Businesses turn to content marketing so that they can be seen as influencers within their field. Businesses that consistently post high quality, accurate, and valuable content are viewed as an authority within the field. It’s not enough to start a company blog and publish a few articles. The following tips can help your business to establish authority within its industry through content marketing.

Define your niche and stick to it

At least at first, don’t worry about becoming an authority in your field in general. Being a top influencer in a field generally will most likely take several years at first. Instead, choose a smaller niche within your field that isn’t already occupied by a competitor. Try to find a gap in your field where people aren’t saying enough about a particular subject area. Stick to your niche. This is the quickest route to being seen as an authority on a subject.

Find ways to differentiate your brand from the competition

No matter how specific your niche, chances are there are still others writing about the same subject matter as you so you’ll have to find other ways to stand out. To do this, it helps to study the other content creators in your chosen niche. Use a search engine and type in some keywords that you’re targeting in your own content. Look at the first few search results; these are the major players in your niche. Pay attention to what kinds of content they’re creating and pay attention to how much engagement they’re getting with their various content. Look for weaknesses in their content strategy and try to do better yourself.

Give it time

Content marketing is a delayed gratification form of marketing. You aren’t going to see immediate boosts in sales the day after launching your company blog. Putting together a successful content marketing campaign takes months and even years of consistently good content creation.

Promote your content

It isn’t enough to just publish great content, you have to get it out there where your target audience will see it. If you’ve done your keyword research and you’re paying to promote your content on search engines, you’ll be discovered by people who are looking for the kind of information you’re publishing. But you can also get some free advertising in the form of social media shares. Use your social media platforms to share new content with followers. SMS is also a good tool for spreading your content since those who’ve opted in are likely to be your most loyal customers already.

Diversify the content you’re creating

A company blog is usually at the heart of any content strategy but you don’t have to stop there. Weekly podcasts, a YouTube channel where you can upload tutorials or product unveilings, self-published ebooks, and of course, various social media platforms are all ways to diversify your content. The more channels you’re using, the more people are going to discover your brand.