No present day business can survive without investing enough attention to digital marketing. The success of digital marketing hinges on quality content and effective content marketing. Although most business owners understand this universal truth, not all manage to set in place a truly efficient content marketing strategy. The challenges that arise are key reasons for the failure.

Challenge 1: Creating shareable content that is also entertaining and engaging

Content marketing works best when you get your audience involved in distributing the message by sharing your content with their circle. To ensure that your content is shared, it is important that it is interesting, informative and entertaining to your readers. Creating content that satisfies these aspects is a challenge that may seem difficult to overcome. What you need to do is identify what your target audience is interested in, at present, by keeping track of their purchase behavior, their social media conversations and their feedback to you. Identify the topics that seem to be in trend and create content around them to garner maximum attention and maximum shares.

Challenge 2: Making content visible

Millions of new articles and blogs arrive on the internet every week and yours is just one of them. Making your content visible in the crowd is a challenge indeed, but one that you can easily address with efficient search engine optimization. Research the keywords that your audience appears to be using most of the time and utilize them in your content to the right degree. Make sure that keyword usage is not taking priority over content quality and you are on track to get your page ranked high in Google search results.

Challenge 3: Writing effective content that results in conversions

The objective of content marketing is to enhance your overall sales efforts. It means your content should directly influence your readers to take another step into your sales funnel. In the best case scenario, your readers should immediately head to your site and make a purchase as soon as they read your content. To achieve it, your content has to fulfill two criteria: one, it needs to highlight a need that your reader has, two, it should convey why your product is the right answer to the need. The content has to give a clear message that prompts your readers to view your product favorably or make up their mind about buying your product immediately.

Content marketing success hinges on how well you can overcome these challenges and consistently deliver content that entertains and informs your audience.

Your content marketing plan should ensure that every piece of content you put out accomplishes a goal. You want to improve customer experiences by educating and informing them. You also want to use content to establish trust and build credibility. Well-planned content can do all of that and more if you create a solid content marketing plan first. Here are the eight steps to follow.

Step One: Audit Your Current Content

It’s important to study the content you have now and what effect it is having on your bottom line. In this case your bottom line consists of conversions such as list sign-ups, as well as sales, or any call to action that you included. Also, this is your chance to test whether or not you’ve always included a CTA. After all, if any one piece of content doesn’t have a CTA, what’s it doing there?

Step Two: Research Your Audience

Even if you’ve already done some research, you need to keep doing research on your audience. The audience might be the same demographics today as yesterday but due to technology and education, sometimes their views change. For example, Dove has the same audience, but today they have to find different ways to market their products so they don’t offend anyone. If they marketed today the same as they did just ten years ago, people would not buy their product. This shows that you must always study your audience, and never stop.

Step Three: Understand Your Purpose

In this case you want to understand your overall purpose, and then how each piece of content that you create fulfills that purpose. This can take some time to sit down and analyze. You can start with some of the content you already have. What was your thought process as you created it and how did it fit in with your goals? If your ultimate purpose is to create a six-figure online multi-service-based consulting firm, how do your actions contribute to that goal? What products and services do you need to develop for your audience in order to realize your dreams?

Step Four: Develop an Editorial Calendar

Based on product offerings and launch dates, as well as already built-in holidays that your audience recognizes, you can develop an editorial calendar that will help you reach all those goals. A complete editorial calendar includes product development, blog content, sales pages, social media content and more. Include every last bit of content you will need for every single product or service you want to promote on every single site that you want to place it. You can create a master editorial calendar and then separate it up into different categories to make it less overwhelming.

Step Five: Develop the Content

Get to work developing the products and content. Content that is well developed will educate, inform, engage, and inspire action. Ensure that you can match every bit of content that you create, in any form, to a reason for existing. Don’t only create text content; you also want to create content in other formats such as pictorial, voice and video. The more forms of content you can create, the better for your audience.

