As content marketing continues to grow as a practice, many people are entering the field, eager to learn best practices and tips.

Let’s say you meet someone who is new to content marketing. It’s their first day on the job and they are overwhelmed by all the information being thrown their way. Point-blank, they ask you:

“In just one sentence, what is your best content marketing advice?”

How would you respond?

We recently polled our LinkedIn group, The Content Marketing Forum, to ask them this exact question and were overwhelmed by the number of quality responses we received from marketers around the world.

Most of these responses fell into one of four categories: strategy, creation, audience and analytics. Take a look at the infographic below for some of our favorite answers paired with fresh content marketing statistics. Then, scroll down to view the rest of the advice and let us know your piece of advice in the comments below!

Start with a Sound Strategy.

• “No matter whether you just want to publish one blog post a month or you have your sights set on creating, repurposing and curating content across multiple channels, to have a hope of success you need to put your strategy in writing.”

–Aaron Wrixon, Web Content Writer and Copyblogger

• “Plan a strategy & schedule and don’t stop – even when things get rough & your time is limited.”

-Stephanie Frieze, dribdrap

• “‘Make it simple, but significant.’ – Don Draper”
  

-John N. Moneypenny, Social Media Marketing Consultant

• “Strategy is key. Every business, no matter what size, can deliver content marketing successfully and get results. It’s all about devising a strategy that is practical.”

–Lauren Grice, Content Strategist, Bespoke

• “Create a strategy, stick to it, measure it, revise it.”

–Dale Nottingham, Group Publisher, Ink

• “Invest just as much time (if not more) distributing your content than you invest in creating it. There’s no use for great content that nobody sees.”

–Yael Kochman, Marketing Manager, Roojoom

• “Own the conversation!”

–Steven Grindlay, Co-Founder, The Content Strategy Alliance

• “Look for way to repurpose, repackage, and recycle your existing content.”

–Allyson Fralish, Lead Marketing Communications Manager, AT&T

• “Creating thought leadership visibility.”

-Gerry Knall, Content Marketing Consultant, Backbone

• “Lesson #1 is: Ask sales what the questions they always have to answer, get their answers, write them down.”

–Michelle Tackabery, Senior Marketing Writer, Progress Software

• “Really understand your value proposition and craft your content around that.”

–Andrew Walker, Digital Marketing Consultant, Rame Marketing

• “Consider strategy- don’t do anything unless it’s meaningful.”

–Angela J. Rimmer, Strategic Marketing Consultant, Angela Consulting

• “Focus on 1 topic!”

–Klaas Joosten, Founder, CEO, ZEEF.com

• “Answer the universal question your client is already thinking–“Why are you different from the last 25 guys I sat down with who sell your product?”

–Justin Bentley, National Sales Director, Telecom National

• “I’ve had remarkable success by posting other people’s (competitor’s) work: seems to make YOU the one to follow. Also, ask questions where possible.”

-Nick Ross, CEO, Founder, Nanotransactions 

• “Add value!”

–Alexis R. Small, Physician Recruiter/Program Manager, Liberty Healthcare Corporation

• “Make sure you have a really enthusiastic, dedicated owner of your internal content strategy. It’s got to be led!”

–Liz Hatherley, Content Strategist & Creator, Freelance Content Strategist

• “Make sure you stand out. ((Easier said than done))”

–Kerstin Purucker, Editor, Publicis

• “Share your knowledge, networks and compassion for helping others without asking for anything in return and see what happens.”

–Brian McFarlane, Co-Founder, Online Web Strategist, Leadsmiths.com

• “Find the courage to be genuine and without the pretense of high gloss – people connect with people more easily than messaging.”

–Michael Ward, CEO, Net-Results

• “Stop creating more content – create better content.”

–Sean Hagan, Digital Marketing Manager, Yesler

• “Post consistently and spend as much time promoting as you do writing.”

–Chris Brantley, Owner, 3C Content

• “Don’t forget video and make sure you produce excellent video content with someone who knows what they are doing.”

–Richelle Gillett, Owner, Giant Squid Inc.

