Content marketing is what’s powering the web and bloggers who are truly committed understand the power that marketing through your content can produce. However, with every benefit comes enormous challenges and as I get use to the concept I’m finding it much harder to cope with the growing disadvantages. I’ve decided to put this quick series together so I can outline some of the GREATEST challenges that come with content marketing and what you can do to solve them. Before I go any further I’ll like to give you a quick definition of content marketing…
“Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers.†(Source Wikipedia)
I’ll like to get started with the first major challenge and provide an awesome solution afterwards.
Challenge 1 – The Competition
I currently have “5†blogs and there in different niches however I face competition in every single one of them. The truth is your going to have competition, but with it comes the chance to push the limits and increase creativity. It’s human nature to fight when others are taking over your territory so it can be a positive for you. However, for beginners can be especially tough because they simply don’t have the resources to produce material others are providing. For example,
Your competition might be million dollar companies or bloggers that have been in the business for over 7 years. Both have the experience and investment to offer visitors exclusive content, products, trials and coaching. All of this combined can have a dramatic effect on your blog and the level of engagement. This doesn’t mean you won’t be able to compete, but simply you’ll have to get creative and utilize what you have available to you. Next,
Competition has created an environment where people are more likely to judge a blog by its age, even though a new blog may be producing better content than some veteran bloggers. The problem is with competition comes a higher likelihood of less patience and visitors are quick to judge a blog by the lack of content published, colors, followers, etc. We are truly our own worst enemies however this again doesn’t mean we can’t be creative taking advantage of some of the resources we have at our disposal. Before going forward, let’s breakdown what I discussed above…
Competition is in…
- Every niche
- It can be great for creativity
- The ones that survive will prosper
- Your audience is quick to judge (can be a positive)
The Solution
As mentioned before competition is great for creativity because it pushes you to do things differently. Many of you will be beginner bloggers and might find it hard in the to compete. However, I’ve found certain types of posts are a great way to tap into the influential bloggers. For example,
Guest blogging is something all bloggers should take advantage of because you’ll be able to network with authority people in your niche. Not to mention, their always looking for creative content to publish on their own blog while giving credit to the writer. You’ll get loads of relevant traffic increasing your brand, but will benefit by building the initial connection with authority bloggers. Next,
How about creating an expert post? It’s a question which solves a common problem within your niche and you get a variety of top answers from people who’ve been in the industry for years. Next, once you publish the post you can contact each blogger asking them to share your content. That’s enormous social engagement building brand, increasing engagement, etc.
Even though many believe competition is a great challenge for content marketers, you have to be creative and use it to your advantage. Your competition has been around for years so you should leverage what they’ve already established online. For example,
- Utilize their traffic by guest blogging
- Gather expert opinions putting together an ultimate “expert†post
- A resource list of the best content is a great way to network with your competitors.
Here’s something else…
Your competition can teach you a lot about the industry. I remember when a visitor asked me to answer a niche-related question I was able to turn to my competitors to see what they were doing. I than created something better than everyone adding length, images, video and even infographics to create an ultimate post. Since quality goes such a long way, it’s now out ranking some of my competitors and has over 2,000 shares on social networks.