REVEALED: Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to

Content Marketing [2019]

by Sharon Hurley Hall on April 4, 2019

Are you using content marketing effectively to reach your customers and grow
your business?

These days, content is one of the best ways to raise brand awareness among
a targeted audience. Content marketing campaigns can also bring you online
authority, web traffic, leads, and sales.

There’s just one problem.

Without the right content marketing strategy, tactics, and tools, you won’t get
those benefits.

So how do you avoid wasting your time on the wrong content marketing
approach?

Simple. Read this guide.

We’ve collected the latest content marketing best practices to help you market
your business with content.

With this info, you’ll be able to get your audience’s attention and make them
want to connect with you. Down the road, that means more leads and sales.
Be warned, there’s a LOT of information here. So, we’ve created a table of
contents so you can go straight to the area of content marketing you want to
learn about first.

 What Is Content Marketing?

 Content Marketing Statistics – Does It Really Work?
 How To Create a Content Marketing Strategy
 Content Promotion Techniques
 Content Marketing Tactics
 The Best Types of Content to Wow Your Audience
 How to Measure Content Marketing ROI
 Content Marketing Tools
 Visual Content Creation Tools
 Content Promotion Tools
 Content Marketing Examples
 Content Marketing Mistakes
 FAQs About Content Marketing

Let’s start with a content marketing definition, so we’re all clear what we’re
talking about.

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing means marketing your business with content. It sounds

deceptively simple, but there’s a lot to it.

First, there’s the content part. That’s stuff like blog posts, articles, podcasts,
and videos. Basically, it’s information in written, audible, or visual form.
So, what about the marketing part? That hasn’t changed since marketing first
took place in actual markets. It’s all about telling your target audience about
your products and services so they want to become customers. With content
marketing, you do this with content.

But there is one difference from the good ol’, bad ‘ol days. Unlike other types
of sales and marketing, content marketing makes people come to you rather
than you reaching out to them (though there is some overlap between the
two). That’s why content marketing is part of inbound marketing.

Content marketers create, curate, share, and distribute quality content. As

you’ll see, quality content is content that is relevant, accurate, optimized for
search and delivers what your audience wants.

This content helps marketers:

 Attract a defined target audience

 Inform them about the business

 Engage and educate them

 Generate leads and sales

 Turn that audience into customers, fans, and advocates

Next, let’s look at some content marketing statistics that show why this
marketing method is so popular.
Content Marketing Statistics – Does It Really Work?

Why do so many people use content when trying to build an audience? One
major reason is that content reaches people where they are: online.

Around the world, the digital population is about 4 billion people,

says Statista. That means about half of the world is connected, which is a
pretty big market.

But things are changing. More than 75% of those online people use mobile
devices and social media, which has implications for your marketing.

And in the US, 26% of adults are almost always online.

The best way to reach people who are always online is with content that
comes straight to the mobile devices and social networks they are using. After
all, that’s where they’re looking for information.

That’s why content is such a popular marketing tool. The latest stats from the
Content Marketing Institute (CMI) show that 91% of B2B marketers and 86%
of B2C marketers consider content marketing a core strategy.

And it works. According to the CMI, 72% of marketers say content marketing
increases engagement and is a great lead generation tool. And nobody wants
to miss out on getting more leads, right?

Ready to get your share? Let’s start with defining your content marketing
strategy. (And if you want to learn more about the data supporting the use of
content marketing, check out our huge roundup of content marketing
statistics.)

How To Create a Content Marketing Strategy

Creating content without a plan is like driving without GPS: you may get there
in the end, but you’ll definitely take a few wrong turns on the way. In fact, you
could end up wandering around aimlessly, getting frustrated, and wasting time
and money.

The stats show that content strategy is one of the areas marketers struggle
with most:
 63% of businesses haven’t got a documented content strategy

 64% of marketers need help on building a better content strategy

 60% of marketers find it difficult to produce content consistently

So here are some tips on creating the perfect content strategy.

