How we consume information has changed. Quickly need an answer to a burning question? We grab our phones or tablets to consult Google. Making a first-time purchase? We seek out online experts or trustworthy peer reviews for their recommendations. With such a huge amount of online content out there it’s easier than ever to find exactly the answers we need. With a content marketing strategy, your business can give your specific audience what they’re looking for.
What Exactly is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is providing valuable and relevant information to your target audience. Over time, you build trust and loyalty with this audience and ultimately, convert them into a customer or client. These days the “hard-sell” is out – customers now much prefer to learn about a product or service organically or on their own terms rather than through a pushy promotion. Building an authentic relationship with a customer through valued content is a sustainable way to keep them returning to you for all that you offer. Content marketing is also a proven way to gain traction in the world of Google algorithms and higher rankings in search results.
How Content Marketing Can Help Your Business
Writing or producing valuable content will position you as a thought leader in your industry and builds trust and credibility with your specific target audience. When researching a potential product or service purchase, people seek out an expert for their recommendations. Publishing content that showcases your knowledge and experience demonstrates your expertise on the topic. It also indicates that you genuinely want to help your prospect solve their problem by giving free expertise through your content, rather than only making a sale. This builds a trustworthy relationship that will strengthen over time and ultimately lead the prospect to seek you out when they do want to make a purchase.
Quality content on your website has become a key way to rank higher in search engine results. As Google algorithms continuously change, a steadfast way to increase your ranking is by making sure the content on your site is relevant, useful, and easy to read for the folks who are searching for that specific topic. Gone are the days of using a specific keyword over and over on your site (“keyword stuffing”) in hopes that Google will think you’re the best option out there. Your content should be written in a natural way, directed to the reader, with your keywords integrated throughout.
Tips for How to Get Started:
- Define the objectives for your content marketing strategy. Think about your reasoning for creating marketing content. What is your end goal? If it is to drive sales, you should measure the results through sales. Choose metrics based on your business objectives.
- It’s all about your target audience! Be sure you’re writing content that is geared towards a very specific audience. The information needs to be relevant and useful to them, aiming to solve a problem they have. If your audience doesn’t want to read your content, your strategy is not going to work and you won’t see the results you’re looking for. If you have multiple audiences or people who are at different stages of a conversion, consider segmenting these audiences and providing specific content that is most relevant to them at their stage.
This also goes for the ways in which you distribute the content – make sure you are promoting your content in online spaces where your target audience is seeking it out. Otherwise, they will likely not see your work. - Create a calendar for consistent publishing. Make a goal to publish new content on a regular basis and stick to it. In order for your work to build over time, you need to become consistent with fresh, new articles (or podcasts, infographics, etc.). This will strengthen your credibility and recognition with your audience. It will also create a breadth of topic options for users to stay on your site and take a look at others that are valuable to them.
- Start creating content! Once you have your target audience characteristics and publishing schedule squared away, it’s time to produce! Ensure your content has a consistent voice, is easy to read and meets length and keyword recommendations for ideal search engine optimization efforts.
- Monitor and adjust. After distributing and promoting your content (through your blog, social media channels, email marketing, partnerships, etc.), watch impressions and click-through rates to see which topics receive the most engagement. This is an indicator of what your audience is really interested in from you – and you can adjust your content plan based on these findings. Improvements can be made over time.
Content done the right way will help you build trust and authentic relationships with your target audience. Follow these steps to get started with a content marketing strategy for your business.
Need more tips on how to begin? Greenleaf Media is here to help! Contact us today for more information.