Content marketing is now a large part of consumer engagement, as it attracts the attention of the perfect online audience for your brand. This means that a lot more companies are taking part in marketing their content, and it is getting more difficult to stand out among the sea of content that could seemingly drown you. To make it worse, almost every single business owner and marketer will find themselves stuck trying to create enough content, while getting their desired engagement and finding new ways to innovate old ideas. They are not alone and this is not an isolated incident. There is only so much content to be created until it needs a new spin. It doesn't matter if it is business-to-business marketers or business to consumer marketers, each comes with their own set of unique challenges. Even so, you may still benefit from these tips to figure out how to produce new and exciting content.

1. Make Use of Social Ads

Social ads are a way to enlarge the reach of your content marketing when it is pushed through all of your social channels. For instance, on Facebook, $10 to $20 can go a long way. You will be able to make your ads visible to a specified target audience on their own social media pages, based on information that they have provided. It would be best to provide high quality pictures and text when using the social media ads, as this is what your audience will be making their judgments on.

2. Utilize (.com) Domain

If you can, promote your content through a domain ending in .com as often as is possible for you. It has been said that 84% of the highest ranking pages use this as their top-level domain. In general, domains ending in .com appear to be more trustworthy, better organized, and so on. It shows that the brand has taken the time and money to put effort into the content that they are promoting.

3. Let Your Content Guide Customers

Utilize your content to mildly guide customers through your brand's buying cycle. It shouldn't be treated like a race—if the process is rushed or aggressive, it is likely that the customer will feel pressured to purchase. Highlight how easy it is to complete your call to action through a blog post dedicated to the buying process, or one that addresses frequently asked questions.

4. Guest Blog

When you can, guest blog on popular websites that are relevant to your brand. When you do this, link back to your own website within your bio or byline. Not only will this build traffic, but it will build your authority on the brand. Also, the reverse is true. Have guest bloggers post on your website every so often, this will build a relationship between you and the guest bloggers (and those you guest blog for), allowing your audiences to see you as a real person that interacts with those who are involved in similar content creation.

5. Create Long-Form Articles

Do not simply write short blog posts to rush the job to done. What works best is long-form content that is over 1,000 words. This will help your traffic, rank, and your value in regards to the reader. Allow your readers to see that you are knowledgeable in the content that you are creating, and that you could answer their questions about the topic to the best of your knowledge. Of course this does not mean that every post should be a novel, but it should be at least comprehensive enough that your readers can connect with it and know that you are not simply trying to hit a word count stuffed with keywords.

6. Write with Your Audience in Mind

Some people say that the best marketing will not feel like marketing at all. As silly as that sounds, it is true. If you have to force your target audience to see the value in the content that you create, it likely will not work. You should be building the content based on the takeaway for the audience. If your marketing is cheesy, aggressive, or anything less than honest your readers will know. Treat it as an honest conversation with a friend, not a sales pitch.

7. Create a Buyer Persona

Before planning or even start producing content, you should create a buyer persona. This will ensure that you have a solid understanding of who is reading the content and if they will find the answers that they are looking for. This is something that will lead to a higher conversion. The buyer persona would include their gender, age, background and even interests of the ideal reader or buyer. Run through scenarios with a few personas to ensure that you are able to cater to your target audience.

8. Generate Short Titles

Stay away from long-winded headlines, and stick with titles that are short and simple while still being optimized and can get the point across. Your audience will become wary of your brand when you start to fall into the trap of sounding like click bait. This stems from being honest in your content. You do not want to trick your readers into looking at your content, you want to create genuine interest so that they will look forward to more of your content. The majority of those on the internet will completely bypass an article if it looks like it might be click bait. There is just something very untrustworthy about this trick.

9. Blog Consistently

Content marketers should focus on blogging consistently, not every now and again. One survey has shown that over 80% of marketers who took the time to blog daily reported snagging at least one customer through their blog, as compared to the 57% who only blog monthly. And it only makes sense—the more content that is generated, the higher the chance that the content will be read and shared. You will also build your own loyal followers that will expect content from you on a regular basis. When the content comes only sporadically, readers will easily forget your brand.