1. Set Out Your Mission, Goals, And KPIs

One of the first steps is to work out your content marketing mission. It’s a brief
statement of who your audience is, how you’ll reach them, and what they’ll
gain from your content. A good example is this content marketing mission
statement from CIO.com:

Here’s a formula you can use to create your own content marketing mission:
We provide [target audience] with [type of content] to
help them [business goals].
Business goals are an important part of the process. They set out what your
business will gain from content marketing. Typical content marketing goals
include improving sales, getting more leads, and increasing traffic. Learn more
about content marketing goals here.

This formula can also work for B2C marketing because your target audience
always has goals. For example, a B2C health brand could create informational
articles (that’s the type of content) for women over 50 (target audience) to
help them survive menopause (goal).

And, of course, you need to say how you’ll measure success. These are your
key performance indicators (KPIs). These can include revenue targets,
numbers of subscribers, increased visitor numbers, and more.
2. Know Your Audience

An essential step in any content strategy is knowing who you’re marketing to.
This will help you target your content appropriately. This is important because
marketing works best when it’s relevant. If you create content for everyone,
you’re not creating it for anyone.

A starting point is getting demographic data via web, social, and email
analytics. This will tell you the age, gender, education, and income of your
target audience.

You can also collect feedback from customers to help you understand their
priorities, decide where to reach them, and flesh out buyer personas. Buyer
personas will bring these two sets of information together so you know what
content to create, how it will help your audience, and what will make them
care about it.
Learn more about understanding your audience for content marketing here.
3. Plan Your Process

It’s essential to plan a process for content creation. In particular, you should
know:

 Who’s in charge of creating content

 Who’s in charge of maintaining and updating content

 What resources you need for content creation

 What your publishing schedule is

 Who has final content approval

 What your content production workflow is

Learn more about content marketing resource allocation here. And see our
FAQs for guidance on integrating your content into a content calendar.
4. Start a Blog

Your blog is at the centerpiece of any content marketing strategy. It provides a

hub for all your other content marketing efforts. In fact, it’s an essential
marketing tool. So, if you don’t already have a blog, start one.

To get the most from blogging, you’ll need some blog post ideas. Some ideas
that work well include:

 How-to guides

 Tutorials
  Industry news and insights

 Checklists

 Case studies, which we’ll look at in more detail later

 Interviews

 Expert advice

Get some more blog post ideas in 73 types of blog posts that are proven to
work.

Want to dig down into the nitty-gritty of blog post idea generation? Then
consider posts that are:

 Useful

 Educational

 Fun

 Controversial

You can also publish roundups, personal stories, and lifestyle posts. Get more
inspiration from our huge list of blog post ideas.
5. Audit Your Existing Content

If you’ve got content already, it’s important to work out if it’s meeting your
goals and delivering on those KPIs. That’s why it makes sense to audit your
content. That’s a three-step process:

1. Log what you have

2. Assess whether it’s working

3. Find content gaps

A good tool for logging your content is Screaming Frog. It’s an SEO tool but
is also a great way to quickly grab all the URLs from your site. You can also
easily find duplicate pages and identify missing titles and descriptions. Learn
more about using Screaming Frog in our SEO guide.
Another useful tool is SEMRush. It includes a content audit tool that assesses
content length, inbound links, and social shares.

Once you have the data from both of these tools, it’s easy to see what’s
working, what needs to be improved, and what needs to be replaced. You can
also quickly identify content gaps, places where creating a new piece of
content could help achieve your goals.

Learn more about auditing your content in our content strategy guide.
6. Do Keyword Research and Create Content

One crucial part of creating content is doing keyword research. That’s

because you want people to find your content online so they visit your site.
Keywords are the terms people use to search for content. And they’re also the
terms Google uses to identify what your content is about.

