"Questions Are the Answer "- Anthony Robbins
In his masterpiece "Awaken the Giant Within", renowned peak performance specialist Anthony Robbins dedicated an entire chapter to explain "Questions Are the Answer" success mindset.
Simply put: If you ask quality questions, you will receive quality answers.
Lets apply this timeless tip and raise this critical question: Do you aim to maximize your content marketing profitability?
If you answered: "Yes, indeed!", I invite you to take your time answering the following questions accurately as they can make (or break) your content marketing success.
Q1: Who Are Your Target Audiences?
Define and narrow down your target audience in terms of: age range, educational level, income, ethnicity, gender, interests and so forth. (This's a timeless old school marketing question that must shape your overall marketing plan not just content marketing. If you want to turn your content audience into buying customers, you must nail this question.)
Q2: What Would Motivate Your Target Audience to Visit Your Blog?
The foundation of a successful content marketing strategy is thoroughly identifying your target market pain points.
Your content must cater to the needs, problems and aspirations of your target audience and offer valuable tips and insights that reflect deep understanding of their burning issues.
If you were careful that every piece of content you publish is relevant your audience pain points, they will get hooked on your content.
Q3: Why Would Your Audience Favor YOUR Content Over Others?
"In the world of marketing, it doesn't matter how good you're. What matters is how good you're in showing it. " - Heba Hosny
In order to outperform your competition and attract massive traffic to your content, you need to identify your unique value proposition (UVP) and make sure it always shines through your content. (We will detail this part in the coming question.)
Moreover, creating a competitive advantage requires competitive intelligence. Thanks to social media, you can legitimately spy on your key competition and intelligently craft your UVP accordingly.
Q4: How Can Your Content Reflect Your UVP?
There's an avalanche of blogs out there offering the same repetitive content to which visitors react saying: "Duh! Tell me something I don't know!" Audiences are hungry for new and fresh content. If you want to win the content marketing hunger games, you must be ready to offer quality content that can NOT be found elsewhere.
To be perceived as an industry leader and a sought after expert, strive to become an "Aha!" expert. In other words, offer content that your audience would react to by saying: "Aha! That's very helpful. I haven't heard about this before."
This tip is easier said than done because offering "Duh!" content is much easier than offering "Aha!" content. But when it comes to boosting content marketing ROI, "Aha!" is the only winner!
Rest assured that you can master this proven tactic even if you had to publish less content and compromise quantity for the sake of quality. Can you consistently dazzle your eager audience with your outstanding content?
Q5: How Exactly Can You Become the Ultimate "Aha!" Expert?
In my answer to question 4, I explained the definition of an "Aha!" expert. Now, I will be detailing proven techniques on how you can become one.
The brief answer is to add your personal spin on every insight you offer and every argument you make. Sharing your personal stories gives the information you provide more credibility and, even more importantly, showcases your expertise. In other words, don't talk theory. Show don't tell.
You can even add your own spin on third party content and write blog posts where you ask compelling questions to big names in your industry in response to their content.
This technique works like charm. You will entice big names to comment on your blog by raising intelligent questions about their own content.In the process, your readers will perceive you as a high caliber expert who associates with the big players.
Let me apply what I just preached about not talking theory! The following blog posts give practical examples on how to attract key figures in your industry to watch/read your content and comment on it.
- 3 Ways Content Curation Can Boost Content Creation
- 5 Ways To Make People Thank You For "Stealing" Their Content!
Q6: How To Get Your Audience Fired Up To Share Your Content?
People share what they love. Period! Increase the "love factor" of your content by applying the tip in question 5 plus the following tactics:
- Your content must be Edutaining. The fun factor can come a long way in magnifying the "shareability" of your content - WITHOUT compromising the educational value.
- When you feature third party content in your blog, notify them publicly via Twitter @mention. They will be happy to share your content with their network.
- Underpromise and overdeliver! I love this tip because it works like charm. For instance, if your blog post title says "7 proven tips to...", throw in a bonus 8th tip as a generous gift to your readers.
- Learn from the pros: Search for popular content that's creating massive social buzz in your industry. Analyze the content carefully in order to uncover its "sharability" factor. Then, apply it to your own content.
- Cater to all tastes: You need to diversify the digital format of your content. Offer Infographics, images, video, SlideShare presentations, text, audio and so forth.
- Last but not least: I dedicated an entire blog to discuss 23 proven social engagement tips. Enjoy!
Q7: How Can You Evaluate Your Content Marketing Campaign Performance?
Content marketing analysis and evaluation is pretty straight forward. For example, the number of likes, shares and comments on your content are explicit indicators of your content popularity.
In addition, you may use social analytics tools to measure the overall "social reach" of your content in various social channels.
Q 8: How Can You Effectively Use Analytics to Tweak Your Content Marketing Strategy?
Take advantage of your content stats to determine both your popular content and your not-so-popular content.
Based on this invaluable information, offer your audience more in-depth topics based on the content they love and , whenever applicable, you may reuse your popular content. For instance , turn a highly viewed blog post into a video or a presentation.
In fact, you can turn certain types of blog posts such as "top 10" or any kind of listing posts into Infographics. People love Infographics. Give them what they love!
Did I Offer Viable "As" to Your Content Marketing "Qs"?
I most certainly hope so but if you still have unanswered "Qs" in mind, feel free to share them in the comments so we can brainstorm great "As" to them. All you need is to ask the right question because: "Questions Are the Answer."
I'm so eager to read your thoughts and insights in the comments. Your valuable contribution is much appreciated. To our success!
Image Courtesy of Salvatore Vuono / FreeDigitalPhotos.net