The Best Tools For Content Marketing
Content marketing is one of the more direct approaches to blogging, and traffic generation. If you do not work within the confines of content marketing, you are going to have to work at an uphill climb for a long period of time. There are so many people that try to circumvent this, and end up with nothing in return. Do not try to reinvent the wheel here, instead, focus on the tools of the trade that are absolutely necessary for making moves within the world of content marketing and design protocol. The following are absolute tools that you should have set up before you start to dominate any niche. If you have these in place, then it’s time to fill them out systematically, so that you can gain focus on the benefits that come within the world of blogging and more. Content marketing starts with the right tools, and then moves forward in a variety of other ways.
WordPress (Blogging Software)
The first thing that you are going to need to work with any type of content marketing is a CMS. CMS stands for content management system. It’s a software package that streamlines the posting option of setting up pages and content. When you want to update your page, you are going to need this to be installed. When it’s in place, you will be able to update your page fast, and get moving towards the right direction overall. If you don’t like WordPress, for whatever reason, there are other options, but they are not going to deliver the same functionality or plugins in terms of SEO. It’s up to you how you play this one, but you need to have a CMS in place before you get anywhere with content marketing.
Most web hosting companies offer a one-click WordPress installer making it simple to install WordPress. Ask your hosting company if they offer a free WordPress installer.
If you want to install WordPress manually you can find the latest version of WordPress here.
YouTube Account (Video Marketing)
There are a lot of video marketing sites that you can sign up with. However, the monster of them all is that of YouTube. Do not neglect to set up a channel here. You do not have to make videos to sign up, you simply need to have an account so that you can start to market in several ways. As far as content marketing is concerned, video is one of the major solutions you should work with. Let’s assume that you don’t have any videos for content marketing purposes. That’s ok. Look into the public domain and you’ll see that there are a lot of videos that you can download and upload to YouTube. Once you upload them, make sure to fill out the content sections with backlinks to your site. This will help you gain traction in the right manner.
YouTube is a great way to visually promote your business and is one of the fastest viral platforms. If you think a visual representation of your product would help then create a How To video or even better review your product on YouTube. Personally I always check YouTube before purchasing a product to see if there is a user review.
Social Media Profiles (Social Marketing)
The next major tool that you should be utilizing often is that of social marketing, or better yet social media profiles. There are several profiles that you will want to look into here. Social media is an important aspect to the world of marketing, and if you play your cards right, you can end up with a positive solution moving forward. Social media profiles that are at least registered will help you protect your brand and marketing keywords. Keep that in mind, if you’re not ready to launch full scale marketing collateral within each profile. Without at least a registered social media page, you will see your content marketing suffer in terms of SEO credibility, that’s for sure.
The idea with social media profiles is to not spread yourself thin. What I mean is don’t signup for every social media outlet but instead focus on one at a time. If you have a store with products then try using Pinterest. It’s a great way to showcase your products and engage with your audience.
AdWords Account (For Keyword Tool)
There has been a shift in how you use Google’s keyword tool. You cannot just use it without signing up. You need to sign up for an AdWords account, even if you don’t spend any money. Within the confines of the AdWords account you have in place, you will gain access to the mighty Google keyword tool. This is one of the best things that you can use for content marketing. When you start to drill down the words you want to build content around, you will start to publish elements that will give you traffic. Remember, this is all for the sake of traffic generation, and it’s easy to forget that. Don’t allow yourself to miss the mark here, make sure that you sign up for an AdWords account and use it to get the right keywords to use moving forward. Don’t worry, this is free.
Google Adwords is free to signup and you can get started here.
Google’s Analytics Tool (Check Under The Hood)
This perhaps is the number one thing that you should be using for content marketing success. This will tell you what your site’s traffic is like, what pages are getting the most attention, and what keywords are being used to find your site. Done right, this can provide a huge jump in terms of content marketing. It peels back the search engine world so you can get an insider’s perspective of what your page is doing.
Signup for a free Google Analytics account here.