There are three basic types of keywords to include in your content:

 Short keywords that identify a broad concept or group of items, like

“socks”

 Medium keywords, which can be 2 or 3 words that narrow down a

concept, like “women’s socks”

 Long tail keywords, which are longer, more specific phrases, like
“women’s cotton hiking socks”
Keywords in content also have to help searchers and Google match your
content to what they’re looking for. This is called search intent, and there are
four types:

 Navigational, where people search for a specific site

 Informational, where they’re trying to get the answer to a question
 Investigational, where they are narrowing down pre-purchase options
 Transactional, where searchers are ready to buy

Researching keywords for content marketing involves:

 Brainstorming good ideas

 Checking Google Analytics and Google Search Console to see what

keywords already bring searchers to your site
 Using keyword research tools to find the right keywords to include in your
content. One of our favorite tools is SEMrush, which we mentioned
earlier. You can find more keyword research tools here.
Once you’ve found the keywords you need, you’ll need to include them in your
content. Some key places to use keywords are:

 The title of your page and your content

 The SEO title of your content or page, which may be different

 The meta description for your content

 Throughout the body of the content

 In links to that piece of content and social updates about that content

How Long Should Your Content Be?

It’s worth knowing that content is one of the top SEO ranking factors, so it’s
essential to get it right. Although Google doesn’t cite content length as an
SEO ranking factor, the research shows that longer, more in-depth content
gets more top ten search positions.
It also gets more links and shares, adding social signals to boost ranking even
further.

When you write longer content, the same rules apply. Optimize by sprinkling
keyword phrases in where appropriate. But be sure to avoid the black hat
SEO practice of keyword stuffing.
7. Decide on Your Lead Magnet

Content is an ideal lead generation tool. One way to get more leads with
content is to create a lead magnet. An ideal lead magnet:

 Solves a real problem for your customers

 Gives a solution that’s quick and easy to implement

 Is valuable, but easy to digest

 Shows your expertise

Some of the best lead magnets include ebooks, case studies, and webinars.
We’ll look at those later in the guide. Other effective lead magnets include:

 Checklists and lists of resources

 Reports

 Free trials

 Quizzes

 Mini-courses

Here are some more lead magnet ideas.

For best results, deliver your lead magnet immediately. You can easily do that
with OptinMonster’s success themes.
Learn more about content marketing for lead generation here.
8. Promote Your Content

Another important aspect of content strategy is promoting the content you

create to meet your marketing goals. There are several ways to do this. They
include:

 Social media marketing

 Email marketing

 Link building

We’ll look at each of these in more detail in the next section.

Content Promotion Techniques

Here are some of the ways you can promote the content you create.
Social Media Marketing

As we said earlier, social networks can help improve content visibility. That’s
why you can’t ignore it as a core element of content marketing. And if you
happen to be targeting search traffic from Bing, it’s useful to know that social
media is a ranking factor for that search engine.

Some of the techniques you use for great content creation can also make it
more shareable. For example, it’s just as important to write a great headline
and use an eye-catching image on social as on your blog.

And remember those keywords we talked about earlier? You can use them
selectively as hashtags on social networks. They’ll help people find your
content more easily.

Learn more in our guide to social media and SEO.

Here’s a tool we like for optimizing social media messages: CoSchedule’s
Social Message Optimizer, mentioned in our guide to getting leads from
Twitter.

Just type your message into the onscreen box, and you’ll get a score for each
platform. That’ll let you tweak messages so you get the best results from
each.

And you can use Missinglettr, which we discussed in our Facebook

marketing guide, to automate posting content to your social profiles
throughout the year.
Email Marketing
Email marketing is one of the most effective ways to market with content.
Most people still read emails so it’s a great way to keep in touch with
subscribers and customers to build a relationship with them. Plus email
marketing is proven to earn around $40 for every dollar you spend.
That’s why it’s a content marketing must.

