How to Make Even More Money from the Content Marketing Trend
By Jen Phillips April

TV and movie star Jennifer Aniston only had to post one piece of content and she broke the internet.

Instagram, to be specific. It literally shut down from the volume of traffic she’d generated.

She became the first Instagram account to reach one million followers in just 5 hours and 16 minutes — a Guinness World Record.

The content? The first new photo of all six main cast members from Friends to be published since 2004. The selfie post tagline was: “And now we’re Instagram FRIENDS too. HI INSTAGRAM.”

It had 13 million Likes in less than 48 hours.

If only every piece of content could generate that much attention!

Instead, businesses need to create a lot more content than that to make an impression …

Content Marketing Is a Huge Trend Now

Just a decade ago, having ANY content could catapult a business to the top of the search engines. Companies who had a modern website, used email marketing, and had a social media presence were cutting-edge.

Now, those are expected and the internet is a crowded place.

And if you want to be successful online, then you need content — and a lot of it.

A report by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs shows that 88% of B2B companies are using content marketing today — and they need a lot of help keeping up with the demand.

They need to publish a variety of content to inform, generate interest, build trust, “presell” prospective customers, and move sales forward.

Here are some of today’s dominant content types, as well as the fees content writers can earn for these short copy projects:

Articles — $150 to $800

Blog posts — $200 to $500

Case Studies — $1,250 to $2,000

White Papers — $2,000 to $7,500

E-newsletters — $900-$2,000 a month

Special Reports — $1,500 to $5,000

Video Scripts — $100+ per minute for how-to video scripts

Social Media — $2,000 for a monthly retainer

Infographics — $100 to $750 (text only)

Since businesses often need a mix of content types for each product and for each target audience, a content writer can be very busy, even just from one client.

Leading the Prospect on a Journey

Now, while many businesses recognize the need for a high volume of engaging and shareable content, many of them struggle to connect the content to incoming revenue.

That’s where a good Content Marketing Strategy comes into play. For instance, you’re not just writing a blog post for the fun of it. You’re writing the blog post to answer prospect questions and help them take the next step in the buying process.

A strategy implies there’s a bigger picture in mind.

According to Copyblogger, “A content marketing strategy is a plan for building an audience by publishing, maintaining, and spreading frequent and consistent content that educates, entertains, or inspires to turn strangers into fans and fans into customers.”

A strategy addresses the question, “What does the prospective customer need to hear next?” and sets up a series of content pieces that will lead the prospective customer toward a purchase or specific action. For example:

• Perhaps the prospect became interested in the company’s product or service by reading an article …
• Then they went to the website and signed up to receive the free e-newsletter …
• While they were on site, they read a few blog posts …
• Interested, they clicked on a link to check out a case study …
• Further intrigued, they downloaded a White Paper …
• Next, they started receiving emails that included links to a special report and informative videos …
• Then, they got an email offering the opportunity for a product demonstration or a discount to make a purchase …

Each different piece of content in each step is so critical, taking the prospective client by the hand and leading them on a journey closer and closer to the sale.

This is especially important in Business-to-Business (B2B), where the sales cycle can take a long time and require input from multiple departments.

And businesses that have a documented content marketing strategy report higher levels of overall content marketing success compared with those that have a verbal strategy only, or no strategy at all, according to the B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends Report by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.

The report also showed that only 37% of the organizations who responded to the survey had a documented content marketing strategy — meaning the majority would benefit from having a plan to make sure their content leads to revenue!

And that spells big opportunity for you, if you can help them create that strategy.

What is the Role of a Content Marketing Strategist?

As a Content Marketing Strategist, you’re thinking about your prospective customer, coming up with ideas for content based on questions they might ask, and determining what content will help them take the next step toward a purchase.

You’re planning those steps on their journey. Combined, the pieces of content should create a full picture of the product, like a putting together a puzzle.

When you’re creating the strategy, you’ve got the opportunity to make even bigger money because you’re not just a writer, you’re a Consultant.

A Content Marketing Strategist can make $5,000 per month on retainer from each client. Do that 12 months for one client, and you’re already at $60,000 per year. Two clients, and you’re into six-figures.

Content Marketing is now a $300 billion industry and growing rapidly. There’s a lot of money to be made as a content writer — and there’s even more available when you become a strategist who helps businesses create a cohesive plan that generates revenue from the content they’re producing.

With the proper training, you could be cashing in on this growing opportunity, and having a lot of fun at the same time!

Do you have any questions about getting started in content marketing? Share with us in the comments so we can guide you.