Content Marketing Strategy The Complete Beginner's Guide

Content Marketing Strategy The Complete Beginner's GuideWho wants to turn even more regular website visitors into buyers?

If you're looking for proven ways to turn visitors into repeat buyers, you need to master the art of "content marketing".
The trick is to turn random visitors into loyal customers. Not only does content marketing help you sell your website, but
it also provides you with a solid platform to turn your blog into a passive source of income without sounding like a salesperson!

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Getting results from a blog is very difficult, especially if you don't have a previous online reputation and most bloggers quit because they don't see enough results in terms of traffic or selling their blogs.

That is why we have created an advanced content marketing guide to meet all your needs. Are you curious how you can use it to get the best results from blogging? Let's jump into the details.

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Content Marketing Guide: Everything You Need to Know About

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1. What is Content Marketing?

It's all about creating problem-solving content and sharing it for FREE to attract and convert website visitors into buyers.

Simply put, content marketing is a strategy that uses your content to build awareness and trust among your target audience before turning them into customers to increase your sales.

In traditional marketing, you earn money by showing ads, publishing paid reviews, using paid membership sites, etc. While in content marketing instead of showing ads to interrupt your website visitors (to make money), you spend a lot give away valuable articles, videos, Infographics for free. The more value you create with your content, the more people will listen to you. This creates overtime for confidence.

If you build trust later, you can sell or promote the products they are looking for. Most of the time, in content marketing, people use their email lists to make money. So the email list is key to a successful content marketing strategy.

Traditional marketing conversations with people. Content marketing talks to them!

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2. The benefits of content marketing

Most of you are already familiar with the term 'content marketing', but if you are still unsure of the benefits that content marketing offers, here are some great benefits.

It is the surefire way to turn visitors into buyers.
It educates your readers.
It helps you better understand your audience.
It boosts your sales without being pushy.
It helps you attract quality links from other blogs.

Enough said! Now let's talk about how to use content marketing to build trust and increase your online sales.

How do you use content marketing to build trust and increase sales?

Start a blog

According to HubSpot,B2B marketers who use blogs get 67% more leads than those who don't.

The blog you're reading now, Bloggers Passion, earns $ 10,000 + in passive income every month. In the past year alone, we've made about $ 106,000 (statisticsyou can read all of the blog's revenue and trafficfrom here).

Without a doubt, blogging is one of the best ways to increase online sales.

If you're still wondering why you should start a blog to create a perfect content marketing strategy, here are some interesting 2020 blog stats you should know.

Marketers who prioritize blogging are 13x more likely to achieve a positive ROI on their efforts
Blogs have been rated as the 5th most reliable source of accurate online information
Websites with a blog have 434% more indexed pages

Most importantly, nearly 50 % of buyers view 3 to 5 pieces of content before contacting a sales representative.

Those are shocking yet interesting statistics, right?

If you REALLY want to achieve amazing results with content marketing, you need to start a blog.

So how do you start a blog? There are a lot of blogging platforms including WordPress, Blogger, Typepad, Tumblr and so on.

Honestly, if you're serious about building an online business, WordPress works great because it's also the number 1 CMS (Content Management System) in the world used by millions of sites around the world.

If you want to start a self-hosted blog on WordPress you need reliable web hosting and we recommend you try Bluehost as it offers affordable hosting plans and it is also the official hosting recommendation of WordPress itself.

If you are interested in launching a WordPress site on Bluehost, here is a simple step-by-step tutorial.

Step 1: Use this exclusive link to sign up for Bluehost hosting. Once you click on the link you will be taken to their homepage (we are connected to Bluehost to give you the best hosting offer of $ 2.95 per month, so you will see our branding on their homepage), which looks like this;

Step 2: Click the Get Now button and you will get 3 of their shared hosting plans including base plus plus choice plus (we recommend your choice plus as it will cost you $ 5.45 per month but you can host unlimited sites while , with a basic subscription, ie a subscription of $ 2.95, you can install only 1 site).

Here are the Bluehost discounts with pricing information for Bloggers Passion audience (in case you're curious)

36 months: $ 2.95 / month
24 months: $ 3.95 / month
12 months: $ 4.95 / month

Step 3 : Once you have chosen the desired hosting plan from Bluehost, you now need to set up a domain (Bluehost offers a free domain for 1 year or you can also enter if you bought a domain from elsewhere).

Step 4: In this last step, you will need to create your account and enter your payment details to complete the process. After successful payment you will receive a welcome email from Bluehost and you can install WordPress to start blogging.

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3. Find out what kind of content your audience craves

Building a strong foundation is key to content marketing. Find out what your audience is looking for. Before you delve into content marketing, you need to understand your audience.

