Content Marketing: It Works, but Timing Matters
Content marketing isn’t easy. But most things in life that aren’t easy, like content marketing, reap great rewards. To do it well, businesses must produce quality content that’s relevant for their audiences, while building brand awareness and engaging customers.
Not an easy feat.
What’s makes it even more difficult is that each platform – social media, email and blogs – requires a tactful hand, knowing what kind of content to generate for each platform and targeting the right audiences with each, not to mention knowing when to post engaging, relevant content.
The good news is, however, that content marketing is worth doing, and worth doing well.
Yes, you should employ a content marketing strategy
Here are some cold, hard facts to back up your foray into content marketing:
- Consumers work through nearly 60 percent of the purchasing process before they ever talk to your business or sales representations. They’re searching online for information.
- Audiences respond to relevant content on blogs, driving traffic to websites and referrals.
- Content marketing drives organic traffic and leads.
If you’re in the enviable position of having your entire organization on board with content marketing, and you’re driving full steam ahead with a social media, email and blog campaign, now your attention can shift to strategy.
How to deploy content marketing channels
Not so sure how to get these amazing results? That’s where the next challenges comes in.
Following the general principles of generating content on a regular basis and speaking directly to the needs of your audiences, you’ll get off to a great start. This research by MarketingProfs should guide the timing of when you post pics, videos and text to your various content marketing channels:
Sending out weekly emails to your audience segments? Turns out, Thursday is a popular time of the week to send information. Many companies aim for right before lunch, between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m. However, based on research, the most effective time of day to send emails is also on Thursday, but in the afternoon, between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m.
Thursday continues to be a popular day for businesses to post on Facebook, but lunch time wins the game here, with most people posting between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. However, go with the most effective time to post, which is Sunday between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m.
On this channel, most brands are posting on Thursday, between 1 p.m. and 2 p.m.; however, the most effective time to post on Instagram is Monday, between 8 a.m. and 9 a.m.
If you’re using this channel, go with the most effective time to post, which is Sunday between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. Most brands, however, are posting between 12 p.m. and 1 p.m. on Thursday.
Blog
Creating relevant content for your blog? Go with the most effective day and time to post, which is Saturday between 12 a.m. and 1 p.m., not the most popular times brands are using, which is Tuesday and Wednesday between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m.
The important factor to remember when generating and posting content is this: Follow the studies that show what channels are working, the kind of content your audience is looking for, and the times of day to post that content. But above all else, keep working at this highly effective method for developing organic traffic, generating leads and converting sales. It’ll pay off if you hang in there.