As we say in our article on email newsletter design, the best email

marketing copy:
 Is short

 Is scannable

 Has a compelling headline

 Avoids being overly promotional

A good tip for getting started is to get inspiration from what already works. You
can get a head start on reaching your audience with email content
marketing ideas from Buzzsumo, Quora and Reddit.
You can use OptinMonster to grow your email list by delivering a lead
magnet, gating content, and making compelling offers. For example, Trading
Strategy Guides used content locking to add 11,000 new subscribers.
We’ll look at some of these content marketing tactics later in this guide.

Link Building and Content Marketing

One great thing you can do with content is to build links. Links are an
important SEO ranking factor. A good way to get started is to establish who’s
already linking to you by using a tool like the SEMrush site audit tool we
mentioned earlier.
When creating content, it’s important to build internal links. These help search
engines and visitors navigate your site and find more content. That’s good for
SEO.

Make a habit of linking to your best resources within new content. It’s also a
good idea to go back to existing content from time to time and add links to
more recently published content.

You should also show your site is trustworthy by linking to authoritative

external sources in your own content.

And it’s essential to get a good range of inbound links. Some ways to do that
include:

 Getting reviews for your business, products or services

 Asking people who have mentioned you to link to your site

 Using broken link building

 Guest blogging, which we’ll talk about in more detail later in this guide

 Taking part in expert roundups and interviews

Learn more link building techniques here.

Content Marketing Tactics

There are several content marketing tactics proven to help businesses market
more effectively to their audience. In this section, we’re going to look at some
of them, including:

 Guest blogging
  Gated content

 Content repurposing

 Content curation

 FOMO

 Urgency

 Geomarketing

Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is a key way to improve SEO and get more from content
marketing. In fact, says the Content Marketing Institute, it’s a key part of the
content marketing funnel.

Guest blogging can help you:

  Raise awareness of your brand
 Attract inbound links

 Build trust

 Get new visitors and subscribers

To make a success of guest blogging, you’ll need to:

 Identify the right sites to contribute to

 Pitch and write a great topic
 Use the bio effectively
 Respond to comments and shares

 Promote content and measure results

Learn more in our guest blogging guide.
Gated Content

You know what’s even better than putting your blog content out there for free?
Hiding some of it away to entice visitors to subscribe.

That’s what gated content is all about, and it’s a content marketing tactic
that’s proven to work.

Apart from blog posts, you can also gate:

 News articles

 White papers and research

 Webinar and video replays

 Checklists and cheat sheets

  Downloadable resources and tools

 Any lead magnet

Content gating can be a quick way to help you understand who your audience
is and what matters to them. It can also help you build a relationship with
them, and create more targeted marketing.

Of course, there are some disadvantages, too. For example, gated content
can annoy visitors, and reduce the number of people you can connect to. But
for many businesses with a large audience, the pros outweigh the cons.

To gate content effectively, you need:

 The content

 A landing page
 An effective call to action (CTA)
You can use OptinMonster to gate content quickly and effectively with our
content locking feature. This doubled email signups for Whole Whale, and
got a 3806% increase in conversions for Photowebo.
Learn how to gate content with OptinMonster here.
Content Upgrades

You can create additional content related to a particular blog post and use it
as a content upgrade to get people interested in subscribing.

Kindlepreneur used this technique to boost customer retention by 72%. To

do the same, get OptinMonster, then check out our list of content upgrade
ideas. And learn more about attracting blog subscribers here.
Content Repurposing

One technique many marketers use is content repurposing. That’s about

taking existing content and reusing it in another format.

This can help solve the issue of creating new content (we’ll look at another
way to do that in a minute). It can also help you extend the reach of your
content, to let you generate more leads and make more sales.

Techniques you can use for content repurposing include:

 Content syndication, where your posts appear as related content on

other people’s posts, using tools like Outbrain, Zemanta, and Taboola
 Republishing your posts on sites like Medium
 Sharing content on sites like Reddit
 Creating social media posts with content snippets

 Making something new, like a presentation, infographic, video or podcast

  Updating an old piece of content

Here are some more ways to repurpose your blog content.