Answer the following important questions before you start;

What is the biggest problem facing your target audience?
What does he need to solve his problem?
Where does he find answers to his problems? (List your competition)

Create Once Once you have compelling answers to the above questions, it becomes easier for you to create a content marketing strategy that helps you create what your audience wants.

Create a content plan

Once you know who your audience is and what type of content they are looking for, you need to create a content creation plan to turn visitors into buyers with your content. Here are 3 easy steps to launch a solid content marketing plan.

Post frequency: You need to know your ideal post frequency. Although you don't have to post daily, but you have to be consistent with your mailing schedule. If your readers are aware of your posting frequency, they will return to your sites regularly. That's a great strategy for getting your visitors back and making sure they stick with your sites.
Length of message: We all know that high quality content beats everything. Also, make sure you figure out how many words you need to make a quality post for your readers. It is always better to write detailed articles with about 2000 to 3000 words. Not only will this make your audience think you know what you're talking about, but it will also help you improve your search rankings, as Google loves detailed content on short articles.
Competition: AnalysisWhen creating a content strategy for your blog, it is important to analyze your competition. Find out their placement frequency, number of words, social shares, headlines etc. To better understand their content creation plan. If you can do better, continue with them to attract quality buyers to your sites.

5 High Performance Types of Advanced Content Marketing

When developing an advanced content strategy, it is so important that you choose the RIGHT types of content. There are a ton of types of content you can produce, from blog posts to webinars to podcasts and so on.

If you're looking for high-performing forms of advanced content marketing, the following 5 are ideal for most industries because they can deliver high ROI for every dollar you spend.

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1. Blog posts (including guest posts, long form of articles)

We have been using Bloggers Passion since 2010 and since then we have been mainly dependent on blog posts. Did you know we made over $ 100,000 in the past year alone? Blog posts definitely work like a charm and you should include them in your content strategy if you want to get better results.

Blog posts can help you with the following things;

They help you generate more traffic from search engines (like you can do keyword research, page optimization, link building and what not).
They create awareness about the products and services you recommend.
They attract more social shares, comments and so on.

Above all, blog posts can be reused at any time as you can convert them into eBooks, PDFs, videos and so on. They can also be re-optimized by editing titles, updating new content, building links and getting better search results.

Make sure to include guest posts and long articles as you create a content strategy as guest posts help you build links and relationships with other bloggers. Long content helps you rank higher in the search engines, as Google usually prefers long content over short articles.

2. Videos

Whether you know it or not, YouTube is the second largest search engine after Google, as it has over 1.9 billion monthly active users.

Not only that, your video would have 50 times more chances to score well in organic output than text content, and videos get a higher CTR percentage of 41% which is higher than the CTR of text.

Since the beginning of 2020, we have been actively making videos and doing video marketing on YouTube. Although the growth is not that great, we regularly get new subscribers on YouTube, along with the longer viewing time on our videos.

You can watch our latest videos from here.And don't miss if you like our videos, share and subscribe to our YouTube channel.

You know why we spend more time on YouTube marketing, although we are already actively publishing (or updating) posts on Bloggers Passion. The reason is that we want to diversify our traffic sources because we cannot rely on just one traffic source like Google to drive more traffic or sales.

You never know when Google will roll out a funky algorithm as the recent Google core update has affected many websites resulting in a massive traffic drop for most sites.

When creating videos on YouTube, make sure to focus on creating longer duration videos, as a study of YouTube ranking factors found that longer videos (more than 15 minutes) outperformed shorter videos in YouTube searches .

As you can see above, longer duration videos over 15 minutes in length perform well on YouTube.

In addition, according to Tubular Insights, 68% of YouTube users come to the platform for help in making a purchasing decision. So if you want to increase the sales of your website and get the attention of a new audience, YouTube marketing is definitely for you.

Quick note: We also wrote an exclusive post about YouTube SEO, which will help you find a lot of interesting insights and techniques to increase the visibility of your videos.

3. Case Studies

To build a blog about making money, you need to build trust and awareness among your target audience. How can you build trust with your audience? The easiest way is to write excellent case studies.

Yes, case studies on blogs work like a charm. You can also use case studies on the products you promote to drive more sales. You can take a look at our SEO case study as an example to get an idea of what it looks like;

As you can see above, in a case study, you share all the details along with the results on a particular topic (or task). These case studies establish you as an authority in your industry, as you not only publish new posts, but rather create "exclusive content" that usually provides insights along with the results.

4. Images (including platforms like Instagram, Pinterest)

Did you know that Foundr magazine ONLY went to over 1.8 million followers using Instagram marketing? That's crazy right?

They literally make millions of dollars a year through their Instagram marketing campaigns and they post great things that usually contain images.

So if you are also looking for quick hacking techniques, focus on creating attractive images and use platforms like Instagram, Pinterest etc. to grow all over again.