Step Six: Promote Your Content

Content creation doesn’t end when you finish the project. The work is just beginning. Now you need to promote every last piece of content that you put out there. Promote via social media and other avenues, to ensure that everything gets the attention you want it to. The attention that each piece of content gets will mean more visitors, more newsletter sign-ups, and more sales. Don’t depend on only on-page SEO to get the word out about your information.

Step Seven: Measure the Results

If each piece of content has a purpose, then there is a metric that you can study to measure the results. It’s important to always measure the results of everything you do. The reason is that you can change things on the fly. That’s what’s so great about online content marketing – the ability to improve as you go. If something isn’t working, don’t assume it’s the product or the content. Change small things about layout and word usage, and test, test, test.

Step Eight: Refine and Perfect

As mentioned above, as you measure the results, you’ll want to refine and perfect your content as you go. Believe it or not, as you find things that work for you and your audience, your job will become easier and easier. You’ll figure out what works for your audience and you’ll be able to get better at content creation and promotion as you go.

Finally, and you can call this step nine if you want to, as you notice what works you’ll want to do more of that, and less of what doesn’t. It’s really that simple. Each quarter (or year), depending on how far in advance you will be working on your content marketing plan, you’ll start over. But, you’ll start over with the prior knowledge of what worked best last time.

Many people sit down to write, and suddenly they seem to think they need to add extra words. You may have found yourself doing that too at some stage – using words you know are unnatural for you to use and just adding fluff to your writing. The truth is, the best writing (especially online writing) is writing that makes the reader feel as if you’re talking right to them. In order to do this you cannot use extraneous words, but you can’t leave out what’s important either.

Craft a Working Title

Starting with a title is a great way to narrow down what you’re going to tell your readers. You can always perfect it later. Crafting a title involves understanding the reason for your message. When you understand the reason for your message, you’ll be able to write beefier content without being wordy.

Make an Outline

After you’ve written your working title, it’s time to make an outline. Don’t be afraid. You don’t have to worry about Roman numerals and lower case letters to make an outline. Just write a few bullet points about the issues you want to tell your audience.

Talk Your Blog Post or Article

It is helpful for some people to use voice-to-text technology to “talk” their writing. Most Microsoft-based computers and Apple computers already have this technology available. But, you can also purchase professional programs such as Dragon Naturally Speaking. When you talk your copy it will resonate with your audience in a new way.

Link to Dragon Naturally Speaking – http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_0_25?url=search-alias%3Dsoftware&field-keywords=dragon+naturally+speaking&sprefix=dragon+naturally+speaking%2Caps%2C218

Avoid Redundant Words

Common redundancies like “absolutely perfect”, and “actual facts” can either add to or subtract from the meaning of your words. Most of the time you want to avoid needless redundancies such as “last and final” because it adds nothing to the meaning of your words. There can be an argument for certain types of irreverent writing to include these redundancies but for concise writing, avoid them as much as possible and edit for meaning.

Combine Sentences

You were likely taught in school to write short, to-the-point sentences. But sometimes it’s appropriate to combine sentences for more concise copy. Combining short sentences helps you avoid boring your audience. When you can combine two sentences easily, without creating a run on sentence, you should do it. It will improve understanding of the copy and improve the flow.

That, Who, Which

Sometimes these words are needed, but when you are editing your work, pay extra attention to times when that, who, and which are being used. Try the sentence without these words to see if the meaning changes or if it changes the emphasis of the words.

Use Active Voice

It’s very easy slip into using passive voice when writing. But, most of the time using active voice is more appropriate. A key to knowing when passive voice sneaks in are the words, “it, is, was, and by”. If you notice those words while editing, try to arrange the sentence by switching the passive voice to active voice.

Example: “He got scratched by the cat.” Passive | “The cat scratched him.” Active

Watch Nominalizations

When an action word becomes a noun, it becomes a nominalization (e.g. “illustration” versus “illustrated”). These should be avoided. They have a negative effect on your copy by making reading it monotonous and easy to misunderstand. Instead focus on making sentences active and using nouns as nouns and action words as action words.

