… and maintaining it!
Content is important generally for us as humans, but it’s especially so in any marketing campaign. The phrase “content is king” is known in the marketing world, and rightly so. Written copy, in whatever form it may take when relevant and consistent is a great way to connect with your audience and keep them coming back.
Consistency is the key takeaway here, not only in tone but in being published. A steady stream of content is best, so how do you keep producing it? I’ll go over the benefits of content first and then dive into some tips.
The benefits of content marketing include:
- Improving brand recognition and trust.
Content is great for SEO purposes – for example, keywords can easily be inputted and blogs can be great for backlinks (links from other sites to yours) – which will get you seen by search engines. But it’s also great for getting you noticed by your audience and building trust. If a customer finds your content educational, helpful and engaging then they will quickly associate your business with the same qualities.
- It can influence conversations and conversions.
If one of your goals is to improve engagement, content can also help with that. When customers find your content valuable, they are more likely to share that content and comment on it. It’s then visible to their friends, further increasing visibility. The more people that see it, the more likely a conversion is possible. A figure that stands out is that in 2017 61% of people in the U.S who saw recommendations in a blog then went on to buy a product or service from that brand.
- Content is in-depth and can show off your expertise.
Copy in social media posts gets the audience hooked, but content in blogs and website pages allows you to truly shine in terms of depth. Your brand can demonstrate industry and product knowledge that can get the viewer to make an educated purchasing decision.
- Provides variety in your marketing campaigns.
There is also such a thing as ad overload, where when the average person is bombarded with tonnes of ads, they will be less likely to click on them at all. Instead, target people in search engines and social media organically so that you’re still being seen.
So how do you maintain content?
Everyone from fiction writers to a student writing an essay, to marketers get stuck with writer’s block now and again. It’s the killer of content and in the marketing world, producing less content overall can be deadly.
- Identify gaps using a content audit.
Scroll through your brand’s website. Create a spreadsheet of the existing content; notes on product descriptions you’ve included, and past blog posts. You may also want to include a link to that content in the spreadsheet so it’s easily findable, and any metrics you have on them. You can then filter to see what perhaps were the most popular content on your site. What topics are your audience already enjoying, and could they be expanded on? Once you know what you already have, you can identify what you don’t have and then brainstorm.
- Research, research and more research.
What questions is your audience asking, and could you produce a how-to, guide or blog post around them? Sites like Quora, where people ask common questions, can also help with this. What are your competitors doing? Do not copy off them but create your own ideas from the topics they’re currently producing content for. What content is your industry overall producing? Google is your friend and these can all lead to future brain dump sessions. You are also not alone as a content writer. Ask other people in the business what they would like to see on the website.
Repurpose content.
This is where the content audit also comes in handy. Content on Page 8 of a blog site can be lost to the readers, so how could you change it to then republish it? Is there a group of articles that you could curate into a how-to eBook to then give out to people in an email list? Could you also create a video version of a blog to go alongside the written copy? Videos not only become more engaging to an audience but gives more backlinks and increases search rankings.
Content is such a worthy tool in your marketing arsenal. Do not give up on it. See what works and what doesn’t and adapt your strategies as you go on. From there, you can even draft proposals for guest blogs to get your content onto other people’s websites. The possibilities are endless.
