How to Reach Your Audience and Boost Sales with Content Marketing

Too many business owners set up their products or services and expect customers to show up on their own. But in a crowded market, waiting won’t drive results. Every business needs a proactive strategy to reach an audience, acquire email addresses as leads, and increase sales. Content marketing is one of the most effective ways to achieve that.

Content marketing is simply publishing written and visual material online to attract your ideal customers to your business. The content in this kind of marketing is content you create and share for free. It should answer common customer questions, solve common customer problems, entertain, and inspire. And it can come in many forms—including emails, blog posts, e-books, social media posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, and more.

Over time, content marketing builds your authority and boosts your search engine optimization. It also creates reciprocity. The more generous you are to your audience, the more your audience will want to reciprocate by purchasing from you.

This publication provides three strategies to help you create compelling content to reach your audience and boost revenue:

1. Identify your content
2. Get the most out of your content
3. Schedule your content

Strategy #1: Identify Your Content

When deciding what to write about in blog posts or what to talk about in videos, many content marketers use a “content tree.” With a content tree, you determine the broad content areas you want to cover and then branch off from each area until you have targeted ideas for pieces of content.

Let’s say you own a home design-build firm. Here are the steps you could take to generate those targeted ideas:

1. Jot down a few high-level categories you could create content about, such as the following:
   • Location considerations
   • Architectural styles
   • The design-build process
   • Indoor design features
   • Outdoor design features
2. Break each of the categories in Step 1 into sub-categories. For example, the “indoor design features” category could be broken down into the following:
   • Foyers/entryways
   • Kitchens
   • Main suites
   • Home offices
   • Guest quarters
3. Break the sub-categories into topics. Let’s use “kitchens” for our example:
   • Floor plans
   • Kitchen islands and bars
   • Cabinets and countertops
   • Appliances
   • Lighting
4. Turn each topic into a title for a piece of content. If we zero in on “kitchen islands and bars,” we could create the following content pieces:
   • 6 Must-Have Features for a Gourmet Kitchen Island
   • Pros and Cons of Island Sinks
   • 7 Common Kitchen Island Design Mistakes
   • How to Design the Perfect Multi-Purpose Kitchen Island
   • 12 Questions to Ask Before Finalizing Your Kitchen Island Design

Repeat the process for each of your categories, subcategories, and topics. Before you know it, you’ll have dozens of content ideas!

Strategy #2: Get the Most Out of Your Content

To make the most of the content you produce, repurpose it—the smartest way to extend the reach and lifespan of what you create. This will save you a ton of time and money along the way. To do this, take an existing piece of content apart and put it back together in different formats. Here are seven examples to get your wheels turning:

1. Post each chapter of an e-book as a separate blog post, or combine several related blog posts into an e-book.
2. Turn blog posts into emails or videos or both (and vice versa).
3. Develop a webinar using content you’ve already created.
4. Use long-form content as inspiration for a series of social media posts.
5. Create an infographic from the research you’ve done.
6. Look at your older content to see if it can be updated or refreshed to make it more relevant or useful. You may be able to add or update statistics or incorporate new trends or best practices.
7. Share screenshots of customer testimonials as social media graphics.

Strategy #3: Schedule Your Content

The key to effective content marketing is consistency and accountability for putting content out there regularly. Pro tip: If you don’t plan to create content, you won’t. It’ll forever fall to the bottom of your list.

Decide how often you’ll share content. There’s no right frequency—it depends on what you’re creating, the platform you’re using, your industry, and your audience. Choose a cadence that feels doable and sustainable, even if you have to start monthly.

If you can, create enough content at once to have a month’s worth—maybe two—to schedule on whatever platforms you use. On most platforms (including websites), you can plan your content ahead of time, and the platform will take it live at the designated time. You can use tools such as Later or Hypefury if managing multiple platforms.

Content marketing is a powerful tool for generating leads and boosting sales, but it requires a strategic approach. You can build authority and foster reciprocal relationships with your audience by identifying your content topics, repurposing your content across multiple formats, and scheduling regular content releases.

Implementing these three strategies will help transform your content marketing efforts into a sustainable and effective driver of business growth.

Other Marketing Resources to Help You

• The Master Your Marketing workshop will teach you how to grow your business with a digital marketing plan. In this live marketing workshop, you’ll learn the following:
  • How to talk about what you offer so that your ideal customers pay attention.
  • Why your website isn’t working—and how to fix it.
  • How to establish yourself as the go-to expert in your industry.
  • The secret to turning prospects into paying customers.

• The self-guided Website Mini-Masterclass teaches you how to make tangible changes to your website to boost your revenue.
• In the book Five Social Media Mistakes Your Business Should Avoid, you’ll learn about these mistakes that most businesses make that destroy engagement and sales. You’ll learn actionable steps to give your social media a makeover and increase social engagement and sales.
• Sign up for the newsletter Traction to get easy-to-implement, actionable marketing tips delivered to your inbox.
• In the Bricks-to-Clicks Marketing Podcast, you’ll learn practical marketing tips to bring in more customers and revenue. In 15 minutes or less, episodes cover the top five social media mistakes, five principles for building a thriving community, the blueprint for social media success, and the one thing to do to grow your business, nonprofit, or personal brand.
• Bricks-to-Clicks also offers One-on-One Coaching to improve your marketing.

Visit brickstoclicks.extension.msstate.edu to access these resources, or email james.barnes@msstate.edu.

References

Baker, K. (2024, November 11). The ultimate guide to content marketing in 2024. HubSpot Blog.

Riserbato, R. (2021, October 27). 10 benefits of consistent, high-quality content marketing. HubSpot Blog.

Scan the QR Codes for Additional Information and Access

5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes Book

Bricks-to-Clicks Marketing Program

Master Your Marketing Workshop

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The information given here is for educational purposes only. References to commercial products, trade names, or suppliers are made with the understanding that no endorsement is implied and that no discrimination against other products or suppliers is intended.

Publication 4083 (POD-01-25)

By James Barnes, PhD, Extension Professor, Agricultural Economics.