Edit Carefully

No one can write good copy in one draft. In fact, it may take you multiple drafts to perfect your copy. You want it to be beefy, full, and effective. Take the time to perfect each sentence for each type of copy you write. Start with free-flowing copy, leave it for a while, then come back to it and make it better.

Writing beefy copy is not just about using fewer words; it’s about using the right words in the right place, at the right time. Following these suggestions will help you improve your writing exponentially. But, don’t allow these ideas to interfere with your flow of words – that’s what editing is for.

Getting online to earn a living can be confusing and complicated. There are many directions you can go – and most people start out being an affiliate and recommending other peoples’ products.

But eventually, if you’re finding that people listen to your recommendations and advice, you’ll want to create your own product – and that creates a different set of self doubt concerns.

Some Comparison to Others Is Healthy

Sometimes the fact that we compare ourselves to others is enough to cause defeat in our mindset and prevent us from moving forward with our product creation. We glance around and see what everyone else is doing and immediately feel inadequate.

You’re not giving yourself a chance to see if you can compete, and you’ve already quit the race before it’s even begun. You never know if you might be able to do things better than your competition.

What happens if you fall short? Does the world come crashing to an end? No. You find ways along the road where you can make improvements. You don’t have to hit it out of the ballpark each and every time – the key is to work on serving others with your knowledge.

Don’t waste time and work yourself up into a panic by looking at someone else’s launch and thinking things like, “Their graphics look way more professional than mine,” or, “I wish I’d thought of that topic – now mine seems stupid,” or, “Look how many followers they have – nobody will care what I have to say.”

Everyone started out where you are now. As long as you get going and improve over time, that’s all that matters. You have to believe in your ability to earn your place in the market.

How can you do this? Create a product that fills a gap in the marketplace. Is there a topic everyone’s asking about but nobody’s created a comprehensive guide to yet? Is the stuff already out there outdated or different from the way you do things?

Provide a unique slant on things and your audience will love you for it. Just brainstorm a list of topics or ideas for your niche and then compare it to what’s out there. Analyze what others did and then look at ways to set yourself apart.

Are there good courses, but they’re all text eBooks? Create a video course or membership that people log into and get more inspiration. Find the people who promoted the other courses and let them know you have something new and different!

Don’t Worry About the Volume of Competition

One thing that always causes self doubt among online marketers is not just who else is competing, but how many other people are competing in a niche. Even some gurus will warn you to steer clear of too much competition.

Nothing could be further from the truth! If a topic is selling, that means there’s a hungry audience for it. That’s all you need to know. You want to put blinders on when it comes to counting up how many products are on the market, or how many websites are already discussing the exact same topic.

Consumers love learning from more than just one person. Think about yourself, for instance. You’re learning online marketing, right? Do you just learn from one person? Probably not.

In fact, there are probably dozens of other marketers you learn from on a regular basis. Maybe you learn copywriting from one person, and paid ads from another. Or perhaps you have one specialty you like learning about (such as blogging) and you devour tidbits from a dozen or more marketers who all have something to offer you!

This is true in every niche, not just marketing. For example, a pregnant woman will buy several books on pregnancy – not just one comprehensive book. They might buy “What to Expect When You’re Expecting.”

But then they also might buy a book on nutrition for pregnancy, one on keeping the romance alive during your pregnancy – another on how to baby proof your house. And these all might come from different authors in the niche!

It’s not just about information, either. Sometimes people like to learn from a variety of others with different teaching styles. Maybe your product will directly compete with someone else’s, but you’re offering video and they only have text – or vice versa – the customer wants to read, not watch video.

Learning styles are a big reason why people develop a preference for one marketer’s products over another. Maybe you teach everything step-by-step, but another marketer generalizes and gives more theory than specific information.

