Someone told you should be doing it.

Now you’re trapped in a cycle of never-ending misery: publishing content several times a week, hoping it would somehow magically start making your business more money.

Ain’t gonna happen.

You see, for content marketing to get results, you need to be strategic and you need to be patient. But most of all, you must never be boring.

Let’s look at how you can revitalize your content marketing to finally see the results you want. Keep reading…

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Step 1. Check your monetization logic

Monetization logic is the most important factor that determines if your content marketing contributes to the growth of your business or hinders it.

Ask yourself these questions:

  1. Is there enough overlap between the people reading your content and your potential customers?
  2. Does your content attract the kind of people who would benefit from your product or service?

If the answer to either is “no”, you need to rethink your content marketing strategy.

Let’s discuss a common example. We bet you’ve seen a lot of design companies running blogs on design. Who do you think reads them? That’s right – other designers!

And would other designers make good customers for a design company?

Exactly.

Step 2. Expand your target audience

Successful content marketing thrives on mass appeal. It doesn’t mean, however, that you should write generic content aimed at anyone with a pulse.

Simply cast your net wider. For instance, let’s say you write for small business owners in your local area. Instead, why not try and reach a nationwide audience of small and mid-sized businesses?

A highly specific, refined marketing message is good for wooing customers. For content marketing, it’s better to have an inexhaustible supply of interested readers. If you stay trapped in a niche, you will exhaust all avenues of growth – quickly.

Step 3. Stop talking about YOU

When people consume your content for the first time, they have zero reason to care about your brand. Talking about your business is the worst thing you could do.

To make potential customers stick around, you have to talk about what is important to them. And that might have nothing to do with your core business – surprise!

But because you educated, entertained, or solved their problem with your content, people will remember your brand. And some of them will come back and buy from you.

That’s how you get real estate companies like Movoto blogging about insane things to see in Florida. Or tech startups like Zapier writing on productivity and managing remote teams. It’s all about what matters to their audience.

If you want to learn more about creating exciting content when you’re in a “meh” industry, you can check out this post we wrote a while back.

Step 4. 80% promotion, 20% creation

It doesn’t matter how often you publish new content. If you don’t promote it, you are shooting your content marketing efforts in the foot (metaphorically speaking).

Promotion is the only way to make content marketing work for your business. This means you need to publish content off-site, cultivate valuable relationships with partners and work hard to distribute your on-site content all over the Internet.

It’s hard work, but that’s how successful content marketing is done. Anyone can create content. Promotion is where 99% of business owners get stuck, while the 1% who did figure it out enjoy the most benefits.

Step 5. Patience is a virtue (really)

Content marketing has one huge drawback. It takes a long time to get disproportionate results. It’s not like a joint venture or an advertising campaign that you can run again and again with consistent results.

No, content marketing is more like a grueling uphill walk. If you stop halfway, or get distracted by pretty flowers and berries, you won’t get the results you need.

If you invest time and effort consistently over many months, focusing on promotion over creation, and reaching the right people, it will pay off, and your business growth will snowball out of control.

It takes patience and a lot of guts to get there. But we both know you have them in spades!

Content marketing is a brilliant way to get more customers than you know what to do with – all without spending a cent on traditional marketing and advertising.

But to make the most of it, you need to let go of the misconceptions, focus on the right things, and play the long game.

We hope that these 5 steps will help you do just that. Enjoy!