Some advice I was given just before one of my first exhibition meetings was to pretend I was wearing a T-shirt that did not say ‘what can I sell to you?’ but ‘how can I help you?’

Content marketing is a means of communicating with your customers and prospects without attempting to sell to them. It is based on the belief that if you continually help your customers and potential prospects with useful, valuable information, they will begin to trust you and see you as an expert in your niche and ultimately reward you with their attention, loyalty and business.

Advertising and other sales materials are often examples of what is known as interruption marketing. It interrupts what your prospect is already doing. This may be reading a paper, scanning a website page, or watching TV. Content marketing is different. Get the quality right and your consumers will look forward to receiving your content and once they receive it they should enjoy reading it or at least gain benefit from it.

Don’t be creating content just because someone told you your blog needed a new post every couple of days, or to release a new video every week. Before you start creating content ask yourself the following questions.

1) Will the content help support your reason for being in business? For example, if your business is based on a specific way of building websites does your content help promote the use of websites built this way? If you want to help people build a profitable online presence, will your content help them on their journey to that target?

2) Will it be useful to your target audience? What will your audience be able to do once they have consumed your content? There are many different ways content can be useful. It can help educate your customers and prospects on how to address their greatest challenges, or deliver thought-provoking insights, or even help them keep the sort of positive mindset that will enable them to persist and overcome their challenges. Whatever your content is addressing check that your target audience will find it useful.

3) Does your content have a goal? It may be to help establish your authority, raise brand awareness, build an email list, convert browsers to buyers, or retain customers you already have. You know you should check the spelling and grammar used in your content, but how often do you check that it is supporting your goals?

Take the time to get clear answers to these questions and you can produce good quality, helpful, planned content that can gain the attention of your audience and help you achieve specific business goals.