Image via Flickr by Roland Tanglao

You've got a business website up and running. Your inventory is stocked and you're advertising like crazy on social media. When you came up with the grand idea to start an online business, you just knew it was going to be a success.

In your mind you had every detail planned out. From utilizing free social media marketing to buying your products cheap and selling them for a 300% profit, there was no way your online company was going to fail. 

30 days later.

​You've been advertising the heck out of your store on social media and you've attracted... NADA! Not. one. single. lead!

How could this be? Your product rocks and you've established a very reasonable pricing point. You know people like your product because their liking the hell out of your postings on Facebook.

But no one's buying. Not even your closest friends and family who you thought would be your biggest fans. 

What are you doing wrong? 

It's simple. A great product at a great price means nothing if you're targeting the wrong audience.

Using social media marketing as your only advertising platform is going to limit the audience you reach. This is why regardless of the size of your business or the how long you've been up and running, content marketing, in all of its forms, should be a top priority.

You've heard time and time again that content marketing boosts brand awareness.

You can have all the brand awareness in the world, but if the right audience isn't aware of your brand, it isn't going to matter. This is why content marketing makes a difference.

​When implemented correctly, content marketing lands your content in front an audience that is in need of your product. 

Let's say your online company is in the business of selling coffee mugs. Three days a week you publish a blog posting that relates to coffee in some form or fashion.

Whether it be talking about sipping on a cup of coffee before you rush the kids to school or the best cleaning wipes to get a coffee stain out of your new shirt you bought to wear to the office, the content is directed toward people who drink coffee. 

When search engines use their magic and crawl your blog postings, they will identify naturally-incorporated long-tail keywords, like 'sipping on a cup of coffee before you rush the kids to school', or 'wipes to get a coffee stain out of your new shirt'.

By identifying these long-tail keywords, the search engines will have a better idea of who the content should be shown to on search engines results pages (SERPs).

Creating buyer personas for your brand means you're going to pinpoint who the people are who are most likely to purchase your product. 

How old are they? Where do they live? What lifestyle habits do they have? Do they have children? What level of income do they have? 

Knowing this information enables you to sprinkle relevant content throughout your marketing content to appeal to these people. 

Let's go back to the coffee mug example. If you're selling coffee mugs, then your targeted audience is quite broad, but only if you want to appeal to such a large audience. 

This is why it is good to pick a specific niche and focus your brand and marketing efforts on it. 

The Big Dream Moms site, for example, targets moms who love to drink coffee. This niche, however, is still broad enough to appeal to a large audience because it can target working moms and stay-at-home moms. It can even target children who want to buy their moms coffee mugs for Mother's Day, birthdays, and holidays. 

Statistics show developing buyer personas for your brand will boost lead generation and audience engagement as well as sales revenue. 

• Ads that are targeted based on your audiences' behaviors are twice as likely to be effective as non-targeted ads. HiP
• Targeted users find sites that are designed to appeal to buyer personas two to five times easier to use than sites that are not designed in this manner. HubSpot
• Emails personalized according to buyer personas drive 18 times more sales revenue than general emails that include no personalization. HubSpot
• If you personalize your marketing efforts to your buyer personas, they are 48% more likely to buy from you. ITSMA

Advertising on social media is an effective marketing tool to employ, but it isn't going to reach your targeted audience unless you're advertising to people who fall into your buyer persona categories. 

As you use your buyer personas to create blog postings and other forms of content, like videos, infographics, and whitepapers, you're going to find much more success in your content marketing strategy. 

Mainly, you're going to improve lead generation and consumer engagement by landing your content in front of people who actually have an interest in your product. 

Your online business isn't going to take off overnight. It's going to take time. Lots of time. In fact, you may not start seeing results within your content marketing agenda for three to six months. 

Sticking with producing frequent, quality content is key to making sure your efforts pay off. 

Are you a content marketing manager?  If so, your main responsibility (among a million others) is to create content that attracts consumers and converts them into repeat customers.  And not only is it your responsibility to attract customers, but also to get them coming back again and again to make future purchases.

How can you do this, though, especially when you have so many tasks to be taking care of?  Just when you get one task finished, it seems that another is calling your name.  Your employer is constantly hagging you for more content, but you only have so many hands (fingers).  If you had more hands, you could surely type up a higher amount of content, right?  

Tips for a Content Marketing Manager

I have a solution to your problem.  I can provide you with more hands (fingers).  In fact, I have access to thousands of writers who have been heavily screened according to their writing skills and capabilities.  Each of these writers can produce for you the type of content that you are in need of.  

You say, "but Whitney, my employer operates in an industry that you've never worked in!"  That's no problem.  I know people who have worked in the industry that you need content for.  Whether it be the LED lighting industry, the dental industry or even the inflatable balloon industry, I know people who can create high-quality content for you.  

What's so special about outsourcing content through me?  First of all, you get the main advantage of me creating content for you.  I have many years of experience in creating content.  From feature articles to managed content to white papers, my expertise extends into many areas.  I mostly enjoy writing about topics related to addiction, the health care and legal industries, how to earn a degree, and business financing. 
 
Even if I can't create the content you are in need of, I can outsource it to a highly-experienced writer who can.  After doing so, I'll make sure to edit and proofread the content, as well as add highly-valuable sources to it.  

