The 7 Things Successful Content Marketers Do Differently

Author: Jayson DeMers / Source: Entrepreneur Entrepreneurs are usually a brand’s first marketer. On average, about 28 percent of an organization’s

Author: Jayson DeMers / Source: Entrepreneur

The 7 Things Successful Content Marketers Do Differently

Entrepreneurs are usually a brand’s first marketer. On average, about 28 percent of an organization’s entire marketing budget is spent on content marketing, making it one of the most significant marketing strategies in use: In fact, most proponents will tell you it also comes with one of the industry’s highest average returns on investment (ROI).

Obviously, however, not all content marketers are equally successful. You may receive 28 percent of your company’s marketing budget, but how effective are you at utilizing that budget?

I’m fortunate to be immersed in the content-marketing industry, with a content-marketing agency of my own and connections to some of the brightest minds in today’s content world. And I’ve noticed that successful content marketers do these seven things differently from everyone else:

1. Audience research

Everything starts with an understanding of your audience, and the most successful content marketers are the ones who take this phase seriously. Most content marketers start out with a basic customer persona, or do some light research to determine who’s most likely to visit their site, but successful content marketers want to know everything about their demographics.

They want to know their needs, their wants, how they spend their time and what they want in the content they read — both in terms of subject matter and tone. Most importantly, successful content marketers don’t base their research on their initial assumptions; instead, they challenge those assumptions to resist “confirmation bias” and to get closer to the truth.

2. Investment

Remember that 28 percent figure mentioned earlier? Successful content marketers spend that money differently. They invest in smaller quantities of higher-quality content, compared to their mediocre counterparts. So, if you have $2,800 to spend, it’s better to invest $700 each into four standout white papers than it is to invest $50 each into 56 “decent” blog articles.

Why? Because a disproportionately small number of articles will be responsible for getting the majority of links and shares. It doesn’t help that competition in the content space is increasing, and that consumers are tired of lackluster content.