Content is essential to laying the foundation for your business and showing that you have what your target market wants to buy. Without content, you’re stuck. But there are so many types of content available, it’s impossible to tell what you should invest in. If you’re trying to get your business off the ground or just want to inject new life into your marketing campaigns, here are three pieces of essential content.
1. Your free opt in report.
If you aren’t capturing email addresses and growing your marketing list, you are wasting the traffic that is coming to your website. You MUST grow your email list and the best way to do that is by offering some type of incentive that gives your audience a reason to give up their email address. Your incentive should be a free, targeted report that relates to your product or service. Think of the top questions that your audience has and then create a free report about it. Offer a few quick tips or give simple how to instructions that your audience will be interested in learning. Make sure it plays directly into the information that you’re offering in your product. For example, if you’re selling a product on weight loss your product could be “7 Weight Loss Mistakes You Don’t Know You’re Making.”
2. Your email newsletter
Once you’ve captured email addresses with your free report, you shouldn’t just sit on them! You need to regularly send them email newsletters to keep them involved and build trust. Send a monthly newsletter at least that features a piece of quality content and directs them to the latest on your website. You can also promote your latest product offering in the newsletter. Set up you’re autoresponder so that it goes out automatically and regularly. With regular communication, your list members will know what to expect from you.
3. Your blog.
Your blog is not just one piece of content but it’s just as essential as a single piece. You need to blog regularly for several different reasons. First, it helps you engage your target market and shows them that you offer value. It helps you really connect with your audience and develop a relationship with them so they’ll purchase from you. On top of that, blogs create searchable content that can be indexed by search engines. The more you post and use words related to your product, the more likely you’ll be indexed high for those search terms. Blogging should be a regular part of your marketing and an essential piece of marketing content. Don’t forget to offer your free opt-in report in the sidebar of your blog so site visitors can join your list.
Once you’ve gotten these basics in place, you can take the next steps with your content marketing plan. You can offer videos, create white papers and even create your own product for sale. These three essential pieces of marketing content can be the foundation for your successful business.