice or consultation.You can then recombine this content in order to create something new, along with adding your own commentary and context to make the post more interesting and to add your own value.It needs to be interesting and high quality content (meaning you'll need to sift through the unsuitable stuff) and you then need to be able to add some kind of interesting commentary and tie it all together.While it might sound simple - it's just 'writing' for the most part after all - it is actually much more complex than that when it comes down to it. A good blog post needs to be well written, well edited and proof read, attractively arranged and then adorned with images.Paint is the most feature- rich photo editing/design software out there, but Gimp can mimic a lot of what Paint does and is free of charge.Web Stats: Getting some kind of stats regarding your website is crucial if you want to maximize your visitors and if you want to tailor your site to the audience that are actually going there.The web is the new star of the show and content marketing is the most powerful tool that small businesses and massive corporations alike have available to them on that platform.Reason #3: It Focusses on Relationships and Narrative If you really want to reach an audience and encourage them to take action, then you need to appeal to them on an emotional level and convey your value proposition.This is precisely what content management allows you to do. Furthermore, content builds trust, it creates relationships and it gives your business a voice.What's more, is that you need to know where content marketing is heading in the near future and how you can ensure that the work you put in now keeps on paying dividends long into the future.Once you can fully utilize this key aspect of your marketing, you'll find that it helps you to create something that is much bigger than a simple brand.Content marketing can also be seen as a crucial aspect of social media marketing.But the objective of content marketing goes beyond simply getting people to your website.They are actively choosing to engage with your brand, so they must really like the type of content you provide, your style of writing or the topic that you cover.The objective of content marketing is essentially to build that kind of trust and authority directly.The same goes for YouTube personality Elliott Hulse, or bodybuilding site T-Nation.com.We've seen the basics of how content marketing works, but now let's dive into it in a little more detail.What is the precise process that converts a first-time visitor into a rabid fan?They will probably scroll down the page so fast they don't even see your logo and then they'll just navigate away as soon as they're done.If they continue to be impressed, then they'll eventually consider actually bookmarking your page or just occasionally checking the homepage to see what's new.They have built a brand through their content marketing and that means you'll feel much more comfortable handing over your cash.He is responsible for the 'hear in my garage' meme that has been doing the rounds online and if you've spent any time online, chances are you will have encountered him.While you might find Thai's in-your-face marketing strategies to be irritating (like most people do), the reality is that they work.We know they work, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to make so many using the profits from his previous videos!But what you can also learn from Thai is a pretty immaculate example of content marketing.Content marketing does not just mean blog posts.If you want to build trust and generate sales from your own website or blog, then you need to mimic this process.Then you have content that is 'evergreen' (meaning it will last forever) and content that is very contemporary and temporal - such as breaking news.Anything that's 1,500 words and over will be able to provide much greater depth and much more insight compared with something that is just As such, these longer posts tend to be better at creating trust and authority and they also tend to be shared more.The only problem is that writing one or more posts a day at 1,500 words each becomes a rather impossible task for most brands and most bloggers even.To Google, too much consistency doesn't look organic.With shorter bite- sized information and longer posts, they can instead read at their own leisure and pick the right post for the amount of time available to them.How to Write Good - The Anatomy of a Great Blog Post Your aim is to provide value but what's also important is that you do this in the shortest time possible.This subtle shift will make anything you write about considerably more engaging - to the point that it has often been described as 'SEO for the human brain'.Telling stories will generally mean that your content adopts a more personal tone, which in turn will be more colloquial.Offer something completely new and that way you will be able to get people excited to read your blog posts or watch your YouTube videos.An infographic is an image that conveys data and information in a graphical way that you can understand at a glance.For content marketing to work, it is crucial that you have a great website and a good brand.That in turn creates a lot more trust and means they'll feel they're buying from an actual individual rather than a nameless company.Chapter 5: Marketing Your Content 'Build it and they will come' is not a phrase that applies here.If you've spent ages working on your content and creating something you're really proud of, then you need to get out there and market it in order to ensure that it gets seen.This is where you're going to be different: your posts really will be good but you're going to be a little more aggressive in demonstrating this in your titles.The Presentation The way you present your content is just as important as the packaging on a new line of toys for Hasbro.If you want people to choose to read your content over another site's content then you need to use the best images and the best