Content Curation Tools

Another way to solve your content marketing woes is to use content curation.
With content curation, you can benefit from great content without having to
create it. That saves you time, effort, and money.

With content curation tools you can:

 Create and share personal content digests

 Keep up with the latest on various topics

 Automate social media content sharing

Best of all, some of the greatest content curation tools are free, including:

 Flipboard, which lets you create your own digital magazine

 Klout, which recommends shareable content to boost social influence
 Listly, a list creation and sharing tool
 Nuzzel, a newsletter content curation tool
 Pinterest, which lets you curate content via pins and boards
Check out more content curation tools here.
FOMO

Using FOMO is one of the best ways to make visitors anxious to download
your lead magnet, and buy your stuff. We’re psychologically primed to
respond to it. In marketing, FOMO’s about triggering this feeling to make your
audience more responsive.

While FOMO affects 69% of millennials, it also affects almost half of social
media users.

So it’s pretty powerful.

Some ways to use FOMO in your content include:

 Letting readers know there’s the potential to miss an opportunity in your

messaging

 Using expiring content

 Offering a content upgrade, as described earlier

 Rewarding visitors for making an early decision to subscribe or buy

You can also use OptinMonster’s exit-intent technology to offer a one time
discount on a particular page. Ryan Robinson used this feature to boost
subscribers by 500%.

Learn more about using FOMO in marketing.

Urgency
Urgency is another useful marketing tactic that plays into human psychology.
Urgent situations make us want to act. Urgency’s also related to FOMO,
described earlier.

Urgency only works if you’re marketing something useful, valuable, or

important. Otherwise, people won’t want it.

Tips for using urgency in marketing include:

 Don’t overuse it, or it loses impact

 As well as FOMO, you can use language to evoke time, speed, scarcity,
and a sale

 Use active, urgent language in your CTA, like “book now”

 Repeat urgent language in email subject lines and preheader text

Some of the techniques cited for FOMO above also work for evoking urgency.

You can easily show that something’s urgent by using

OptinMonster’s countdown timer functionality. This’ll give visitors a visible
reminder that an offer is due to expire.
Learn more about boosting conversions with urgency.
Geomarketing

We said earlier that it’s important to make content relevant to your customers.
Geomarketing is a great way to do that. Geomarketing lets you deliver content
and messages tailored to your audience’s location.
It can also help you:

 Improve your content’s position in local search results

 Be more visible to mobile device users (and social media users, many of
whom use mobile devices)

 Create hyper-targeted content

Another important part of geotargeted content marketing is local SEO content

optimization. This includes using schema markup and the creation of
local landing pages.
You can use OptinMonster’s geo-location feature to target campaigns by
location. IMSource got a 6500% increase in conversions by doing this.

Learn more about using OptinMonster to geotarget your content in this

guide.
The Best Types of Content to Wow Your Audience

If you want to get more from your content strategy, achieving real results that
boost leads and sales, then you’ll need to use the right types of content.

Not all content types appeal to all visitors, so you need to mix it up a bit.

In this section, we’ll look at some winning content formats. Blog posts are
obviously key, as mentioned earlier, but here are some more types of content
you can use.

Case Studies
If you want to win new business, then consider creating customer case
studies. They’re pretty effective, and we should know.

Case studies let you:

  Highlight the benefits of your product or service

 Create content specific to a niche you want to target

 Build trust with potential customers

 Show your advantage over your competitors

Plus you can build an even better relationship with the customers you feature.

Learn more about creating case studies in our guide.

Ebooks
Looking for a quick lead magnet? An ebook could be just the ticket. HubSpot’s
most popular lead magnet got 12,000 shares in a year.

If you’re going to succeed with ebooks, you’ll need:

 Content that meets readers’ needs and has a specific purpose

 An outline that puts content in a logical order

 Delivery in a format that your audience wants, such as PDF or Kindle

 Rich, well-researched and well-written content

Learn some of the mistakes to avoid when writing an ebook.

