For many years now, content marketing has had a singular goal; to drive traffic to your site. Success has been gauged by the amount of likes you have and your ever-growing number of followers. But one look at most bounce rates will show that people pop over to the site for a few seconds and then flit off to the next with nary a backward glance. They are merely tourists to your site and hold no value and all those likes and followers aren’t affecting your bottom line. Listen to the jibcast Podcast on this article
I would like to propose a new goal for content marketing; to get shares, not likes, or clicks, but shares. You see, when people share your work, they have read it and they are saying to their friends, family members and colleagues – “I believe in this and endorse it.” They are giving you their tacit approval – a rave review if you will and nothing convinces prospective clients like the thumbs up from a trusted source.
[Tweet “Nothing convinces prospective clients like the thumbs up from a trusted source”]
Why do People Share Content?
People share content that they connect to on an emotional level and this says one thing; I trust you. Building this trust should be the focus of your content marketing, but it isn’t the easiest thing to achieve.
The internet is flooded with great content and it isn’t enough to be an expert in your field. Your content has to be exceptional—the tallest flower—if you want to be picked. It’s not that you don’t have the chops; you and your team have the know-how and skill to solve your customer’s pain points, but you need to get that message across effectively.
How do I Built Trust with an Audience?
The best way to build trust is to offer something for free; that’s what content marketing is all about. Content marketing’s ability to connect with and grow engaged audiences comes from this one simple fact: people like it. People care much more about their own problems than your product and content marketing puts customer’s needs first. Instead of interrupting them with ads, it provides genuinely useful, entertaining, and interesting content.
Down with Likes, Up with Love!
The focus of your content marketing strategy should be shares because it shows that your content is inspiring trust. Forget about likes and followers and use shares as the litmus paper to gauge the perceived value of your content. If you aren’t getting the kind of engagement that improves sales, then find a curator who will work with your team to produce original content that is sincere and genuinely helpful.
Strike a balance between sharing your own content and useful content from others. You can also repurpose your original content so that you get the most out of your content marketing budget. Building trust is what marketing is all about and the only way to get your voice heard (and your content shared) in the online jungle.
Listen to the Podcast of this article
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/200209458″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
Show notes for the jibcast
⇒ 12 Awesome Custom Google Analytics Reports Created by the Experts (Download the “Content Efficiency Report”)
⇒ Stats from The Content Code by Mark Shaefer
