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Are you ready for me to pull back the curtain? Everyone wants to know what the most successful content marketers do to be successful, but no one really knows. If you even have the opportunity to find out, you often have to pay thousands for a specialty program.

But not today. Today I’m going to show my cards and let you in on the secrets of content marketing. And guess what – it won’t cost you a THING. I’m giving away my personal strategies for free.

Are you ready? Here’s what I do and why it works.

Put Your Content to Work

I don’t tolerate slackers in my business and neither should you. I expect people to embrace their work and do their very best every day. I expect the same from my content as well.

Did you know that you can give your content a job? Not only can you, but you have to. You can’t afford to spend hours and pour blood, sweat, and tears into content that doesn’t move the needle for you. Instead, make sure you set a goal and arrange for your content to meet it.

Every single piece of content should move people to the next step in your sales funnel. Information at the top of your funnel needs to inform and encourage people to connect and engage at a deeper level by joining your email list.

Items from the middle of your funnel need to build on the existing relationship and encourage people to purchase your entry level product or service or sign up for a free trial.

Finally, content at the end of your funnel needs to build on everything you’ve shared previously and show that you’re obviously the best choice. Make a direct sales pitch to get sales.

Start With an Amazing Headline

Before your content can do any work at all someone has to read it. The headline for this piece was designed to draw in a specific person – someone who wants to know my content marketing secrets and is ready to take action.

No one looking for lawnmower repair advice is going to read this article. And that’s good! I don’t want someone who has no interest in me or my business here. No amount of content marketing is going to move that person through my funnel, so it’s a wasted effort.

How can you do the same in your own content? How can you build your headline to intrigue not just people, but the right people? Think about the questions that are burning in your reader’s mind and how you can use a catchy headline to let them know the answer is here.

End With a Great Call to Action

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From the beginning to the end – the second most important part of your content marketing strategy is knowing what call to action (CTA) to use.

The biggest mistake you can make is not to use CTA at all. You can have the most incredible content in the world and get nothing from it simply because you don’t tell people what to do next! Remember, every article and video needs to have a job, and that means moving people into the next step of your funnel.

What are some great CTAs? There’s nothing wrong with being direct and using something like “Sign up for my email list to get my free ebook today.” You can also invite people to comment, visit you to comment on a social media post, share the post with friends, and more.

If you’re too busy running your business to worry about managing your content marketing yourself, you may want to work with a professional instead. There are some great digital marketing services in Toronto that can help.

The key is that when someone moves forward, you need to be ready. Have an email series, social media post, or other engagement ready to go so people have a great experience with your brand.

In Between – Be Engaging

Between the headline and the CTA, you need to share high-quality information in an engaging way. Consider mixing in videos, infographics, and other content that’s known to catch the eye. The key is that you don’t want to lose someone partway through the article.

Be sure to space out your writing so that you don’t have huge walls of text. Use headers and subheaders to explain what you’re saying. They also make your content easy to scan, so those that don’t read fully can still digest your message.

Finally, use your content to tell a story. And for goodness sake, don’t make that story all about you. Make it about your reader – how they can learn, grow, change, and become better. People love learning how to improve and make a difference in their business.

Final Thoughts

The key to great content marketing isn’t really a secret after all. You simply have to use tried-and-true techniques consistently over time.

When you use these content marketing secrets, your content will be powerful and will work hard to move your business forward. What more can you ask?