Have you thought about how important headlines are in content marketing? What about the goal behind it all, or how you even know what works? Who should you look to for advice?
There are certain things you need to know about content marketing. Here are four of them.
Know How To Write Headlines
The very first thing people see is the headline of your post, apart from maybe an image. It determines whether they will click to read the article or not.
The headline needs to catch the attention of the audience. Be direct, to the point, and dare to be bold. But don’t lie (at least not without an explanation), because when people open your article and find it doesn’t live up to its promise, they will leave and never come back.
There are certain words and phrases that are extra powerful. Some powerful words are for instance immediate, free, discover, secret, etc. Powerful phrases could for instance be “how to”, “do this”, and “last chance”.
For instance, instead of “Online Marketing Tips” you could write “7 Tips To Immediately Boost Your Online Marketing Strategy”. Or instead of “Using Twitter For Your Business” you could write “Discover The Power Of Twitter For Your Business In 5 Simple Steps”.
It is, however, important that you know who you are talking to.
Who Are You Talking To?
Does your audience want to know “how to” do something? Are they looking for advice? Do they want to be entertained? Do they need encouragement or a kick in the butt? Are they looking for someone strong, an authority figure, or a friend?
You need to make sure you understand your audience, what their needs and wants are, what gets them going. If you can understand this, you can create content which is highly relevant as well as packaged in a way your audience appreciates.
One tip to get you going: If your business for instance has followers on Twitter you can go to its followers’ profiles and look for what they share and retweet to get an idea of what they like and care about.
What’s Your Goal?
Even though content marketing is a marketing effort and you are looking to eventually turn your audience into loyal customers, you need to make sure you keep in mind the bigger picture. What’s your goal? Why are you doing any of this in the first place?
I think everyone should focus on helping their audience. Give, give, give. Have that as your main intention and your audience will see and acknowledge your kindness. Hopefully, you believe your business is truly helping your customers and that’s why there is a business in the first place. So keep this in mind and keep on giving and helping.
And when it comes to the marketing side of it, it has to do with reciprocity; If you help your audience, you hope they will feel like helping you in the future.
Nothing Lasts Forever (Even In The Digital World)
Ok, some things might last forever, but when it comes to marketing it’s a different story.
You can find a lot of content about marketing, but one thing I have learned is that marketing is constantly changing, so testing is extremely important. One tactic which worked last month might be a waste of time today. But how do you know? You have to test it.
Creating the content is one thing, but you have to see whether or not the audience values it. If they don’t, then you try again with something new. If they do, then you try to make it even better next time along the same lines. But don’t be afraid to make a few bold, though calculated, moves. You might find something magical.
One method of testing is A/B testing. Wondering which of two headlines will best catch the attention of your audience? Let half your audience see one of them and the other half the other and watch what happens.
All in all, I think what’s most important here is to search for answers from your audience. They are the ones you want to impress and they are the ones that will tell you if it’s working or not.