The right thing to do is to worry if there’s not a lot of competition in the marketplace for your niche topic. It might (rarely) mean that you’ve scouted out an untapped resource – a goldmine of opportunity.

More often than not, it will mean it’s not a buyer’s market. People simply aren’t spending money to learn this particular topic. If that’s the case, you’re better off going into a highly competitive market online.

With billions of prospective customers on the ‘net, it’s easy to find your target audience and develop a brand with loyal followers. If your concentration is on helping others, you’ll set yourself apart just for the quality you provide, alone!

Ever Consider Partnering Up?

One thing that might help you ease your self doubt is to consider not taking the solo route, but partnering up with other marketers, instead. You’ll want to do this carefully, but it could take a lot of the pressure off of both of you.

You need to find someone who has skills to bring to the table, and make sure they’re opposite of whatever skills you have to offer in the product creation process. For example, you might have very good writing skills – while the other person excels at graphics and video.

That’s the perfect pairing for a joint venture. Or maybe you are capable of creating a product, but you don’t know anything about launches. You could partner up with someone who has the right connections, knows what a sales letter should include, and has a large list of ready buyers.

You can sometimes find someone in your niche who is willing to take you on and mentor you for a cut of the profits. It means you do the work, but they guide you in it. You share the revenue with them upon the launch.

Strong joint venture partners are going to be very blunt about what you do and don’t need to do to make this a success. Instead of getting offended when they’re blunt, be appreciative that they’re not wasting your time trying to coddle you and prevent hurt feelings.

Time is money on the ‘net, and nobody has time to waste softening the blow. If they come back and say, “Your sales copy isn’t professional,” then thank them and implement any ideas they have, along with researching how to write better copy to level up your game.

If you go the partnership route, make sure you don’t get taken advantage of in the process. You have to ensure that whoever you’re connected with has ethics intact and doesn’t have a reputation for treating customers, affiliates or partners poorly.

Don’t rely on a partner for every launch you do – but use the concept just long enough to get your bearings and discover the right process for product creation through the launch process.

That way, you’ll feel confident from that point on, tackling whatever issues come up. Try learning during the process. Don’t just let them handle things. Ask why and how – to get an idea for how it all works.

While they may not spend time teaching you everything, they might point you in the right direction. For example, if you say you’re impressed with the videos they created, they might say, “Thanks! I used Camtasia to do that.”

That would then spark you to download Camtasia (or the freeware version – Camstudio) and start learning how to do that yourself for future launches. This is how people learn and improve their skills over time.

Elements of a Product Creation That Oozes Success

There are some products that knocks peoples’ socks off – and some that leave people scratching their head about how it got launched in the first place. The first place to start is in hiring someone to create professional graphics.

Since our eyes see things before we can read anything, you want everything from the product to the sales copy graphics to the affiliate tools to look good. You can invest in a professional graphics person or even find a quality provider on Fiverr.

Another thing you want to do is make sure you’re using an affiliate-friendly platform. One that allows instant commissions, like JVZoo or Warrior Plus, is always welcomed by affiliates.

Put your mind at ease about potential profits by creating a product funnel instead of just a front end only product. A funnel not only gives you ample opportunities to make money, but it helps affiliates earn commissions, too!

As you dig into the product creation process, take time to conduct thorough research. You don’t want to put something out there with misinformation or information that is outdated.

See if you can find a new twist on it to entice both buyers and affiliates alike. That might mean coming up with a new slant – or pairing it with another topic. For example, instead of just creating a course on eating healthy, you could pair it with the stress niche – eating healthy in times of stress.

What this does is opens your product up to sales from marketers in two different niches – dieting and stress. This is a good way of putting to rest your fears that there won’t be enough buyers for all of your hard work – and you’ll be able to recruit more affiliates for promotion.

Have a sales copy strategy in place. If you’ve never written copy before, it can be intimidating. Emulate others who do it with a lot of success, and buy copywriting books that can help you learn how to get inside the mind of your customer.