Videos
You can’t get away from it. Video is one of the hottest content formats around.
It’s not just that most people (including millennials) watch videos; it’s also
that video’s proven to generate leads and help make sales.
That’s what the latest video content marketing stats say. Those who use
video marketing get 66% more leads a year, says Aberdeen Group. And
according to Wyzowl, 81% of those using video saw an increase in sales.
You can see more stats on video marketing in our recent roundup.

You can create many types of video, including explainer videos, product or
service showcases, and even tutorials. And you can create a video easily with
just a mobile device and a YouTube account, so it’s not hard to get started.

Once you get the hang of it, go live, as live video is becoming even more
popular.
Webinars
Webinars are another proven lead generation tool. According to ReadyTalk,
up to 40% of those who attend webinars can become qualified leads.
Up to 5% could make a purchase, says the Branded Solopreneur. And some
people have earned millions by hosting webinars.
Those numbers make the case for using webinars as a form of content
marketing. To get started, create a presentation you can show, and get ready
to have a brief Q&A afterwards. You’ll need a webinar signup landing page,
and a tool like Zoom to let you host the webinar.
Learn more about webinar marketing in our guide. And check out some
more useful content formats here.

How to Measure Content Marketing ROI

Believe it or not, many marketers don’t know what an effective content
marketing program looks like, says the CMI.
So, in this section, we’re going to look at content marketing ROI. Content
marketing ROI is about how much you earn from content marketing compared
with the amount you spend.
To work out this figure, track:

 What you spend on content creation

 What you spend on content distribution

 What you earn

Then use this formula from Convince and Convert to work out ROI:
Return minus investment, divided by investment,
expressed as a percentage

So if you spend $5000 on creating a piece of content, and get leads worth
$20000, then your ROI is 300%:

 $20000-$5000 = $15000

 $15000/$5000 = 3

 3 x 100% = 300%

If you earn more in sales than you spend on content production and
distribution, then it’s worth it.

But as we know, measuring content marketing success isn’t just about money.
Some of the other areas to pay attention to include:

 Whether your content is generating leads. If people are responding and

contacting you, then you have the prospect of making sales eventually.

 If your content is generating sales, which you can measure in Google

Analytics and your eCommerce platform

 Traffic and onsite engagement

  Social media success

 SEO, and getting better content positions in SERPs

 Prominence and authority, both online and offline

Learn more in our guide to measuring content marketing ROI.

Content Marketing Tools

According to the CMI, 92% of marketers need help with content marketing,
as only 8% of marketers feel they’re doing a great job. But use the right tools,
and everyone can get better results. In this section, we’re going to look at
tools to help you market more successfully with content.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster’s marketing software can help you get more subscribers by
showing campaigns at the right time so more of your visitors take action. It
includes multiple integrations with your favorite CRM, email marketing and
web and eCommerce platforms.
Learn more about OptinMonster’s solutions here.
Audacity
With 15% of people listening to podcasts, this is a content format you can’t
ignore. Audacity is a free tool to help you create your own podcast by
recording your blog post so you can make it available for download and share
it on podcasting sites.
BuzzSumo
BuzzSumo is one of our favorite tools for tracking social shares and trending
content online. It’s useful for influencer marketing and headline inspiration,
too.
Feedly
Feedly is an excellent tool for tracking sites and topics you want to follow. It
lets you stay up to date so you can always add new stuff to your content
calendar.

