7 tips to be successful at content marketing
Business blogging, or content marketing is an extremely accessible industry to enter and if you’ve got the skills and willpower, like many, you can make yourself a career from it. There are countless articles and eBooks online showing you how to become a content blogger and how to get started but so many people ask, once you’re all set up, then what?
There are infinite paths you could take on the road to success but here are some key points you take into consideration that guarantees that you’ll be on the right path.
Frame Of Mind
Ask yourself one simple question: Are a business or a blogger?
If you’ve started to write and create blogs, either for yourself or for businesses, then the obvious answer would be blogger. However, moving forward, you should start to consider yourself as a business or a brand. A great way to get yourself into this mindset is by considering yourself as a real person who is running a real business.
When in the blogging industry, you should not just write articles but also be ready to face challenges, be ready to collaborate in projects, manage your finances and invest wisely. When in the writing industry, you cannot just be a writer. You have to be a fully functional business, ready to act as necessary.
Seek Guidance
Although it can be so tempting to go it alone, especially if to begin with you are getting clients in and becoming quite successful. Unfortunately, there are always going to be times where you’ll be unsure of what to do or you may have already made mistakes which could have otherwise been avoided.
The best way to eliminate these risks is by finding yourself a mentor. A mentor is there to guide you and help you to avoid making mistakes which could cost you your reputation as writer.
Use Editing Tools
One of the best ways to ensure you are producing high quality articles and content is by using an online editing tool. By using these tools wisely, you’re able to correct your spelling, grammar and sentence structure, ensuring your writing is Internet ready, resulting in great feedback and an increased reputation. Here is a selection of a few tools that can be used:
Grammar Checker by Grammarlookup
Grammar Lookup is one the best online grammar checkers, it leverages artificial intelligence to detect grammatical and spelling errors as well as to suggest style improvements (just paste text, click the button and hover over each).
A free and easy to use editing tool. Simply copy and paste your text and content into the box, directly through your web browser and receive feedback on spelling, grammar, word alternatives and other incredibly helpful suggestions.
A great platform for aspiring writers, Paper Fellows is free to join and is a unique platform that puts you in contact with writing students and teachers from around the world. With these connections in place, individuals are able to share ideas, knowledge and advice, with the aim of educating others, resulting in you becoming a better writer.
Another free platform allowing users to copy and paste their texts into the online box through their web browser where they will receive information on word count, character count and spacing. This allows writers to stay within word and character limits set by their clients.
Free tool that is great for creating citations that can be used when adding sources to a document or article. By adding sources to your work, you’re verifying your information, making it more reliable and trustworthy to readers.
Free online service which help you to find out: how strong and how engaging is your headline. The alternative tool – Headline Analyzer from Amnistitute can ensure an “emotional marketing value” of blog post titles.
Proofreading
Considered one of the most important factors when trying to become a successful writer, proofread your work. If you have mistakes, typos and errors in your work, you will lose creditability as a writer as well risk damaging your reputation. By using the tools above, you can help lower your error count and continue to produce high quality articles.
Hire an Editor
Sometimes, two pairs of eyes are better than one. When writing, it’s hard to spot errors in writing that you have written because your mind tends to think that it knows what is written down. You can resolve this issue by employing the services of a qualified editor. There are a number of great sites like Contently and Big Assignments that you can hire people that can assist you in perfecting your work.
These sites also include:
Marketing over writing
Despite your official job being a ‘writer,’ as a content marketer, you should really draw your attention to the marketing side of things. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter how amazing or engaging your writing is, it’s all for nothing is no one is reading your content.
Obviously it’s important to write informative and well-structured articles, just don’t forget to invest time advertising your work.
Networking
Potentially one of the most overlooked aspects of business blogging but so important. Communicating with other bloggers. It’s easy to network with other bloggers by using social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn but also by contacting the writers directly through their blogs. By building strong relationships, you’ll be able to share each other’s content and articles and also motivate each other and keep each other on track.
While boosting your business through a blog requires hard work and effort, the above tips can help you succeed with as much ease as possible, and really benefit from all of the benefits of a blog.