How to Master Content Marketing On Your Blog in 2020 

When I first heard the term “content marketing” I envisioned big publishing houses, high-rise editorial teams for magazines smack dab in the middle of New York, and lattes. Sooo many lattes.

Once I became a blogger, I realized that content marketing isn't nearly as complicated or glamorous as it sounds.

It is simply the way in which we share our point of view in an organized manner week after week. It is how we carefully plan to reach our audience on multiple platforms in a way that speaks to them and helps them learn along the way.

Almost anything can be called content marketing these days. Writing a blog post, sharing an image on social media, creating YouTube videos, and guest podcasting are all forms of content marketing.

The big thing to consider here is how to go about creating a successful content marketing plan.

Anyone can write a blog post or create a YouTube video, but it is the day-by-day and week-by-week organized system of sharing your content across multiple platforms that creates a truly successful content marketing plan.

1. Repurpose Your Blog Content Like Crazy

So how exactly do you go about repurposing your content?

This is a good question. It will certainly depend on your audience.

First, you want to make sure that you are sharing your content on platforms where they are hanging out. More on this later!

Here's an example of a successful content repurposing plan.

See how easy it is to create interesting content pieces just from your original blog post or YouTube video?

Not only will this take you very little time since the original piece has already been created, but many of these ideas are things that you can also hire someone to help you with!

2. Choose the Social Media Platforms Your Readers Are Spending Time On

I mentioned earlier that part of a successful repurposing plan is to share these repurposed pieces on social media platforms that your readers are actually visiting. So what do I mean by that? Aren't there tons of people on every platform?

Yes, but in all likelihood your particular audience only hangs out on a few of them.

For example, Instagram is mainly visited by people under the age of 35. So if you're audience is middle-aged women, Instagram likely isn't going to be the best use of your time.

Another example would be YouTube. If the niche you're in is highly visual, photos and videos are going to pack much more of a punch than written blog posts.

That's not to say that you shouldn't blog about these things, but that you might find even more readers on more visual platforms that incorporate photo and video.

The key here is to do your research and figure out which platforms are going to give you the biggest bang for your buck. Once you've figured out which once those are, start there for your traffic.

You can always sign up and play with some of the other social media platforms later, but you want to start with the ones that are going to make the biggest difference in your business first.

3. Have A Plan For After Your Audience Finds Your Post

If you've implemented the last few steps, you have both narrowed down the best places to find readers and formulated a plan for repurposing your content to get it to them most efficiently.

This is great!

But there's one more thing you must keep in mind.

What exactly are you going to do with these readers once they find your content? How exactly will them visiting your blog or YouTube channel grow your business?

This is the step that can't be missed. It's so important, so I want you to really take a moment to think about it.

For many bloggers, including myself, the plan for after a reader visits one a post is to encourage them to sign up for an email list.

We know by now that an email list is the most profitable arm of your business. 

It's where the majority of your sales will eventually come from, and is also the deepest way to connect with your readers.

So it's not enough for readers to come to one of my blog posts, read it, enjoy it, and then leave.

The goal is to encourage them to sign up for my email list as well so that we can stay in contact.

In all likelihood, this would be a wise goal for your business as well.

This is the time for you to sit back and think about how your business actually runs.

What happens after people visit your blog post? What happens after they sign up for your email list? How do you connect with them consistently and deeply from here on out? How will your business make money?

Once you have answered these questions and have implemented a strategy to keep readers moving from one point to the next, you'll be on your way to having a real business plan for your blog.

4. Automate As Much Of Your Content Marketing As Possible

So you've got a great plan for repurposing your content, getting it out to the right readers, and then moving them forward in your business. The next step is to think about your time. How can you free some of it up?

The reality is that content marketing can be extremely time-consuming. It isn't easy creating great written content, videos, images, social media posts, and more on a consistent basis. That's why many companies hire entire teams to help manage this.

If you are working solo, this is where finding ways to automate these tasks as much as possible is going to pay you back tenfold.

The first way I always recommend doing this is by using an email marketing service. I use ConvertKit on this blog, and Mailerlite on my new personal finance blog She’s Got Cents .

Both of these programs save me so much time by automating my email campaigns for me. It would be insane to think that I could keep up with sending emails out manually, so an email marketing program is essential!

Another way to automate is through using social media tools like Smarter Queue or Hootsuite. These tools can help you pre-load your social media posts a week or more in advance, and they will automatically post for you at the designated time.

 This way you do not need to be on your computer at the exact moment you want your post to go live. You can go to bed early, take weekends off, and even go on vacation and know that everything will keep running smoothly in your absence.

One of my favorite automation tools that I couldn't live without is Tailwind for Pinterest. Tailwind is a scheduler specifically for Pinterest that automatically posts pins within the schedule I designate.

Given that you need to pin between 15 and 30 times per day for maximum traffic from Pinterest, a scheduler is absolutely essential. There’s simply no way I could keep up with my work in an efficient manner while trying to manually post that many times per day! 

And considering that 90% of my traffic currently comes from Pinterest, this tool is a must have for me.

5. Hire Someone To Help You

Let's dig a little bit deeper on the time saving aspect we were talking about in the last point.

Once you've automated everything you possibly can, you might still find yourself short on time. If that's the case, it's a great idea to consider hiring some help!

Hiring might seem scary at first, but it comes with so many great benefits! I've hired a small number of virtual assistants, graphic designers, video tech experts, and other online freelancers to help me with my businesses over the years.

For me, the time savings are the most beneficial part. At the end of the day, there isn't a very good reason for me to be doing a lot of these smaller tasks when the important stuff is me creating content in the first place.

There's only so much time in the day, and if you have a family at home you probably struggle with busyness too. We're all experiencing this!

The best thing you can do is realize when you need some help and ask for it. In all likelihood, your business will grow because of it.

Read- Outsourcing: The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business and Income Exponentially

Conclusion

A solid content marketing plan is the foundation of your blog and business. Organizing and implementing this plan will help you grow your traffic, email list, and business revenue.

Let’s recap my top tips for a killer content marketing plan:

• Repurpose your blog content like crazy
• Choose the social media platforms your readers are spending time on
• Have a plan for after your audience reads your post
• Automate as much of your content marketing as possible
• Hire someone to help you

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