10. Utilize Email Marketing

Always take the time to leverage email when you are doing content marketing. One study has shown that about 80% of businesses report that email is directly responsible for their primary revenue. When sending out emails, include links to your social media, contact information, and link to not only your newest blog post, but also any other relevant blog posts. Highlight any specials or discounts that are available through your store or through affiliate links as well, but do not forget to let your readers know when you are using an affiliate link. Transparency is very important.

11. Repurpose Old Content

You can reuse old content in new ways to provide a fresh look to users who might not have seen the content previously. This re-purposed content will need to bring some sort of unique value to consumers, otherwise it is not worth doing. Take a look at your older content, and evaluate its quality. If it could use a refresher, rewrite it with the same basic ideas but implementing more modern ideas or a different twist. You might have even changed your opinion on the subject since the original copy was written. There is nothing wrong with using old content, just remember that it does need to be freshened up to become relevant.

12. Create Your Own Strategy for Content Promotion

You will find that the most successful content marketers are the ones that have a documented strategy in place and follow it exactly. This will provide a map for those who are creating content, ensuring that the content has a cohesive feel throughout your platforms. This will consist of how often you will be promoting the content on which platforms, how you will be interacting with readers on social media regarding the content, and so forth. All team members must be on the same page regarding content promotion, or it will not succeed.

13. Always Have a Plan that will Build Your Audience

You can do this by using content marketing tools that will help you to save time and work with your brand to grow your following organically. This plan will outline exactly how you will reach more people than the previous week, month, or year, and it will show through your revenue and analytics.

14. Send Personalized a "Thank You"

Think about sending a personalized thank you email or letter. This is some of the best type of content marketing. Some brands will take the time to send out handwritten letters to all of their new customers. Almost 70% of the time, these cards are shared on social media, leading to the referral rate rising by 23%. It is a simple thing but it has positive results for both the business and the consumer. It is an action that will take very little time but will yield a heavy result.

15. Link to Influencers

Reference back to influencers by linking to their content or by quoting them within your own content marketing. After you've done this, reach out to them and let them know that you've done this. It can be done through email or a manual social notification. This is also a great way to make connections and network with other brands. In doing this, you may be able to gain knowledge or even build a working relationship with similar brands that could turn into guest blogging, either them for you or you for them.

16. Avoid Generating One-off Pieces of Content

Aim to create series pieces that will drive repeat traffic. When you have a collection of stand-alone content for your brand, your readers will see this and may be put off by the lack of consistency. Think about having a theme, or a few themes to follow throughout the week. This will not only give you a map to follow for your posts, but will also give consistency to your readers so that they will know what to anticipate and when.

17. Utilize Basic Conversion

Always use the basic principles of conversion optimization. This will ensure that all of your content, through every channel, has a heightened chance of generating leads as well as sales for your team. This would include headlines, content layout, visual engagement, and even call to action. Use keywords that are relevant to your brand and that are what your customers or readers will be looking for. Optimize it to the best of your ability to ensure that you are visible to your target audience.

18. Create Evergreen Content

While trending content is still important, remember to also include evergreen content. This will continue to produce traffic month to month, year to year. Evergreen content is content that will stay relevant and continually fresh for readers. This evergreen content can serve as the backbone to your blog, and even when those articles seem to become outdated, the ideas are still relevant but may just need to get polished up for readers.

19. Monitor Analytics

Keep an eye on your analytics so that you may keep track of your most popular content types and topics that are bringing in or driving the most traffic to your website. Take a note of what is working, and do more of that while cutting the dead weight from your content marketing strategy. The analytics will give you great insight as to what your readers like or dislike, basically giving you all the answers that you need to make your blog better. Do more of the things that engage the reader, and do less of the things that have a high bounce rate.

20. Always Keep the Focus on Your Audience

Never take the focus from your audience when producing content, no matter what channel or type. To put it simply, do not focus on having a great blog, instead you should focus on producing a blog that is great for your audience. If you want to have a successful blog that brings in revenue, you need to curate a blog that is for your readers, not for yourself. This would go back to the idea that you need to create several personas and ensure that these are the correct people that are being targeted as well as the people that will end up being engaged.

Author: Garenne BigbyWebsite: http://garennebigby.com

Founder of DYNO Mapper and Former Advisory Committee Representative at the W3C.