How and why to create content
Is content really that important to your site? Your business? A strong digital marketing strategy is made up of many different components. From social media to search engines, it can be difficult to know where you really need to focus your attention. While each piece of your digital marketing strategy is important for effectively promoting your business online, some elements will be more crucial than others.
The big takeaway here, is that content fuels everything else you’re doing. A cliché metaphor? Don’t mind if I do! If your business is a car, your website is the engine, SEO is the cruise control, PPC campaigns are the accelerator, a well-planned marketing strategy is the steering wheel. But what good is a car with no gas? You guessed it, content is what makes it all go.
So why is it so important?
Content Educates Your Audience
Today’s consumers are more likely than ever to fast forward the sales process for you by doing nearly everything but purchasing before they ever even think to contact a business. Downside for businesses, where are they getting the information that sales reps and literature used to provide? All from websites. In fact, 89% of buying decisions are made online, even if the customer purchases in a store or by phone.
This makes it all the more important for customers to come to YOU to get their information. That’s why the content you post should be valuable and educational.
Your educational content will likely take the form of blog posts, product pages, your home page, and your company’s ‘about’ pages. However, it may also include tutorials, reviews, and other content that provides your customers with the resources they need to make educated purchasing decisions. It should focus on teaching your target audience more about your business and offerings.
To educate your audience through the content you create, you want to focus on the questions or concerns they may have. When addressing your target audience, consider what problems they might be trying to solve and how your products or services relieve those issues. Your educational content should focus on the solutions you provide, and how you can make their lives easier.
Content Fuels SEO
Search engines are a go-to resource just about any time someone has a question or concern. This means that optimizing your content to appear in relevant searches can help you attract new leads to your website. However, in order to fuel your SEO strategy, you need to have strong content.
SEO revolves around keyword placement, backlinks, and website visitors, and your content enables you to create web pages that fuel each of these components. Without content, you’d have nowhere to place your keywords, no page for your visitors to read, and no information for other websites to link to. However, if you’re creating awesome pieces of content that your target audience is excited to engage with, you’ll find it’s not hard to reach the top of the search engine results lists.
Content creation and SEO should always go hand-in-hand. When you consider your readers first and foremost, you will be able to create something that provides clear value to your audience. If your target audience is engaging heavily with you, your SEO strategy will be that much more successful.
Content Drives Social Media Strategies
Your social media platforms are one of the best ways to connect with your target audience. As a powerful tool for establishing genuine relationships with your customer base, social media gives you a direct pathway to have conversations, get feedback, and push new leads to your website. However, this is all fueled by strong content creation.
Your content enables you to take your social media conversations deeper. While there is only so much you can say in a Tweet or Facebook post, great content encourages your audience to follow through to learn more. This helps you establish a better connection with your target audience. Plus, you can also gain more visitors to your website, where you can collect their information and bring them into your sales funnel.
Your social media strategy should leverage content that provides a high amount of value to your target audience. While content is crucial for developing strong connections, you also need to remember that your audience wants information they can participate in. If you’re simply posting links to your site, you can’t expect to see high amounts of engagement.
Content Builds Backlinks
Backlinks, or links from an external website back to your site, are an important part of bringing new traffic to your site. A backlink to your site can encourage a visitor of another article or website to click through and learn more about you.
Of course, you’ll only see backlinks when your content contains ideas, opinions, or information that is worth sharing. If what you’re creating is mediocre or simply relaying information that your audience can find elsewhere on the web, you’re going to struggle to get other websites to link to you. This means that you’ll have a more difficult time attracting new attention and establishing authority online.
Backlinks can also contribute to your SEO strategy. They show Google and other search engines that you create content worth recommending. The more backlinks you have, the more authority a search engine will assume your page holds:
To encourage backlinks, you want to ensure that your topics are unique. While there may be similar information already available online, you want to put your own spin on each piece. Adding your unique perspective can ensure that your information stands out, helping you attract more attention. You can also increase your number of backlinks by focusing only on creating high-quality content. This includes developing harder-to-create pieces like infographics or videos. Since they take more effort to create, other sites will be less likely to produce them as well, instead choosing to link to you.
Conclusion
Your content is the foundation of your digital marketing strategy. Without it, you’re going to struggle to attract the attention you need to collect leads and convert them into paying customers. When you create great pieces of content, however, you’ll be more successful in your other digital marketing efforts.
MediaWorks Digital is a hometown agency focused exclusively on helping small businesses in Denver, Aurora, Arvada, Golden, Lakewood, Colorado Springs, and across Colorado. We specialize in effective web design, development, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, and content marketing. Value is always a priority, and we don’t rely on one-sized-fits all web packages, quirky gimmicks, or hard sales. We are a partner in small-business success. Contact us today to see how we can help.