Have you ever wondered what the driving force behind successful online businesses is? It is not SEO or social media, but it is Content Marketing.
Content marketing, when done correctly, can change the fade of any website.
Follow our 15 content marketing tips below and increase your ranking and traffic.
What Is The Content?
In the context of content marketing, content is everything that can be published on the web. For example, text, videos, images, infographics, graphics, audio, pdf, podcasts, slide shows, etc.
It’s information that can be made available in digital format.
What Is Content Marketing?
There are many sophisticated definitions of content marketing, but my own simplified version is:
Content marketing is the process of creating content with the goal of increasing web traffic, gaining new customers, making more sales, or simply increasing brand awareness.
Take a moment and think about what the Internet really offers people: there are various types of content through different channels (websites, social networks, email, applications, forums, etc.).
Content marketing makes this type of communication more official. In other words, instead of simply posting content to the web for no purpose, you create and distribute content to meet specific marketing objectives.
Why Is Content Marketing Important?
Content marketing is important because it attracts the right people to the website, turns them into potential leads, then into customers, and finally into brand promoters. Thus, it helps to increase brand awareness, increase sales by driving traffic to the website and build trust among the public.
What Are The Advantages Of Content Marketing?
Content marketing has many advantages to offer to an online business since the content is the starting and ending point of any online campaign.
In particular, the benefits of content marketing are:
- Get more targeted visits from search engines – good content can get higher rankings and more targeted traffic from search engines
- More visits from social networks: good content is more likely to be shared on social networks, which in turn can generate more traffic on the site
- Increase user engagement: User interacts with good content, providing feedback, criticism, and ratings.
- It’s good for SEO: Good quality content is at the heart of SEO. Sites that combine good content with proven copywriting tips are better than sites that don’t have good content.
- Increase brand awareness: Posting great content is one of the best ways to promote your brand and reputation online.
- More conversions: Good content can drive more leads and sales.
What Is Content Marketing Strategy?
1. Create A Content Marketing Plan
A successful content marketing campaign begins with a good plan.
When we talk about content marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is blogging.
This isn’t bad, but with a content marketing strategy, it’s not just about creating a blog and starting to publish content.
Blogs are an important aspect of content marketing, but that’s not the end of the story. It is just one of the means to execute your content marketing plan.
2. Publish Evergreen Content
The first element of your plan is the type of content to be published.
For long-term success, you need evergreen content.
The evergreen content has the following characteristics:
- It is unique and original
- It is useful
- It is always relevant (it is not associated with a specific period, but it is relevant as long as you read it)
- It is complete, detailed and informative.
- Searchable: covers topics users search on Google
Evergreen content helps establish a strong online presence, and overtime also helps boost rankings on Google, which in turn generates more traffic.
3. Write For Users, Optimize For Search Engines
I know it’s a cliché to say it, but it’s the truth. When thinking about content, you must write for users and optimize for search engines.
I know that several people disagree with this approach, but let me explain why both are equally important.
Search engines have a purpose, to make users happy by answering their questions or queries.
If you only care about what people want to read regardless of what search engines can understand, at the end of the day you will post great content that no one will read.
On the other hand, if you think first about the users and the type of content they need and then optimize them for search engines, you have a win-win situation.
4. Build Topic Relevancy
When you start posting content to your website or blog, make sure it’s related to your niche and area of expertise.
For many, this may be obvious, but some people are still wrong.
For example, if you’re running a tech blog, you shouldn’t blog about cooking just because you like it. No one will punish you for that, but the chances of making a profit from that post are minimized.
The best approach is to post related content that is in line with your site’s overall goals.
For example, if you sell coffee machines online, in addition to providing all the technical information about your products (specifications, photos, reviews, videos), you must also provide a blog with articles related to coffee (manufacture, drink, recipes, tips etc. )
5. Publish Thorough Content
When it comes to text content, like blog posts, several studies have found that long content (over 1500 words) ranks higher in search engines and it is more shareable in social media.
The lesson we can learn from these studies is that it is better to publish a long and detailed post that covers all aspects of a topic, instead of publishing 2-3 smaller articles.
Since long content is more shareable on social media, this means that you’re not only fetching food to search engines but also offering users what they want.
6. Publish Shareable Content
You need to search social media and find out what kind of content people like.
For example, fashion seekers may want to see more images and videos than text content. This means that you must adjust your content marketing strategy to meet this need.
Some ideas for content that can be shared and that are suitable for all niches are:
- Top 10 lists …
- The best of the lists …
- How …
- 10 ways to …
- Most popular forms …
- Top tips for …
7. Publish Content Consistently
In addition to providing accurate and up-to-date content, another tip you can take is to make sure you keep a consistent publishing schedule.
Having a predefined publishing schedule will help you better organize your time and also build a list of loyal followers.
Don’t forget that new content is also an incentive for:
- Search engines to visit your site
- Get more visits from your newsletter and RSS feed
- Get more visits to social networks
- Keep your regular visitors happy
8. Create Catchy Titles
The title of a page or post is very important for several reasons. A good title:
- Help search engines understand what content is about
- Help social networking sites understand what you are sharing
- Attract or not users attention and encourage more clicks to visit the specific page
So before hitting the Publish button, make sure your content has an optimized and engaging title.
9. Create Better Content Than Your Competitors
Content marketing is a great way to increase traffic and sales, but that’s just good news.
The bad news is that you are not alone and if you want your content to work well, it must be better than your competitors.
Before creating your content, search Google, Facebook, Twitter (or the network closest to your target audience) and analyze what type of content appears in the top positions.
Look at things like content size, type, quality, and format, and try to improve your content in every way.
Content that is no better than what is already ranked on Google has no chance of high rankings.
Therefore, it is better to spend more time and improve content than to rush to press the publish button and waste time.
10. Promote Your Content
Don’t wait for your potential customers to search to find your site, visit and buy your products.
When you post new content, you need to promote it so that it gets the attention it deserves.
There are several ways to promote your content without exaggeration and without risk. Therefore, the next immediate step after pressing the Publish button is to make a good promotion.
Your best bet is on social media because the results are extremely fast and immediate, but never underestimate the power of email and RSS.
Conclusion
Content marketing is important for all types of companies. The benefits of content marketing are many, and recent studies have shown that a large percentage of people (over 70%) prefer to read articles about a company than reading advertorials.
When designing your content marketing strategy, you must find the right balance between content creation, user satisfaction, and conversions.
