With more than 2.8 billion users, China is still leading the way in content marketing. Recently, the Shanghai-based Times Group infamously hired a 70-year-old journalist to write about a smartphone maker. This commentary was praised and widely viewed, driving more interest to their blog and boosting sales.

Yet there are some simple strategies you can implement to leverage your content writing skills for marketing purposes. It’s the key to increasing sales on every post, incorporating creative and visual elements that open eyeballs.

Today, technology is revolutionizing the way bloggers and digital marketers think. According to HubSpot, between 90 and 95 percent of senior marketers now use content marketing platforms to publish and publish quickly.

This requires you to build a strong brand reputation, putting your content directly within the scope of your sales efforts. Here are seven quick strategies to strengthen your content marketing content.

1. Use the Momentum and Patterns of History

A headline is important. But a blog post that reads like an afterthought can sap precious attention. There’s no shortage of great headlines, but getting attention is a series of steps that you need to play smart.

Before you start putting together your posts, you should evaluate your social media audience. Who does your audience overlap with? What trends do they follow? Find the keywords they are searching for, and copy that story. You might even write the article yourself to stretch the resources you do have.

Just be careful about picking a story that doesn’t grab readers’ attention immediately. Clickbait headlines feel forced and unnatural. This is because you should think of your post like a news story — research first, and connect the piece to an established industry trend.

2. Don’t Be Afraid to Refine Your Storyline

We’ve reached a point where bloggers have a traditional idea of content development. Say you’re a master gardener. You can come up with a series of weekly posts to sell your new product. For that article, you want your reader to learn about all the steps you took to grow perfect tomatoes, followed by an update to your existing line of products.

However, you have to be careful how you frame that article. For instance, instead of writing, “Hit tomatoes are in season.” Instead, you should put that information in the sentence box, and embed it in a larger headline with “Proven in 55 seconds.” You can make this easier by linking to the same material.

4. Create a Plot for Your Article

If you start a blog post by showing pictures of berries or samples of tomatoes that you got for free, readers get bored fast. They need to find something else to consume. To entice them, you need to include a plot.

Spend some time writing a story arc that could help your readers. Share statistics around customer lives, but also have some fun at the same time. Consider an infographics or two to convey the big picture or connect your posts to trends.

5. Try Link Building

Some of the best content marketing articles link to other people’s content as well. They also help readers make up their own minds about the story, offering a streamlined experience and offering a gateway for them to learn about something new.

Every time you create a post, try to serve a link to three potential sources. By doing this, you open the door for a potential sale.

6. Don’t Over-Overdose On Marketing

You need to come up with interesting content. Otherwise, what’s the point? On the flip side, be careful not to overpromise in your headline or opening. For instance, “10 free-form moves to better manage your finances” looks too one-sided for a marketing post.

Another mistake is to write five different topics or prompts. Too many blog posts can make your blog feel like a one-stop marketing site, with little ability to increase sales on a post-by-post basis.

7. Don’t Use Your Content For Free

You need to cover your own costs, including paying bloggers to write your posts. They will be asked to contribute certain numbers of posts over a year, and paid whenever they reach a milestone like reaching 100,000 or more page views. You can distribute them to other platforms, such as social media.

Nobody benefits more from content marketing than a blogger. Create something compelling, and your posts will boost searches. Curate a consistent stream of fresh posts, and you’ll make it hard for your competition to overtake you.