• “Plan, write and amplify extraordinary content that tells your target audience exactly what they need to know – but never thought they would.”

–Gina Balarin, Marketing Director, OmPrompt

• “Be genuine, assess whether you’re “qualified” (for want of a better word) to write content for the space you intend to occupy.”

–Marios Morris, Digital Content Producer, NSPCC

Create content that adds value.

• “Complete my brand content with quality and relevant curated content.”

-Stéphane LE BRETON, Founder, SLB Consulting France

• “Be consistent, not overloaded. Be informative, not sales oriented. Give people what they want to hear, not what you are offering.”

–Farhan Saeed, Certified Content Writer, Writerz Galore

• “Very simple – write content which is useful and valuable to your readers and customers.”

–Kevin Wells, Freelance IT Consultant

• “To excel in content creation, you must develop strong writing skills. Be Writing. Write. And, read, A lot! The more you do. The better you become!”

–Jo Gibbons, Lead Channel Manager, AT&T

• “Invest in visuals and carefully study the whole array of great ideas and content themes that communicating around imagery is offering. People love looking at great images/videos, it gets them is the right mood for your texts. And nowadays it is not even expensive, contrary to the general market belief.”

–Olga Abramescu, Content Sales Manager, Guliver Romania

• “Make sure the information is accurate.”

–Giselle Mazurat, Technical Writing Expert, 3C Technical Writing Incorporated

• “Give useful information, not just promote yourself.”

–Göksan KADAYIFCI, Digital Marketing & Product Consultant, Marma Content

• “Be genuine and personable when you write content. Nothing worse than dry ad copy.”

–Denise Grier, Digital Marketing Manager, Storm Roofing Jobs

• “Write short sentences.”

–Alex Holderness, Content Marketing Director, Salient group

• “Write like a reporter, think like a customer, and always remember you are providing information and not promotion.”

-Howard Sholkin, Instructor, Lasell College

• “Skilled brand storytellers know that successful content marketing requires exceptional, original storytelling, but also demands stories be produced regularly to engage a marketplace with a short attention span.”

–Andrew C. Wheeler, Vice President, Strategic Services, Skywook Inc.

• “Create content that you would be curious to read.”

–Eirini Pan, Marketing Manager, Outbrain

• “Write original content, have it reviewed by a competent editor, and when you publish make sure that your meta tags, links and visual elements are formatted correctly.”

–Nathan Munn, Web Content Specialist, Mediagrif Interacive Technologies Inc.

• “Don’t use pretentious phrases or glossy sentences to prove you have a flair for writing (unless your target audience wants this, of course.)”

–Toni Becker, Head of Content, 100 Degrees

• “Design content for multiple purposes, audiences, personas, buying stages, industry verticals, channels and formats, as configurable modules.”

–Jim Burns, President, Avitage

• “Always write for humans, not bots.”

-Michael LaRocca, Proofreader | Editor, MichaelEdits.com

• “When producing content you are asking people to spend their time, ensure you either engage, entertain or educate (or all three!) so that they get value for that time.”

-Tom O’Neill, Marketing & Sales Executive, Smart Traffic Ltd.

• “Your post should be at least 80 percent information and no more than 20 percent sales.”

-Alan Edwards, Freelance Writer

• “Schedule consistent updates with the latest, relevant messages.”

-Julia Powell, Content Manager, Creative Services, Visual Design at Mood Media

Understand Your Audience

• “Take the time to think about and maybe research what your audience is interested in consuming.”

–Meeta Malhotra, Director, Ray & Keshavan | Brand Union

• “Creating thought leadership visibility.”

–Gerry Knall, Content Marketing Consultant, Backbone

• “Be the audience.”

–Igor Masnjak, Business Development Manager, UEFA Marketing

• “Create stories for your Business that your target market wants to hear.”

–Mia Alarin, Finance & HR Director, Transeo

• “Engage your target audience. Don’t tell your target audience what your solution does, they don’t care. Find out the problems faced by them and tell them how your solution/product helps in solving them.”

