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A lot of people that I talk to get a little scared when I mention content marketing, just because it sounds like they're going to have a lot of writing to do, which takes a lot of time. While generating content does mean you need to do some writing, there's a lot more to it than writing blog after blog, guide after guide, which takes less time.
Of course, I'm not saying that blogs and eBooks aren't a vital part of a content marketing strategy, because they are, but if supported with smaller pieces of content marketing they won't take up huge chunks of your time.
So if I could guess, content marketing is something that you know you should be doing, but just don't think that you have the time? Well, if I shared with you 10 tips that would take less than 60 minutes to implement, would that help you find time to fit content marketing in?
Let's give it a go...
1. Repost content from your archives
(30 minutes)
Dig through your blog archives, your fact sheets, your product guides and repost the content! If it's still relevant, tweak it slightly, add a comment to update the content and repost. There's nothing wrong with resharing content over and over, especially if it's still relevant for your target audience.
This is especially true on social media. Take a look through your social media reports to understand which pieces of your content perform the best, and which of your social posts have had the most clicks or engagement, and reshares.
2. Retweet relevant posts on social
(10 minutes)
I have no doubt that you're following businesses who are thought leaders within your industry, so why not retweet or share their posts on your own Twitter and LinkedIn accounts? This won't take you that long to do, and will ensure that your social accounts are adhering to the recommended 80/20 rule of own and other content.
It will also help your followers to view you as more of a thought leader because it shows that you stay up to date with the latest industry insights and trends.
3. Distribute your content
(30 minutes)
How many RSS directories have you submitted your blog to? None? Well that's something that should change, and it will take you no time at all. By submitting your blog to RSS directories that are relevant, you will increase your number of inbound links (which will help towards your search engine rankings) and increase the amount of traffic coming to your blog.
4. Answer a question on Quora
(5 minutes)
This is probably something that you've not thought about before, but should definitely come into your content marketing routine. Quora is indexed really well in Google! By answering questions that are relevant to your niche (and including a link in your answer), you will appear as the answer to questions that people ask in search engines, leading to clicks and therefore more traffic to your site!
5. Queue up third party content
(40 minutes)
Which websites do you go to to stay updated on the latest trends and news in your industry? Those sites are a great source of content for you! Either, use the content from those websites to post on your social platforms, explaining why the articles or information you're sharing is worth reading. Or, take snippets of the article, and add in your own opinions so that you can post it as a blog.
If you schedule pieces to go out on social media in advance too, that will keep your channels active even when you're too busy to post content.
6. Find an infographic, comment and share
(45 minutes)
This is one of my favourite things to do especially when I'm short on time and need to get a blog out as soon as! Thankfully to the rise of the infographic, the internet is full of fantastic graphics, on whatever subject you're looking for, so there's no doubt you'll be able to find something for your industry.
So, find an infographic, embed it into a blog post, write and introduction and a comment regarding the facts that it shows and share! Just remember to attribute it correctly when you take it from another website.
7. Optimise 5 website pages
(50 minutes)
A lot of the time we set pages live, and don't really think that hard about their optimisation (how SEO friendly they are), but this could be affecting your website traffic levels! So if you have some spare time, optimise some of your website pages! This includes ensuring images have alt text, page tags and meta tags are the right lengths and include keywords you're trying to rank for, that you're using header tags etc. If you'd like to know more about on page optimisation, there's a more detailed blog here.
8. Send out an email promoting your latest blog
(20 minutes)
I hope that you don't overlook email marketing... There's so many reasons why it is still relevant! The Radicati Group estimate that the world sends about 196 billion emails daily, out of that, the majority (109 billion) are business emails.
With the opportunity to be tailored and personal with every email that you send too, the customer acquisition rates are a lot higher than other content marketing, like social media for example. So, using the data you have on your contacts, build a list of those who would be interested in your latest blog and send send send!
9. Ask for user generated content
(15 minutes)
User generated content marketing is so hot the marketing world right now, but many marketers haven't yet delved into its possibilities. As users are craving a more authentic relationship from their brands, it's no surprise that it's 20% more influential, 35% more memorable and 50% more trustworthy! But how do you get user generated content?
Ask for it. You could make a contest on social media for people to create the best industry meme, or give them a photo filter to use. Ask for reviews, look through comments, ask questions and use the responses to create content. Experiment and then be creative with your results.
10. Add a subscribe pop-up CTA
(30 minutes)
The call to action is a key ingredient to any effective marketing campaign. Conversions, revenue etc. all depend on the mighty call to action, so they need to be correct. In this case though, I'm not talking about conversions, I'm talking about increasing your audience, your contacts who you can market to, and to do that you need subscribers!
Nikki McGonigal, a food craft blogger, started testing out with both sidebar and light-box forms for opt-ins. After 8 months, when she compared the results, she found that the light-box form drove over 7,000 additional subscribers. Are you tempted now?
With all of these options, I bet you're excited to spend an hour working on content marketing now! To help you get on your way to creating the best content marketing strategy, download our worksheet pack below.