Headline Analyzer
Want to write great headlines? Use CoSchedule’s Headline Analyzer. It’s
another favorite for the OptinMonster team. It helps you determine whether
your headline is hot – or not!
Constant Contact
With email automation, autoresponders, and other killer features, Constant
Contact is a great place to get started with email marketing. Plus, world-class
customers support!
MonsterInsights
MonsterInsights gives you an easy way to keep track of your blog and web
traffic from the WordPress dashboard. When you know your metrics, it’s easy
to see if your strategy is working, so you can change it if you need to.
OpenSiteExplorer
OpenSiteExplorer, by Moz, tracks page authority and domain authority for
sites. This can be useful for guest blogging and other content marketing
outreach.
SEMRush
SEMRush‘s content audit tools help you conduct an audit of your site content
so you can see which pieces perform better, what should be optimized, and
what needs to be removed.
WPForms
WPForms gives you the chance to design your own forms, polls, and surveys
to really get to know your customers. And it integrates with OptinMonster, too.

See more content marketing tools here.

Visual Content Creation Tools

If you really want to ramp up content visibility, you have to go visual.

Content with images gets more views and more shares, says the research.
And, as we’ve seen, all ages love video, which will represent 82% of online
traffic by 2021.

Here are some visual content creation tools to help you make the most of this
trend.

Animaker
Animaker lets you create an animated video without having to pay through
the nose. It includes a range of video types, and you can even create
infographic videos.

Boomerang
Animation doesn’t get much easier than the Boomerang app from Instagram.
This has recently been added to Facebook Stories so you can create quick
stop-motion videos for both platforms.
Canva
One of our favorite image creation tools is Canva. It’s ridiculously easy to
make a blog post header, social media graphic, or even an ebook cover.

CloudApp
If you want to capture your screen, or share a recording, then CloudApp is
worth considering. Here at OptinMonster, we use it for screenshots, animated
GIFs, and more.
Easel.ly
Infographics are another popular content format. You can quickly create one
with Easel.ly. With built -n templates and the ability to add images and charts,
you can have an appealing infographic in a few minutes.
Giphy
If you’re using any sort of messaging platform with GIFs, chances are you’ve
already used Giphy. But you can also use its online GIF creator to make your
own.

Meme Generator
Want to create a meme quickly? Try Meme Generator. Search for an image,
add your text, and share – it doesn’t get much simpler than that.
Pixlr
If you need to edit your images, then Pixlr is a good bet. It comes in three
flavors, depending on how much you want to do, Pixlr Express is a good
middle ground with easy to use editing tools and some filters.

Prezi
These days, presentation software goes way beyond PowerPoint. One
example of that is Prezi, which makes it super easy for non-designers to
make stunning presentations. And you can get viewing stats, too.

Soapbox
If you use Chrome, then consider Wistia’s Soapbox extension. It lets you
quickly create and share videos right from the browser.
See our roundup for more visual content creation tools.

Content Promotion Tools

A key part of getting ROI on content marketing is promoting your content.

Here are some tools to help you to do that.

Missinglettr
As we said earlier, Missinglettr is one of our favorite tools. Just plug in your
blog’s URL, then it automatically creates a sharing campaign for your content
whenever you publish new content. It works on multiple social media
platforms.
Social Warfare
SocialWarfare is one of our favorite WordPress social media plugins. It
makes it easy for you to let your audience promote your work.
Sprout Social

Sprout Social combines social listening with publishing. This means you can
keep track of conversations related to your niche, and use that information to
share relevant content.
Tailwind
Tailwind lets you schedule and share content on Pinterest and Instagram.
You can also monitor content performance with its built in analytics.
Zapier
Zapier is a great marketing automation tool. It lets you connect multiple
services together, so you can easily cross-post content. And it integrates
with OptinMonster, letting you connect our marketing campaign software to
almost any web service.
Paid Content Promotion Tools

You can use the tools listed above for free, but any good content strategy
includes a mix of organic and paid promotion.

Social media advertising platforms can help you quickly extend the reach of
your content. Organic reach is declining, so these days you have to pay to
play. See these links to find out how to promote your content
on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Pinterest.
You can also use display ads from Google AdWords, using plain text,
images, videos and more.
And you can use a tool like Outbrain to show your content on other people’s
sites.

Get more content promotion tools here.

Content Marketing Examples

It’s not always easy to keep those content marketing ideas flowing. In this
section, we provide some examples of content marketing to inspire you.