–Purnima Rajta, Assistant Marketing Manager, Indusface

•  “Listen obsessively to your audience.”

–Mike Barzacchini, Director of Marketing Services, Harper College

• “Provide interesting and useful information to your target audience.”

–James Tanner, Owner, TannerNet Technologies

• “Personalize content per viewers!”

–David Nelson, Business Development Representative, Triblio Inc.

• “Know your audience, find your influenced, build engagement by empowering them.”

–(Mark) Dirk Lightheart, Desktop Publisher, Dirk Lightheart Creative

• “Become the audience you are trying to market to, then create content!”

–Malek DeLane, CEO, KK3000 Productions LLC

• “Find a way to solve your customer’s problems without directly promoting your products or services.”

–Dan Kassis, Multichannel Marketing Coordinator, LKQ Corporation

• “Unselfishly package and contribute your expertise in ways that help people be successful at their jobs.”

–Janet Fitzpatrick-Wilks, President and Chief Content Strategist, Honeycomb-co LLC

• “What Janet said. Be generous.”

–Alan Ibbotson, President/Founder, The Trampoline Group

• “Focus content around key terms that your consumers are looking for online (for more evergreen content).”

–Jeremy K. Pantelakis, Digital Marketer, Roslund Supply Co.

• “Identify and define your core audience personas, which must align with your marketing goals and create a calendar of content ideas that address those personas’ pain points – what are their problems and why should they come to you to solve them? – then analyze the return (in terms of audience conversions on your calls to action) on all possible channels you occupy, to see what works and where you should focus your efforts.”

-Jonathan Bright, Creative Content Lead, Southerly

• “Before you do anything— Ask your customers what types of information they needed that you didn’t have during their purchasing process that would’ve make their life a ton easier. Then build a creation & distribution plan — before you write or record a single word.”

–Mark Evertz, Director of Demand Generation & Content Strategy, Televerde

• “Address your writings to a target audience who share your passion/interest. (Create the audience first)”

-Susan Sharma, Owner, IndianWildlifeClub.com

• “Educate & entertain your audience, then make sure the message is cohesive amongst the different channels being used.”

-Sam Morton, Account Director, M2 Bespoke

• “Be honest and upfront but open to impossibilities and new opportunities.”

-Brian Fanslau

• “Create content for your audience ‘people generally like content that satisfies their needs or solves their problems.'”

– Lisa Knight, Digital Content Specialist

Measure everything.

• “Measure the performance of your content and adjust your strategy based on the results you’re seeing.”

–Shaun Pinney, Director of Inbound Marketing, Backupify

• “Remember that if you are are doing content marketing already, you must review your data, your goals, and be open to make certain “tweaks” on the way, maintain your “beta” state Open.”

–Alejandra Azurdia, Content Marketing Strategist, Inbox Company

• “Spend as much time in analytics as you do in Word.”

–Mary Montserrat-Howlett, Content Marketing Manager, Radialpoint

• “Figure out what works and do more of it — usually great content works best.”

–Sarah Scalet, Americas Writing Lead, EY

• “Focus on quality rather than quantity as explained here http://bit.ly/1u48ItQ”

–Brian Corrigan, Content Director, Magnetic Content

• “In one sentence – have a plan, one that is measurable, scalable and traceable back to higher level goals and objectives.”

–Deidre Hudson, Demand Generation Manager, Saas company

…And don’t forget about humor.

• “Help this person!”

–Kim Mathedal Hansen, Content Marketing, Zigns

• “Tell the truth. Nothing but the whole truth. Sir help you God.”

–Giselle Mazurat, Technical Writing Expert, 3C Technical Writing Incorporated

• “How about one word… great photography. Sorry, that was 2 words :-)”

–Dan Morgan, Owner, Founder, Straight Shooter

• “Buy the domain ContentMarketing.co.uk”

–James Tuplin, Owner, UnlockDomains

To continue to conversation around content marketing best practices, please join your peers in our LinkedIn Group The Content Marketing Forum. If you’re looking for more than just one sentence of content marketing guidance, download our free eBook, How to Feed the Content Beast.