Creating great content provides your audience with relevant and interesting information that influences their behaviour.
Great content is now, and will always be king. It is intrinsically linked to your search engine ranking and how credible Google (and other search engines) think you are.
Creating great content will not only help improve your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO), but it will also enable you to give something of value to your prospective and current customers which in turn will boost lead generation and sales!
But where do we start with content marketing?
A question a lot of business owners and managers ask. But it really isn’t as intimidating as it sounds.
1. Create a content plan.
Grab a cuppa and sit down for 10 minutes and start to write down all the key topics you could create content on that will resonate with your target audience. Answer questions that your readers are looking for. Use Google to find out what is being searched for, the easiest is to just start typing a phrase into the search box and see what suggestions are offered. These are terms that people are already searching for so a great place to start. From there you can start to add bullet points to each topic that will lead to different content provisions.
2. Think about relevancy in terms of your calendar – are there particular times when certain topics are more relevant to your customers and target audience?
Make sure you are providing the right content at the right time. For instance; an article on ‘When to prune your roses’ would not get any traction in July compared to if your shared it in February/March time.
Keep adding to your content bank and you will soon have a strong collection of content that you can use so you don’t waste time about thinking what to write each week.
3. What types of content do you have? Be where your audience is!
Content can include a huge variety of tools and mediums such as:
- social media
- blogs
- vlogs
- newsletters
- guides
- case studies
- videos
- PR
- white papers
- magazines
- e-books
- infographics
- podcasts
- news articles
- industry
- data
- tutorials
- demos
- FAQs
- testimonials
- webinars
- checklists
- reviews
- apps
- microsites
- the list is almost endless!
If your copy is informative and solves the problems of your target audience they are more likely to read, watch or listen to the end of the piece. All content needs a good, strong headline and a compelling reason for the user to read on broken up by easy to read subheadings. 80% of your audience will not read your entire article but if you include good headings the reader will be able to pick out what they need.
The same goes for video, up to 85% of people watch a video with the volume off so be sure to add narrative across the top of the visual.
4. Be original
Google has made it very clear that duplicate content is the road to nowhere. By being original not only are you showing your target audience you are a thought leader and providing a great user experience on your website, but also that you are a credible source of information for Google, for which you will be handsomely rewarded.
So now you can get cracking on your content marketing and start using it as a lead generation tool.
Find out more about how you can make your business thrive…
[WPSM_SERVICEBOX id=1091]