Content is king. How often have you heard that phrase? Probably all the time now. However, the fact is, it is, and no one hoping to make it in business today can ignore it. 

It doesn’t matter how big or small your business is, you will need to get cracking on your content marketing strategy to make your business successful. Then again, how should you go about it? Since everybody is doing it, how do you distinguish yourself from the crowd? Is it a matter of more is better? 

The trick is to engage them in conversation so that they will naturally come to the conclusion that, hey, this is a great product/service/brand/idea! For that, you need excellent copy. Here are the top copywriting strategies to maximize content marketing efforts. 

1. Educate, don’t advocate

Of course, the purpose of your content is to persuade people around to your way of thinking, but you can do this by simply giving them the information that will lead them to that end. 

If you are selling home cleaning products, for example, you can send out articles that talk about the health hazards present in a typical home, and what they can do to address each problem. If you give them actionable advice that will help them keep their families safe without making them buy your product, they are more likely to trust you, and share your article. 

Your main goal is still to get them to buy the product, but you could more effectively push your products by not pushing it, but by merely mentioning it in the article as a desirable option.

Note: It is very important not to be a scaremonger. Don’t raise your reader’s blood pressure unnecessarily by stating dire consequences of inaction to give them a sense of urgency, because you could lose your credibility as an authority that way. You can use attention-grabbing headlines, like this one:

http://money.usnews.com/money/blogs/my-money/2012/04/02/6-surprising-health-hazards-lurking-in-your-home

and still stick to hard facts. 

2. Go for top quality

Central to any good copy is, of course, the quality of the writing. 

You could have the right idea and a ripping outline, but expressing it in an engaging manner to compel your readers to read your full article is a whole new ballgame. If you or one of your in house staff is an awesome writer with proven record of entertaining as well as educating your audience, then you have no problem. 

However, some content marketers simply don’t have the chops to write as well as they should. You don’t have to do everything yourself if you’re not up to it. There is nothing wrong with outsourcing the job to a professional writing service for the actual content as long as you manage it well. 

Provide specific guidelines for the tone, voice, and direction to make sure you get the content you want.  It may cost more than writing it yourself, but it is a worthy investment. Nothing beats delivering top-notch content to make the most of your marketing efforts. 

It is important to note that some algorithms are already taking the place of human writing in many areas in content marketing. This is certainly a viable option for some copywriting tasks, but no artificial intelligence can trump the engagement you can get from high-quality content produced by an experienced human writer. This is why it is important to get a professional writer with the right credentials to do this for you. Such good writers can be found among the writing service reviews. 

3. Mix it up

Social media is a major venue for your content marketing, so you need short-form content. It could be a short article, an image, or a video. 

However, you also need to substantiate your posts by linking it to a more substantive article on your site blog, because the majority of online audience expects original and factual long-form content to explain exactly what you mean. Typical long-form content runs from 700 to 1,000 words, and it can’t be mostly fluff, either. 

You have to make sure your long-form content is not just long, but informative.  Make use of current statistics and research to support your theories, and provide your audience with free tools they can use. For example, if you expound on the health hazards of mold in the carpet, give them a calculator to find out how often they should clean their carpets to keep it in check, and how much cleaning product they need. 

4. Personalize it

Your site blog and social networks are not your only venues for content marketing. They just provide the gateway to capturing information about your audience so that you can talk to them directly on other venues, such as newsletters, emails, ebooks, and other targeted offerings. 

Personalization is the best way to engage your audience on a one-to-one basis, and the quickest way to grow your audience. However, how can you do this?

Use the information you gather from registrations, purchases, and browsing behavior. You can use this to customize your content in many ways, but it can be difficult to do this manually. Fortunately, there are automation tools that can help you analyze and categorize the data and target individuals with the correct content. 

Will these strategies make your job as a content marketer easier? Probably not. You have to do a ton of research and planning before you will see results, and you have to do this consistently as the market continues to evolve. 

Will they make you more effective? Heck, yeah! That’s the thing. You could keep plugging away at delivering content, but if you don’t use the right strategies, it will all be for nothing. Working hard is important, but if you want to maximize your content marketing efforts, it is more important to work right.