Find out how other top marketers and brands are using sites like Instagram to promote their content through images and you can repeat the same thing (including how often they post one day how they promote their brand and so on).

5. Email Newsletters

Did you know that email marketing has the BIGGEST ROI with an average expected ROI of $ 32 for every $ 1 you spend on email marketing? Yes, that's right, 81% of small businesses rely on email as their main customer acquisition channel and 80% on retention.

If you want to build trust, exposure and brand through content marketing, get started building an email list and use auto responders, drop email campaigns and email newsletters to grow your traffic, leads and sales.

Make sure to use the right email marketing solution (you can check out our AWeber vs MailChimp review) as it allows you to easily design and customize your email newsletters.

Being everywhere

One of the easiest ways to promote your content to a wider audience is to be everywhere. We know it's really hard to be everywhere if you don't have online connections, but we'll work out some simple strategies for getting more exposure by being everywhere.

SEO: Whether you agree or disagree, search engine optimization is the only element in creating a profitable blog that makes money. Without getting traffic from search engines, it is impossible to attract readers who want to buy what you are selling. So focus on increasing your overall SEO traffic to outline an effective content marketing strategy.

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4. Blog Comments and Guest Post

Everyone thinks guest blogging is dead, but it's not. In fact, guest blogging is still one of the most epic ways to reach out to more people with your content. You should focus on creating high-quality guest posts to draw potential customers to your sites rather than focusing on building backlinks.

Blog commenting is another evergreen strategy for making new connections with other bloggers. By leaving thoughtful comments on other blogs, you will not only build strong relationships, but it will also convince others to leave comments on your blog posts.

Social: Social media shares are one of the crucial factors that determine your search rankings. Google places more importance on the sites that get more social shares (be it from Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest). So actively spend your time on social media sites to explore others and interact with influencers in your industry to boost your online reputation.

Email: If you don't have an email list, you will lose a lot of money and traffic on the table. Check out a successful marketer, you will find that most of his income comes from the email list. Do you know why? Since email list is permission marketing, it means people give you permission. If you build trust and promote the right kind of products that will solve their problems, they will buy from you anyway! So start compiling an email list as soon as possible, and also focus on giving a free incentive to quickly boost your email subscribers.

Interviews: conduct interviews with the industry experts. Discover the most popular topics in your niche using tools such as SEMrush, Moz, Buzzsumo, etc. Then ask relevant questions and contact the most popular bloggers in your niche. Then promote the interviews and ask for a tweet from the influencers you interviewed to quickly increase your blog awareness.

Review Your Analyzes

Once you perform the above steps perfectly, it's time to spy on your analytics. Creating compelling content is not enough, you should also check whether your content is delivering good results or not.

You can evaluate the following statistics to ensure that your content is doing well.

Check your social shares by mail.
Check the number of responses you get.
Find out if people are sending you emails to thank you (after making a great post)
Spy on yourreport

Google Analytics Use Google Analytics to your advantage, it's not just a free tool, but it's a perfect tool to help you find top pages and high-performing keywords. If few keywords get you more search engine traffic, consider using the relevant keywords in your upcoming posts to get more traffic from Google.

Refine and repeat

Once the above steps are done correctly, you should refine the results of which strategies perform well and which type of content yields more results.

Repeat the strategies that work well for you and refine things that don't give you the better results. Also remember that search engine traffic takes time, especially if you have a fairly new blog.

Every blog that generates high traffic from search engines comes from one factor: they get a lot of inbound links from other blogs. So you should focus on building high quality backlinks to ensure your blog performs well in Google search results.

Try guest posts, create infographics and videos to draw natural backlinks to your blogs. If you want to discover the creative strategies to create quality links, try "blogger outreach strategy".

In a nutshell, the blogger outreach strategy is all about grabbing the attention of others for linking to your content. Blogger Outreach Strategy is one of the most crucial ingredients in your advanced content marketing strategy. Without the help of other bloggers in your niche, your blog will not perform well on social media sites or Google search results.

Before seeking help, always help others and link to high quality messages regularly. Over time, you will see many good results with the blogger outreach strategy.

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5. Top 3 Examples of Content Marketing [What You Can Learn From It]

Creating a content marketing strategy is NOT easy, especially when you are just starting out online. You need to carefully read and analyze some of the best websites that use content marketing effectively to drive more traffic, leads and sales.

That's why we've created this exclusive section where you will discover some of the best examples of content marketing so you can learn something and probably adapt your content strategy accordingly.

1. Buffer

Buffer is one of the best social media management software tools used by millions of people to schedule posts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin and analyze their results.

It also has an exclusive blog operated by Leo Widrich and Joel Gascoigne. Buffer is definitely one of the best examples of how you can harness the power of content marketing to build a million-dollar business online.

