The content marketing guide: 15 tips from the experts

From PR Daily….

There’s never been a better time to start content marketing.

Creating and publishing useful content extends your business’s reach, makes you more visible, connects people to your business, and, thanks to the online tools now available, keeps getting easier.

Of course, everyone needs a hand getting it right. Here are four content marketing experts to help: Joe Chernov of Eloqua; Ann Handley of MarketingProfs; Scott Stratten of Unmarketing; and Adam Singer of TheFutureBuzz.

The result: a trove of 15 solid-gold content marketing tips:

1. Create content that helps people. —Joe Chernov

Create something interesting to help people do their jobs better, something that helps them become proficient in an area (preferably related to your business) that they previously knew little about.

Don’t let your content suffer from “IBU” syndrome—that’s Interesting But Useless. Don’t create a “The History of Some Nonsensical Business Issue” infographic that few people pay attention to and fewer still forward.

Hold your content to a standard that makes it more than interesting, and offer uncommon yet practical advice or teach people something they didn’t already know.

2. Make your content about customers. —Adam Singer

Don’t be too brand-centric with your content. Many marketers and PR pros think first about the brand, their messaging, and their talking points.

That’s great when you’re making a media pitch or doing an interview for a story that someone else will tell. But when you tell your story yourself, make sure you do it in a customer-focused way. Customers need to understand why what you’re saying is relevant to them.

3. Write for your readers first; it builds trust. —Joe Chernov

Always think about the audience first—that’s the golden rule.

Content that is all about your brand will fizzle, because the reader will lose interest. Take the long-term approach, and write for the reader first and your marketing purposes second. Your goal should be to zero out your brand; you’ll never achieve it, but you need to counterbalance the people in your company who live to “make the logo bigger.”

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