Content marketing is one of the most beneficial long term marketing strategies that a business can adopt. Well-constructed and targeted content builds trust in your brand and can safeguard you from cheap knock off competitors outranking you with black hat SEO techniques!
Consistent, engaging, well-orchestrated content has the capacity to impact the audience’s decision making, more than any other technique.
It’s like having a blank piece of paper, you get to write the story, you know your audience, so create a page turner!
Starting with your values and mission statement. Tell a story about you, what bought you here, what you are trying to achieve, why are these values important to you. Not just what you are trying to sell.
Consumers these days are looking for more than just a quick buy. They prefer an emotional connection. If your content only revolves around making a sale, you need to build more depth and personality to your campaigns.
The strategic use of content enables you to interact with customers. Take them on a journey, tap into their emotions, demonstrate why a consumer should choose you (without a hard sell), answer questions and really build a brand that people want to be associated with. Give them something your competitors aren’t. Be unique above all, be genuine and you will generate trust.
This trust will generate more leads which will inevitably convert to more sales.
Increased exposure in targeted avenues, based on your desired demographic, will result in more opportunities for calls-to-action.
Strategies we use include targeted social media campaigns, researched keyword blog content, industry specific interviews, case studies and community events. The possibilities are endless. The more high-quality consistent content you produce, the more visible your site will become via SEO.
It’s not about the amount of content you churn out. You need to be strategic and implement SMART to all campaigns.
Specific – Who are you writing it for? What is the purpose? where is it going?
Measurable – There needs to be numerical value to establish success. Four metrics we use to measure the success of content marketing strategies are: audience acquisition, social engagement, inbound links and conversions or assisted conversions.
Attainable – Is your target realistic?
Relevant – Can this content have a positive impact. (If not, don’t bother)
Time – Always establish a deadline.
It can sound complicated and time consuming, whilst there is a science to it, there are an abundance of tools you can use; Buzzsumo can tell you what topics are trending in your industry, SEMrush will give you an insight into what keywords your competitors are ranking, Ahrefs allows you to monitor competitors whilst also keeping an eye on your own progress and Majestic.com can measure inbound links.
You can use a myriad of tools to give you a better understanding of what to write and why.
So many marketeers and business owners don’t value content marketing enough, but that is purely because they are writing on whim rather than implementing a strategy.