Gone are your days of editing.  With the content that I provide you, you can simply accept, pay and publish.  It's as easy as that.  Does it get any simpler?  Absolutely not!  

I can't stress enough how advantageous it is to outsource your content marketing needs through me.  And to top everything off, you don't have to pay me until you are completely satisfied with the content that you are in need of.  That's right!  Check out my Fee Schedule to learn more about my pricing and kill fees.  

If you aren't satisfied with the work I provide, you don't have to pay me at all.  If, however, you send me a project and choose to kill it before the project is complete, a 50 percent (of the original price quote) surcharge will be applied, and you will be expected to pay.  This means if you send me a project for which I quote a $50 fee and you choose to kill it before the project is completed, you will still owe me $25.  

I'm a trustworthy person, and I trust you to pay me for the content you order, or in the very least, I expect you to pay me a kill fee.  If, however, you aren't satisfied at all, then I'm the one who loses and you're the one who gets to keep your money, but please remember that you won't own any rights to the content that I provide you in regards to a particular project that you fail to pay me for.  

All in all, I like things simple, and I know you do too.  So, here's a major tip for you as a content manager, let's keep things simple and get your content created!  In the end, it will be a win-win situation for the both of us.  

So, I had one of those "aha" moments today.  It was purely genius really.  Then again, when I look back on it and I'm completely honest with myself, it was nothing more and nothing less than pure common sense.  

I've been trying to think of ways to boost my brand awareness and attract new clients.  To do this, though, I have to think about who it is that my customers are.  As a content creator, I have to think to myself "who is that needs my content?"  Duh, it's marketing managers.  

Marketing managers are responsible for what?  Marketing the businesses that they work for.  

What is my job as a content creator?  To create content that attracts the attention of readers.  

Put these two together, and you get a marketing manager who is looking for a content creator who can attract the attention of consumers.  

To put it simply, the clients that I'm trying to reach are marketing managers.  And the content that I create is for marketing managers.  

Now, how do I persuade them that they need me to create content for them?  Well, the only reasonable answer that I can come up with is that I need to tell them how important content creation is.  If I tell them about the importance of content creation, maybe then they will consider me to create it for them.  So, let's get to it.  Let's take a quick look at the importance of good content. 

Importance of Good Content

With so many people using the Internet these days, it makes perfect sense that good content is imperative to attracting consumers to a certain brand, product, service, etc...  And that's about it folks!  It's as simple as that!  Good content equals an increase in customer count. 

Wait a minute, you say?  That's all you have to tell me about good content?  Well, I'm just being honest with you.  The importance of good content is that it increases your customer count.   

Exactly how does good content increase customer counts, though?  Well, this is pretty self-explanatory too, but I'll go ahead and explain it.  

Showcases Your Thought Leadership

First of all, good content showcases thought leadership.  It proves to a consumer that your business is well-versed and knowledgeable in the products/services it is selling.  Consumers want to purchase a product or service that comes from a business that knows the ins-and-outs of the industry it is operating in.  

Would you want to buy lollipops for your 5-year old from a plumber who only has experience in cleaning and unclogging toilets?  Of course not.  You would want to purchase the candy from a company that has plenty of experience in purchasing and distributing candy that comes from a reputable candy manufacturer.  

When your business is able to showcase thought leadership, it's able to increase its customer count. 

Explains Benefits and Advantages

Good content is useful.  It doesn't simply explain the specifics of a product or service.  It paints a clear picture of how the product or service can be of use.  

From a marketing manager's standpoint, it's important to realize good content can be used on social media sites, blog posting, websites, etc...  All of these online avenues attract the attention of consumers, and when displaying top-notch content, a business is able to persuade a customer to actually make a purchase; thus increasing its customer count.

It's Shareable

Lastly, good content is shareable.  Sure, all content is shareable, but it's only the content that is worth sharing that actually gets shared.  This is why marketing managers must ensure they are publishing good content.  

When a reader is finished reading a piece of content that truly strikes him or her as 'good,' it is then that the Google+, Facebook and Twitter share buttons get pressed.  

Seriously, how many times have you shared something that you didn't think was worth reading?  Probably none.  

The main point I'm wanting to convey is good content gets shared, and when it's shared, a business has a much higher chance of increasing its brand awareness, and this is what increases customer count.  

The Take Away

So, there you have it.  I'm a copywriter living in Kentucky who is extremely interested in expanding my client base.  I can create top-notch content, and if you're a marketing manager, I know that your primary responsibility is to increase your employer's brand awareness and customer count.  I can help you achieve this goal.  I can create "good" content for you that clearly shows consumers what it is that you're selling and how it can be of benefit to them.  

Best of all, you don't have to live in Kentucky to take advantage of my services.  In fact, you can live on the other side of the world.  

Contact me today if you're a marketing manager in need of content.  Actually, regardless of your title, if you need good content, I'm the person to create it for you, so please contact me today.  And to be quite honest, I've had more than a few clients tell me that my content wasn't good: they've told me that my content has "exceeded their expectations."  In other words, the content that I tend to produce is as Tony the Tiger would say "IT'S GREAT!"