HubSpot
If you’re looking for a great example of content marketing, HubSpot is a good
starting point. The company uses content marketing by:
 Writing detailed blog posts that meet their visitors’ needs

 Uploading Facebook videos and driving traffic to them with LinkedIn

 Using ebooks as lead magnets

GE
General Electric used Instagram for a B2B marketing campaign. The
company’s not just about home appliances, but about wind turbines, jet
engines, and more.

The Instagram campaign encouraged visitors to explore the company’s

manufacturing plants and upload photos to Instagram, tagged with
#GEInstaWalk. GE gained 3,000 new followers and got 8 million views
AARP
Not all content marketing happens online. For example, AARP The
Magazineconnects with 37 million readers and 22 million households via a
print publication.
Blendtec
Want to make a seemingly boring business interesting? Think outside the box,
uh, blender. That’s what Blendtec did, increasing sales by 700% over three
years with its viral Will It Blend? videos.
Charmin
How about some mobile content marketing? Charmin created the Sit or
Squat app to tell its customers where to find clean bathrooms. The irreverent
app is in keeping with the brand’s personality, and pretty darned useful, too.

See more inspirational content marketing examples here.

Content Marketing Mistakes

One of the best things about a guide like this is it can save you from making
disastrous content marketing mistakes. Here are a few our experts wished
they hadn’t made.

Heidi Cohen took a while to start her own blog. Even when she did, she took
a while to share the content. Her advice: Just do it.
Jeff Bullas regrets not starting to build his email list earlier. That strategy
cost him 100,000 subscribers.
Joel Klettke says it’s important to have a plan, otherwise you’re wasting your
time.
It’s also essential to avoid spammy marketing practices like:
 Not making it clear who’s behind the site by including contact information

 Sending messages your customers and subscribers don’t want to receive

 Buying email lists

And to avoid black hat SEO practices such as:
 Keyword stuffing in content

 Cloaked links and hidden text

 Thin content

Here are some more content marketing mistakes to avoid.

FAQs About Content Marketing

Well, we’re nearly at the end of our guide. But before we go, let’s answer
some common questions about content marketing.

What is inbound marketing?

Inbound marketing is any form of marketing where customers find you when
they’re ready to get information or make a purchase. It contrasts with
outbound marketing, which is where a company sends marketing messages
to initiate conversations with customers. For example, a trade show is an
example of outbound marketing.

Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing. It’s about using content to

get the attention of prospective customers and subscribers before they are
ready to subscribe or buy. It’s a way to start building a relationship with them
and, in the long run, to turn them into fans and advocates of your business.
What is a content calendar?

A content calendar is a calendar that outlines when you plan to publish

content. It allows you to keep track of your content creation workflow, as well
as who’s responsible for producing content. Some content calendars also
include information on the different stages of publication, such as research,
writing, editing, and finding images. You can also include social media posts
on a content calendar.

Where do I start with content marketing?

A good starting point for any kind of online marketing, including content
marketing, is to understand who your audience is. If you know who you’re
trying to reach, that makes it easier to determine the type of content, the
publishing and sharing platforms, and measuring content marketing ROI. You
can learn more about all of these in the earlier part of this guide. Once you
know your audience, you can get started by creating and sharing content. A
common starting point for content marketing is creating a blog.

How does content marketing build your business?

These days, consumers mostly do their own research. Using content

marketing gives you something they can find when they search. Content
brings you traffic, educates your customers, and delivers leads and sales.

What are the trends in content marketing?

Content marketing is always changing. The latest trends in content production

include using video and live video, and creating more interactive content, such
as polls and quizzes.
That’s it!

Now you know everything we know about content marketing. We’ll be sure to
keep this guide up to date so you always have the latest information.

Next, check out our guides to email marketing, growth hacking,

and SEO for even more success with marketing.
And follow us on Twitter and Facebook for more guides, tips, and tutorials.