It is not uncommon for business owners to set high expectations with their content marketing efforts. However, in an attempt to gain high search engine rankings through SEO, marketers often focus on quantity and compromise the quality of the content. When providing low quality content it can often effect your ability to gain attention, increase traffic and most importantly engage your audience. The following are a few suggestions to help you gain traffic while still producing helpful and interesting content.
- Setting goals − Do you have a strategy in place? This should come before you begin developing and promoting content. What exactly will a particular release do for you? Does it have sharing potential? Are you honing in on a topic that is frequently searched on Google? If you’re looking to optimize your search engine ranking, find out what people are already searching for and create a blog or press release with those keywords in mind.
- Knowing your audience − Aimlessly releasing content without knowing who you’re targeting is no different than being a door to door salesman. It might work, but only every now and then at best. Taking the time to research what your potential customer cares about will help you know what marketing tactics will be most effective.
- Entertain and educate − Once you have a good idea of what your audience’s actual needs are, you can create content that will meet those needs. Using entertaining and informative content will bring the best results. This is a way of speaking to your audience in a language they can understand. Consistently posting a valuable blog, web video, or infographic will set you apart as a thought leader in your industry. Viewers will become customers because you’re offering them something of value, for free.
- Conversation – Thought leadership can often take place on social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest. Once you inspire discussion and receive feedback, engage in that conversation. Relish the chance to interact with your customers directly and immediately. An eMarketer report recently showed that 82% of those surveyed trust a social media-active company more than one that doesn’t have an account.
- Make a strategic offer – Only when you have established trust with your audience is it okay to begin selling something. By now you have taken the time to learn about your customer and they have most likely learned something about you. They hopefully feel like you’re in it to help them out. Under these conditions you can make an offer without coming across as intrusive.
Have any content marketing tips we did not discuss? Feel free to leave a comment.
