Why Content Marketing Is Like Playing a Video Game

Driving your content can be as fun as playing a video game. Seriously.

Content marketing campaigns — much like video games — come with a set of tools, goals, an overall game plan, and (here’s the best part) a SCOREBOARD to keep track of your successes.

If you do content marketing well (and use the right tools), the analytics you can generate with today’s marketing automation programs can be exhilarating — like an engaging, saga-style game of Halo, not a quick round of PAC-MAN. Here’ why . . .

Content marketing relies on:

• Telling a good story
• Implementing a strategy
• Having multiple players join in

Once you get into content marketing and see how you can influence your results with different tactics, tools, connections, and a little bit of trial-and-error, your marketing program can be transformed into a satisfying — and addicting — game of sorts, too.

So how do you get your own game of Content Marketing started?

1. Know your mission — Content marketing isn’t just about putting out information. It’s about solving a problem and making it easy for people to understand the expert advice you have to share. People will come to trust and remember your business’s name if your content’s goal is to truly be helpful.
2. Understand your audience — Just as you learn the characteristics of your avatar in gaming, marketing professionals should develop buyer personas to help them generate profiles about potential customers. Armed with such details, you can build more relevant content, which in turn leads to more customer/client engagement.
3. Build-in the right keywords — Your website was built to include certain keywords, right? It’s the same with your content marketing pieces. They need to include appropriate words to catch the attention of both your prospects and the search engines. Be sure to use words that really resonant with your readers and maintain the point you are making without sounding contrived just to include certain keywords.
4. Use great marketing analytics — This is where the fun begins. Today’s analytic tools (like Google Analytics and PURLs) really allow you to refine your marketing efforts. Once you study your analytics to see how to best attract the right audience, you can really hold their attention and keep moving your marketing plan forward.

And just like Super Mario Bros., to get yourself to the next level, you may fall into a few pits, but you’ll also collect gold coins along the way! (Can you hear the classic Super Mario Bros. theme song in your head already?!) As you get better and better, you’ll see your SEO ranking improve, more leads being generated, and your sales start climbing.

Up, up, down. Left, right, left. B, A, Start. Need a secret move to help you make it through the first few levels of your marketing game plan? Here’s a hint: Get a content marketing strategy in place. Learn why in 5 Reasons Your Business Needs Content Marketing.

Don't forget, make it "Select, Start" at the end for two players.
 
PS: Take a trip down memory lane with this theme song.