Here's how it uses content marketing to generate leads and sales.

Buffer uses a huge call to action on their homepage. You will see a huge call to action that says "Get started" on their homepage. Once you click on it, you are immediately taken to their rate plans which look like this;

As you can see above, the main motive of the Buffer website with new website visitors is to try out their 7 day free trial for all plans (they also offer a free plan at the bottom).

Once you start using their 7 free trials, you will likely convert to their paid customer because of their great features that make it easy to schedule posts and automate all your social media campaigns with ease.

Even their blog posts are often filled with excellent social media content (so they attract a specific audience to their website who are actually interested in social media related issues).

Therefore, we think the conversion rates of their websites will be higher as they turn random website visitors into customers by offering free trials and excellent content.

2. Smart Passive Income

Pat Flynn runs this great marketing blog called Smart Passive Income where he makes an average of $ 100,000 every month. Yes, you heard right. Thanks to his great content marketing skills.

Here's how Pat Flynn uses content marketing to generate leads and sales through his site.

First, let's take a look at the homepage where he uses an email signup form, along with a slew of social evidence to convince first-time visitors to email subscribers.

His blog also has a ton of resources, including email newsletters, special eBooks, cheat sheets, etc. to turn visitors into email subscribers. Then he slowly introduces his paid courses, promoting partner products like Bluehost along with his eBooks (and print books) to make money from the email list.

3. Ahrefs

Ahrefs is one of the best SEO tools used by many people, including SEOs and marketers around the world because it helps you in everything from keyword research to competitor analysis to backlink audits and so on.

Here's how Ahrefs are using content marketing to drive more sales for their # 1 SEO tool.

This is what you are welcome with when you are on the homepage of the Ahrefs website.

As you can see above, they ONLY have one big call-to-action, making a 7-day trial for $ 7 (no free trial), along with the number of users who signed up in the past 7 days.

In addition, Ahrefs has an incredible blog that mainly covers SEO related things and they usually use the Ahrefs tool for many tutorials like keyword research, competitor analysis, content audits and so on.

So the people reading their tutorials need to access their tool to fully understand. They also have a huge email list and strong social media presence, all of which come in handy when it comes to turning them into customers.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some frequently asked questions about content marketing that can help you understand more about it.

1. Will content marketing help with more business in 2020?

Absolutely yes. People do a lot of research these days (be it reading articles or watching videos) before buying anything online. This means that they inform themselves about the products or services they will use before taking out their wallets for the purchase.

Here, content marketing helps you by educating your audience and customers with the right content, including blog posts, videos, podcasts and so on. Having a better content marketing strategy can certainly increase your overall online sales.

2. What are the latest trends in content marketing for 2020?

Here are a few content marketing trends that can help you dominate in 2020 and beyond.

Influencer marketing still works like a charm
Long form of articles always scores better and attracts more backlinks along with social stocks.
Tellingbrand works great, no matter what industry you are.
Be everywhere (on video platforms like YouTube, content platforms like Medium & Quora, podcasts because it helps you connect with more people)

3. What is the future of video marketing?

No matter which niche you are in, you should definitely consider video marketing if you want to see rapid growth as platforms like YouTube are growing fast.

That said, here are some interesting YouTube video marketing statistics that can give you a better idea of why you should start in 2020.

YouTube has more than 1.9 billion logged-in monthly users (it is also the second largest search engine after Google and the third most visited site after Google and Facebook)
By 2025, half of viewers under the age of 32 will not subscribe to a pay-TV service.
In 2015, 18 to 49 year olds spent 4% less time watching TV while time on YouTube went up 74% (meaning YouTube is growing fast compared to traditional TV viewing time).

Above all, people who completed TrueView ads on YouTube watched completion or at least 30 seconds, 23 times more likely to visit or subscribe, watch or share that brand video.

4. Why is content marketing important?

Content marketing helps you convert website visitors into email subscribers into loyal customers. It's important because it helps build confidence and awareness among your prospects around the products and services you offer.

5. What are a few content marketing tools?

Here are some contenttools you can use in 2020:

marketingSEMrush (great for SEO)
Google Docs (great for writing articles)
Grammar (improves your writing and editing)
Quora (great platform to connect and share your ideas online )
Rank Math (useful plugin to optimize your content)

Browse more Blogging Resources:

Final Thoughtsideas

Creating shareable content is not easy unless you discover the already implemented topicin your niche. As a content marketing guy, you should focus on creating high-quality content rather than focusing on just increasing your traffic.

Always focus on creating problem-solving content, after all, your content is the lifeblood of making your blog successful. So are you ready to give content marketing a serious chance?

Did you like this ultimate guide to content marketing strategy? If so, share this post with others so they can take advantage of it. Let us know if you have any questions about content marketing in the comments below.

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