Fine tuning your message for greater reach

For those of you that are still unclear on the concept, let's start with the basics before we get into the main points of this article. Content marketing is widely defined as "a marketing technique that comprises creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action."

To effectively promote your organisation using content marketing, it is essential to tailor your message to ensure maximum impact amongst your identified audience.

I've compiled a few points that when applied correctly, will get your consumers to engage, understand, share and most importantly notice your content. Let's get started.

Remove jargon

Don't distort your message with confusing jargon. Your target audience isn't clued up in your industry, that's why they need people like you. Don't confuse them with jargon blurred content.

While 100% jargon free content isn't a reality, clear to the point information increases the chances of your reader understanding what you are saying. If you can successfully teach your reader something they didn't understand before, you're already half way to turning them into a potential consumer.

It's important to avoid using jargon but remember that if a term is the industry standard, for example "title tag", you're just going to confuse everyone further by rephrasing it as "The important indexing words in your website's code". Not only will this will confuse your readers, it will hurt your article's overall SEO, as you won't be utilising the correct keywords. Rather explain the concept to your readers, "A title tag (a group of words or sentence that is instrumental in determining where Google indexes your website)".

Provide step by step instructions

The crux of content marketing is to appear as a leader or expert in your field and to demonstrate this, you need to be able to explain a complex task in a simplistic and easy to understand manner. If you can explain to someone who has never logged into Google Analytics how to set up goal tracking, you're doing it right.

Teaching your audience a basic skill is a great way to start converting them into consumers. Albert Einstein hit the nail on the head with this quote - "If you can't explain it simply, you don't understand it well enough".

Include a hook

To encourage that your content gets shared, be sure to include a hook. A hook is simply something that makes your content unique. Be it valuable (normally paid for or rare) information, a new concept or the answer to a question that your target audience is asking; a hook grabs your readers' attention and encourages them to share this valuable information with their networks.

Consider multimedia

Consumers are constantly bombarded with walls of text. To distinguish your message from all the noise, try mixing things up by portraying your content in different ways.

A video of you explaining your concept or message is a great way of adding a personal touch to your content. Use infograms to display data rich information in a non-intimidating way. A series of podcasts educating your audience on a certain topic is a great way of engaging with users that don't have the time to read long articles. This approach also promotes your organisation in an innovative light and let's be honest, who doesn't want to work with an innovative organisation?

Content marketing is a great way to promote your brand, but like any marketing technique, it takes practice.

Use the feedback from editors to work on refining your message. Work on building relationships with publications that entertain your target market. While first prize is getting your content published in a reputable publication, saving content for your own blog also adds to your organic SEO.