A good content marketing strategy is at the heart of all successful internet marketing campaigns.  Search Engine Optimised and informative content will connect you with your readers enabling them to interact with you and this will ultimately convert those readers into followers or customers.  Good and relevant content is the single most important factor for the search engines when deciding which website to display first in their results.

All forms of your online marketing require a good content strategy in order to reach your targeted audience and to communicate your message effectively.  The more complex your marketing campaign is, the more important it is to have a unified content marketing strategy.

A good content marketing campaign should include:

• Blogging,
• Social Media,
• Press Releases,
• Video Postings,
• Article Marketing,
• Email Marketing

As well as the traditional media channels you use to publish your content on.

Good quality content should always be developed with two target audience in mind – the search engines and visitors to your website.  Search engines can help to attract readers to your content and are of course critical to your success in driving traffic to your website.  Once your visitors arrive at your content you need to keep them engaged – by continuing to read or taking a desired action. Always try to provide value with your content and guide your visitors so you can achieve your goals.

We give below a couple of tips to help you with your content strategy.

Your content must have a clear message and purpose

Providing just basic information in your content is not adding any great value to your readers.  Good content should make clear your own standards  and values – what is important to you, your expertise or qualification to comment.  Use different styles as needed  -casual / formal tone e.g. any content concerning a legal or regulatory issue should be fairly formal whilst a newsletter announcing a massive sale of skateboards will be less so.

Make sure your content marketing is done with an objective in mind – set targets / conversion goals and have a de-brief after each content marketing exercise.  If the exercise went well, repeat it, if it went badly analyse why and learn from it for the next time.

Remember, all content marketing should bear your brand and maintain the high standards that are core to your business. Never send out rubbish or a poorly thought out article just because you have to send out something!  Quality will always beat quantity.

Targeted demographics

The easiest way to target a specific market is to take the time to define their needs and to break them up into smaller groups.  This will enable you to determine the best way to communicate with each group and how to reach each niche separately.  Also determine which topics and answers are being searched for by each group and address those topics in your content marketing exercise.

Distribution

It is important to select which channels you will be using for the distribution of your content. Usually, each channel will have a different purpose and will reach a different demographic / target audience as stated above.  Blogs and social media are generally informational channels allowing you to build your online credibility and branding whilst websites are expected to promote and sell your products or services.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

Include all the relevant keywords you want to target in your content.  Also include a linking strategy to help promote your blog or website.  By all means integrate images and video into your plan.

Social media links are extremely powerful in driving organic search engine rankings. Your organic SEO efforts will be much more effective if you consistently apply SEO across all your media channels.

Content marketing is still considered one of, if not the best way to promote your services, products and values.  I you do not yet have a content marketing strategy you could be missing out.

Leave a comment below or contact wsiims if you require more information regarding content marketing.