Susan Gunelius has created a great list of tenets for content marketing that are easy to understand and follow.
1. Be Accessible
Don’t publish content and then disappear. Abandoned content won’t deliver the results you want and need.
2. Be Human
Leave corporate rhetoric and hard sales pitches out of your content marketing efforts.
3. Be Social
Content marketing isn’t a one-way street. All three primary forms of content marketing, long-form, short-form and conversational, allow you to engage with your audience in two-way discussions. Use those discussions to build relationships and enhance your social media marketing efforts.
4. Be Unique
Find your niche and focus on building a reputation as the go-to-person in that niche through your content.
5. Be Persistent
Content marketing success happens when you continually publish fresh content.
6. Be Patient
Content marketing takes time. You have to plan to commit to the long-term.
7. Be Useful
Your content must add value to your target audiences lives and must be meaningful to them.
8. Be Attentive
Listen to the online conversation and learn what your target audience wants and needs from you. Then give that type of content to them.
9. Be Confident
If you’re not confident in your content, then no one else will trust it.
10. Be Present
Don’t hide all of your great content on your own website. Publish your content on various sites, including your blog, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and so on, and let it spread across the web to boost your brand exposure and reach new audiences.
