Content marketing is all the craze right now. Business owners, marketers and freelancers are jumping on board, to write content for websites and blogs, because there are so many benefits to doing so.
Benefits of content marketing:
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More visitors to your websites from search engines
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Visitors spending more time on your website
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People sharing your site on Facebook and Twitter
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Getting more sales and subscribers
The thought is; when more content is available, people have the information they need to make a purchase. This strategy works well for many companies, of all sizes, and it gives hope to others trying to get more results from their website.
This is also a good strategy because when search engines see that you are adding more content to your website they will visit more often, and that can increase the chances you have of getting more traffic.
BUT!! There is a lot to content marketing you truly must understand in order to make it effective. A company cannot simply jump into writing content and hope for the best.
In all marketing endeavors, planning, strategy and tracking are going to seriously impact what content to produce. Today's post is about 8 tips we've discovered over the past several years of providing content marketing services.
Let's get started:
Know your visitor, lead, customer and influencer- All of these are different people, they will be looking for something on your website or blog, and should you provide what they are looking for, you will see better results.
Use various forms of content depending on what your industry responds to- Blog posts, articles, social media updates, webinars, videos, podcasts, slideshares, emails, ebooks, guides, and whitepapers.
Plan your content ahead of time- Using a calendar makes it easier to plan your posts, and any supporting pieces for them. For instance a blog post that needs a video to explain a how-to, or a webinar that needs a presentation. This also helps you plan what to share on social media before and after each piece is published.
Optimize your content for your topic, not just your keyword- Make sure to use several key phrases through your content that indicate your topic.
People have primarily focused on a single keyword, but this technique can be risky and may cause problems with search engine penalties and algorithms. It's a better idea to provide content that flows well for the reader than content that sticks to optimization tips that may stop working over time.
Each piece of content should have a purpose- That purpose should not primarily be to get leads or sales. A piece might educate about a topic, it might explain how to do something you are an expert at, it might entertain followers, or it might be a piece that is used to gain more exposure (often called linkbait).
Use stories- People love stories. They like to hear about the problems others are having, and how they overcame those problems, to succeed. Companies can share stories from their clients (with permission), or colleagues.
People also want to the hear the story of the company, and companies can share this through much of their content by consistently sharing who they are as a brand, and as individuals.
Deliver quality content that provides value- Many companies are running out and starting their blogs and when they do they want to post as often as possible. While it's great to post frequently, every blog post must provide value. This means, a company should not post a piece just to have content.
Each piece needs to serve a purpose, educate the visitor and help them make an informed purchasing decision. Writing and rewriting the same information over and over does not give visitors a reason to come back and read, nor does it make a company an authority resource.
Invest in your content- To provide readers with content of any format costs money or time. A company can choose to hire someone at $10 an hour, or $10 a blog post, but in reality, they won't see the results they need to make their website profitable.
Each piece of content needs to portray authority or expertise. Can someone who is paid $10 a post really provide that quality? If not, pay more for a professional.
Content marketing takes a great deal of time and expertise, but yields amazing results to those who can handle the investment and have patience to wait for results.
We help companies like yours perfect their content marketing efforts with a plan that follows all of these tips and more. Call us today to get more information about how your plan can start showing results, we look forward to speaking with you.
photo credit: gwilmore () via photopin cc
