For some, there’s nothing scarier than a blank cursor blinking on a page. To others, there’s a level of excitement that comes from the same scenario. Even if you currently identify with the former, there’s an opportunity for you to change your tune to succeed with content for your marketing efforts.
Writing doesn’t have to be your strong suit to succeed at content marketing. Follow these tips to ensure that your content strategy is moving in the right direction.
Assert Authority
When you write about something regularly and publish it, you become an authority in whatever you’re writing about. Let’s be clear—these need to be carefully thought out instead of simply writing to write. Do your research and come up with a calendar for what you want to say and when.
Build Relationships
The beautiful thing about content marketing is that you don’t have to always do it yourself. There’s an added benefit when you seek help from outside sources. That means you get a free pass that week from writing, so if you’re busy, you can simply edit and post. It also means that you will build relationships with people in your industry. When you work with others, they’ll want to share what you posted on your site. That gets you free publicity.
Grammar Guidelines
There are rules, and then there are guidelines. It’s important to follow all rules of grammar, such as using the correct form of “to” “too” and “two.”
And then, there are guidelines. Will you use the oxford comma? Do you spell out the word “okay” or do you write it as “OK.” There are tons of different rules that you’ll need to be clear on for consistency. Nothing messes up a good thing like inconsistent grammar. Trust us… people notice.
Stick with It
In the movie Field of Dreams, there’s a famous line that goes, “If you build it, they will come.” While that’s not entirely true of content marketing, it is a great place to start. First, you have to build it. But then, you have to consistently provide value with your content. While you should post on a regular basis, as a general rule of thumb you should only post if you have something to say.
Ask yourself if you would find value in the types of things that you’re posting to your blog or site. If you would, proceed full speed ahead!
