pieces of critical content for your marketing strategy

A quality marketing plan takes time, but the number one thing that will cause it to fail is forgetting to identify your target customer. Who are you trying to reach? What does your ideal customer look like?
Before you begin creating the content suggested here, make sure you have a good understanding of who your ideal customer is, what they are looking for, and above all how your business or product can help them. Knowing this vital information is essential to creating content they will notice and respond to. 
 

Your Business Story

This is a bit deeper than your “About” page. This is the story you tell through interactions with your customers and it should be centered around the customer, not you or your business. To craft an appealing business story to your audience, you are not the hero or the focal point of the story, your customer is. Your business is the solution that helps your customer get what they want. Dig a little bit to really get to the heart of the role your business plays and how your products or services improve the lives of your customers.

An Answer to Your Most Asked Question

Another component of effective content marketing is producing content in the medium you audience responds to. You can figure this out by dedicating some R&D time on social media. Share video, audio, and written pieces on the same topic. Which format consistently gets the most engagement? Create more content in that format.

After you know what content your audience prefers, take to that medium to answer the most common question asked of your business. Here are examples of popular question types (insert the critical information that applies to your business):

What’s the difference between __________ and ___________?
How often should I get a new _____________?
How much does ____________ cost?
How do I select the perfect ____________ for me? 

When creating the content, use the question as the title. People often search by entering questions not keywords, so you want to ensure you are fully utilizing both. Creating content based on customer questions is more likely to place you higher in search results than merely optimizing for keywords, and it will save them the time in searching for the answers they are looking for-something they will surely appreciate!
 

A Gallery

If you sell products or services that are visually appealing, create a portfolio to showcase what you sell. If you don’t have a product or an item that’s photogenic to sell, create a gallery of testimonials instead. 

How do you get testimonials? Simply ask! People love to help, make sure they know how much they would be helping you (casting them as the hero!). When you receive good feedback, ask if it would be alright if you wrote it down and shared it on your site, or if they’d be willing to leave you a formal review.

Final Thoughts
In addition to these three types of content you need to be committed to consistent content creation, posting, and other forms of advertising.  Select a schedule you know you can adhere to and if necessary, hire someone to help.