Driving traffic to your website is vital to gaining brand awareness and attracting new customers. When visitors perform an internet search, they typically click on one of the first few links on the search engine results page that applies to their search query.
Visitors are most likely to open links that appear in the top three search results, so your business will need to rank high to gain traffic from search. Content marketing is an essential aspect of a comprehensive SEO strategy, in addition to link building, onsite optimization, page speed, and other factors.
Whether on your own or with a content marketing company, content marketing can be used as a component of search engine optimization strategy and a tactic for positioning your brand as an authority, boosting brand awareness, and improving conversions.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic approach to marketing that uses valuable, relevant content, such as blog posts, infographics, videos, and tutorials, to attract and retain the audience. The goal is that, in time, this audience will become paying customers.
There are four forms of content:
- Written content
- Audio content
- Video content
- Image content
No matter the type, content is intended to provide value to your audience by solving a problem, improving their quality of life, and positioning your brand as an authority.
If a customer has a problem and finds your content helpful, they’ll come to your content (ahem… YOU!) again for future questions and concerns. Over time, your brand will be viewed as an industry authority.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Content marketing is a vital tool in modern marketing, and will only continue to grow in importance. Best of all, content marketing is all about organic traffic, so it doesn’t require continually spending money on ads.
Here are some other benefits of content marketing:
Improved SEO
As more and more companies continue to invest in their online presence, it is becoming more challenging to stand out in the crowd. Content marketing positions you as an authority while providing useful information that keeps readers coming back and makes it more likely they will share your content. All of which will improve your search engine rankings and generate more traffic to your site.
Better Customer Trust
Today’s customers are savvier than ever. It’s no longer enough for brands to offer the lowest prices – customers are looking for something deeper. They want to connect with a brand’s story, values, and purpose.
Because of this, blatant selling is no longer effective. Content marketing can help you showcase your brand’s story and values to connect with customers and instill more trust, fostering a sense of community. This is not only achieved by providing value to your customers but by sharing testimonials, reviews, and other social proof that puts your products into a real-world context.
Builds Authority
As a leader in your industry, you have a lot of insights, advice, and expertise to share, but your customers may not know that. Content marketing helps you get your brand out in the world as a leader in your industry. With authority comes brand recognition, as more customers realize you’re the “go-to’ if they have a question or concern related to your industry or niche.
How to Create a Content Strategy
A content marketing strategy is a plan for building an audience with consistent, valuable content that inspires, educates, or entertains. Ultimately, content marketing only works if you make it about the customer.
Here’s how to create your strategy:
Determine Your Ideal Customer
You need to thoroughly understand your customer if you’re going to deliver content that speaks to them.
Consider what:
- …does your customer want?
- …are they looking for?
- …problems do they have?
Ideally, create an imaginary version of your customer with all the details, then consider this customer version when you’re planning your content.
Perform Keyword Research
Keyword research is essential to content marketing. When visitors perform a search on Google, the keywords help the search engine categorize the content and provide relevant results.
These keywords can be your guide for determining topics. Searches with keywords that involve a question are helpful as topics since your content can focus on answering that question. You can also search for keyword variants and similar search terms, which gives you more ideas.
Create Content
The keywords you find will give you insights into your customers’ pain points and the information they’re looking for. For example, if you find that many customers are searching for information on how to use your product or similar products, you can write a tutorial or create a video that shows them step by step.
Always keep the customer in your mind when creating content. Think about what they want and how you can provide something that’s helpful to them or improves their quality of life. Keep the content varied to introduce beginners and offer more advanced content.
Full Circle SEM Content Marketing Company
Content marketing is a must for digital marketing, but it’s not as simple as writing a few blog posts. Successful content marketing requires in-depth audience and keyword research, well-written topics, and optimization.
If you’re looking to elevate your content marketing plan, Full Circle SEM can help. We can create a content marketing plan that sets you apart from your competitors and establishes you as an authority in your industry. Contact us to get started!