the layout to make it a joy to read and so that it really catches the eye.Give it a layout more closely resembling a magazine article than your typical blog post and people will notice the difference.You can do this in a number of ways, but generally this means talking about your article on forums, discussing it through social media channels and showing it on YouTube.That's right, not just posting links, but actually talking about the article and demonstrating why people should care about it. It's a subtle but potent difference.Be active in these communities and make sure that you aren't only posting when you want something!Guest blogging essentially means posting on other people's blogs.Here you find a blog or a website that you like and that you think is somewhat similar to your own (but hopefully has a little more prominence) and then you offer to write them an article in response to a link back to your site.They publish your piece, and at the bottom you will get a little author bio that will include a link back to your website.You can also just search for all the inbound links on another site and just see if any of those were obtained through guest blogging.Content is what makes the wheels go round - it is what Google uses to index your pages, it is what readers come to your pages for and it is what sets a great site apart from a good site.As such then, your site is going to live and die on the quality of its content, and if you don't have compelling and entertaining things to read on your pages then you can't expect to keep your visitors for very long or to draw in new readers.One very easy strategy for getting visitors to write your content for you for instance is simply to ask them to. This might sound a little too good to be true, but actually most people aren't trying to make money online and so aren't aware of the value of writing.Remember: duplicate content won't rank highly in Google.Some Tips In theory, content curation can save you time by allowing you to create content by reusing content that others have already made.When you consider all these jobs, it becomes apparent that this can actually end A solution then is to try hiring someone to collect the content for you so that you can put it together and then add the commentary.Alternatively, use Google Drive with its built-in Google Docs and that way you'll also benefit from the highly powerful addition of cloud sharing.This allows multiple people to edit a site together, which will make a big difference if you have lots of people collaborating.Illustrator: For professional design, you'll want to use something that allows you to create vector files.Video Editing Software: There are various types of video editing software out there, though for many of your needs Windows Movie Maker will do fine.Canva: Another alternative type of content we've touched on is infographics.It's also why 51% of B2B marketers plan on increasing their content marketing budget in the next 12 months.Hopefully I've convinced you over the course of this book that content marketing is the future of digital marketing and that it deserves a place in your strategy.But if not, here are four more powerful benefits of content marketing to make you reconsider.The lower overheads mean that this method is particularly scalable and ensures you get the best return on investment possible.It means having a great site and blog to begin with with a brand that people can invest in. It means coming up with content that is unique and interesting and then actually marketing that content just like a product.At its most basic, content marketing is the process of using content in order to market a website.This way, your content is making your site easier to find and thus it is a form of marketing.This page mainly posts science news by sharing blog posts from its own site.The reason that people search for topics on Google is because they are looking for either information or entertaining.The shoe: The Rock Delta, had the considerable advantage of being recommended by someone with a huge audience and a huge amount of authority and trust within that community.Take a look at someone like Tim Ferriss, Pat Flynn or even Tony Robbins.How does content marketing take someone from Well first, the content is what will help your new visitor to discover your site.It's at this point that they might subscribe or that they might follow you on Facebook or Twitter.Not only will they be the first to hear about it, because they're reading your content regularly; now they'll also know who you are, they'll trust you to be able to deliver high quality content and they'll know that you know your stuff.This is considerably different from being a long-time reader of a blog and then learning that the writer also has a book out.This is a much less invasive way of discovering a product and more to the point, you know something about that blogger, you know that they know their stuff and you can trust them.Trying to sell to someone without first establishing trust and authority is just like approaching a stranger in the street and asking if they'll come home with you!But if you have done the ground work by chatting, dating and demonstrating you're a nice person, then you'll earn the right to ask them home.If Thai were to tell you to buy from him as soon as you watched the YouTube video, you probably wouldn't.But now imagine that you've just watched 50 minutes of content on top of that advert.They're hopefully now convinced that he is a money-making guru and if they want to achieve some of his success, they might consider investing in one of his books!This is a typical 'sales funnel', which in turn is any system that is designed to take someone from their first encounter with a brand all the way to wanting to buy from the creator.A funnel will almost always start with something free - a free taster - and then encourage more and more engagement right up until the point where it tries to make a sale.Failing that, you should aim for at least one blog post a day.Length 500 words.