One way you can create products with more confidence is to make it a multimedia products. While it might sound intimidating at first, using a mix of text, audio and video is a great way to ensure more affiliates sign up to promote you.

During the creation of the product, be careful not to plagiarize anyone else’s work. Don’t rewrite things or create a knock off of other peoples’ work because it can only come back to bite you if you do.

Let your personality shine through. Don’t be afraid to personalize your product so that people remember how much they enjoyed taking your course. This sets you up for more sales the next time around.

To alleviate any worry about dealing with customers, make it your motto that you’ll deliver superb customer support both before and after the sale. There are many marketers who don’t do this, and it’s one reason why so many people feel they’ve been burned.

Timing Your Product Launch to Minimize Competition

If you’re worried about all of the other products that get released, and how yours won’t even have a fighting chance, just make sure you time it right. First, check launch calendars like those on MunchEye.com to see what’s releasing on what date.

Schedule your launch far enough in advance that you maximize affiliate recruitment. They need time to create bonuses, but they also book up their promo calendars weeks in advance – and many will only promote one item per email to their list.

Give yourself plenty of time to create the product without rushing through it. You don’t want to schedule a launch for a week from now if it’ll be a tight race for you to finish in time. Factor in the product creation, but also the editing, affiliate recruitment, sales copy, technical launch setup and more.

Make sure you price your product competitively so that you’re balance between giving yourself a fighting chance – and allowing yourself room to grow. You don’t want to undercut yourself too much, but you might not be able to price your product the same as someone more established with a proven track record.

The best way to alleviate self doubt in product creation is to not only give it your all – but to go above and beyond with every step. Deliver more than what’s expected of you. Be better than everyone else when it comes to taking care of your customers.

They say that when you fail to plan, you plan to fail. The same can be said for those who enter into content marketing without having a clear plan of action to follow. Knowing what you’re doing, why you’re doing it, and when to do it is an essential component of any successful content marketing strategy.

By documenting what needs to be done and how you’re going to do it, you’ll be more likely to follow through. Plus, you’ll be better able to tell what is working and what isn’t working, as well as understand better how much you should invest in your content marketing plan based upon the value that you’ll receive from it. Without documentation, you’re just shooting in the dark.

Many areas are covered in a documented content marketing strategy, such as:

* Develop audience personas
* Flesh out your content plan
* Advance the story of your brand
* Decide which channels you’ll use to push out your content

Your content marketing plan can be as in depth as you need it to be. Exactly how much you document will depend on how many others you need to bring in on the plan and who you need to convince to invest in the plan. The more people involved, the more documentation you will need to explain and convince others to take part, as well as to keep a team on task working toward the goals you’ve chosen.

Your content marketing strategy should answer who, what, when, why and how of your entire strategy. With a documented strategy you’ll be able to track your progress, determine what is working or not working, justify the expenditures and define the value of your content marketing strategy to the business. In addition, you’ll have a mapped-out plan to follow to ensure that you reach success.

Your content marketing strategy should answer:

* What you hope to accomplish with content marketing
* Who your audience is and how large your audience is
* The content marketing channels you plan to use
* How you define your value
* Answer which strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats exist in the market

Then you need to match these answers with the sales cycle of the business you’re creating the content marketing strategy for. You’ll need to know what to say, when you should say it, and in what form you’ll say it, as well as what channel you’ll say it on. It helps to define the sales process before you develop your content marketing plan.

This process will enable you to turn leads into prospects and prospects into buyers. Using your product funnel and your audience personas, you can then flesh out the content you need for each phase of the sales cycle. Using the sales funnel with knowledge of the buying cycle of your audience as a starting place for creating your documented content strategy makes good sense, because you’ll be able to see right away where you are lacking.

If you can match up these aspects of content marketing with the why of your business, you’ll skyrocket your success in a way that you didn’t think possible.