Why content marketing works? It’s a question that’s been asked a lot lately, especially after the success of companies like GE and Zappos. While there are a lot of benefits to content marketing, the key is to make sure you’re doing it right. If you’re looking for a guide to help you start your content marketing journey, then you’ve come to the right place. Check out the rest of this article to learn more.
Increases your visibility online
When someone searches for a keyword that you’re targeting, that person is looking for content that matches his or her query. If you’re the only one that has that content, you’re the one they’ll click on to find more information. But if you share that content on your website and on other social media, you increase the chance that someone will see it when they search for that keyword. This is because the more you share your content, the more chances you have for it to be discovered. By posting on social media, you increase the amount of exposure that your content receives, and when people view your content on social media, they are more likely to click on your links to learn more about your products.
Online reviews and recommendations from friends and family
Not only are reviews and recommendations important to search engines, they also help you establish credibility in the eyes of potential customers. If you’ve provided a high level of service, received great reviews, and been a long-term customer, you’re more likely to be trusted by potential customers for future purchases. That kind of trust can make the difference between racking up a new account in your books or a lost sale.
Online profiles and endorsements
The more people that know about you and like you, the more people will feel comfortable doing business with you. A good way to gain a following is by providing recommendations, profiles, and case studies to your clients, customers, and colleagues. Sharing your expertise with others—and getting their feedback—gives you more visibility in their eyes and builds trust with them.
Blogs and social media profiles
In addition to creating content, it is a great idea to publish your content on your own website or a blog. This helps to build an audience for your content, especially if you share your content on social media. Additionally, you can include links to your website in your social media posts. This gives your audience more information about you and your business.
Makes you the go-to authority in your field
When someone is searching for a topic related to your content, the search engine will return results that are most closely related to the search. The results that show up will be ones that are linked to your website. And the more citations you have, the higher your content will rank in the search engine results. So, by creating high-quality content, you will increase your website traffic and help you gain authority as an expert in your field. And the more authority you have, the better your customers will respond to you.
Shows you know what you’re doing
Building an audience takes time and effort. You can’t just sit down and write a bunch of content and expect to make an impact. And when you hire a writer, they’ll inevitably add their own voice to your content. But if you take control of the content creation process, you can ensure that it aligns with your brand and speaks directly to your audience. When you know exactly what you’re doing, you can create a content strategy that works for your business. And, in turn, attract a larger, more engaged audience. Plus, when you publish high-quality content consistently, you’ll build an authority you can count on. The more you produce, the more you’ll be seen as the go-to authority in your field.
Makes you the expert
Even if you specialize in one thing, every business is different. They all have different goals, different pain points, and are run by different people with different priorities. That’s why you need to be the expert at what you do for your customers. If you’re not an expert, no one will turn to you for help. And if they don’t know where to find you, they’ll go to someone else. The more you know about your business and your customers, the more you can create highly targeted content to help them solve their problems. And the more you can help them solve their problems, the more satisfied they’ll be with your brand and your services. This increased satisfaction leads them to share your content, giving you more visibility and increasing your reach. That’s why content marketing works.
Gives you credibility
As a business, you can never underestimate the value of credibility. If people do not trust your brand or your content, they will not be interested in working with you or buying from you. People will opt for a brand they trust. And when you have created a strong web presence and developed a body of high-quality content, you will automatically gain credibility. It is this credibility that will help you create more business opportunities and will help you retain existing customers.
Allows you to educate others
This is the holy grail of content marketing, and it can be a huge help to have lots of great content on your website. But the thing is, you can only build an authority on a topic if you’ve educated others on that topic. The content you create can help your audience learn more about your business and your industry, and in turn they’ll be more likely to return to your website. That type of lasting relationship can lead to more long-term business opportunities, and that’s a relationship that you definitely want to foster.
Builds trust with your audience
Building trust with your audience is essential to the long-term success of your content marketing program. Whether you publish a white paper or create a how-to video, you need to be genuine and transparent to build a connection with your audience. Your audience will reward you with shares, social media mentions, and word-of-mouth referrals when you create content that is helpful and educational.
Reviews and testimonials
When you publish inbound content, you create opportunities for your audience to leave reviews. These reviews and recommendations can help you to grow your business as your audience trust these recommendations. So, when you publish content, ask for reviews. You can even put a date on when you’ll publish on your website, and let your audience know that you’ll publish your content soon. When you do publish your content, reach out to your audience and ask them to review your content. And, if you have influencers that are willing to write about you, ask them to include a review of your business.
Make it easy for people to share
How do you grow a loyal following? You make sure your content is easy to share. Your audience doesn’t want to feel like they’re doing work by reading your content. They want to skim, scan, and share the highlights that are most relevant to them. If your content is too long and boring, nobody is going to bother to read it.
Make it easy for people to contact you
Social media is all about building connections with other people, and if you want to build a connection with your audience, then you need to make it easy for them to talk to you. When you create a piece of content that offers helpful information or helpful advice, you show your audience that you care about them and that you want to help them. But after you’ve provided all of the information they need, it’s important to include a call to action. Your call to action can be in the form of a question or a request for feedback. This helps your audience know that they can contact you if they need help with whatever you just talked about.
Build a community around your brand
A community is made up of other people who share a similar interest, whether it’s through a forum or a Facebook group. In order to build a community around your brand, you must first create great content that your audience will want to share with others. Once you’ve created content that is valuable to your audience, you can invite them to participate in your community. This gives your brand a chance to interact with your audience and build a relationship with them.
Increases your inbound marketing
Well-written content on your website and social media channels helps build your credibility and authority in your niche. The more helpful and informative your content is, the more visitors you’ll attract. This can attract more leads to your business and increase the number of conversions you get. It builds trust and authority and helps you establish yourself as an expert in your field. And, the more people who view your content on social media, the more shares they’ll post. This can help you get more visibility and reach more people. This will also drive traffic back to your website.
Develop your inbound marketing strategy
Creating content is only half the work — and if you don’t know where to post it and how to target your audience, you won’t reap the benefits. A quality inbound marketing strategy helps you know where to post your content to increase your visibility and attract the right audience. You can optimize for SEO, answer frequently asked questions, and create content that will help you build and maintain relationships with your target audience.
Develop your content plan
Your content should be strategically planned out before you create it, to make sure it meets your business objectives and connects with your audience. Take your keyword research findings and use them to inform your content creation process. Create a content map to make sure you have a holistic view of where your content will appear. Your content map should include keyword-rich headlines, a link to your post, and a short description of the topic. Once you’ve created your content map, start creating your content.
Create your inbound marketing action plan
Don’t just produce content and hope that you’ll get results. Define your end goals and create a plan to achieve them. Set up your content to match your buyer personas so that it matches what they’re looking for. Use SEO and social media to drive traffic to your content. And always distribute your content via social media. These tactics will work together to increase your inbound marketing efforts and attract more leads.
Implement your action plan
While you’re generating new content (more on that later), it’s also important to implement strategies that keep your current content fresh and up-to-date. This includes things like editing old posts, adding links to your latest blog posts in older ones, and even scheduling your social media posts. When your audience sees that you’re consistently adding new content to your website, they will be more likely to return to your website and check out what else you have to offer.
Manage inbound marketing activities
A properly managed inbound marketing strategy will keep you on track and make sure you’re hitting your goals. An effective strategy will also help you manage your team and work on a budget. To make sure your marketing activities are up to date, make sure that your CRM is connected to each channel you use for your inbound marketing and that you’re using automation where possible. That way, you’ll always be able to quickly access the right information you need. And lastly, set up your marketing automation to trigger actions in each channel automatically. That way, you’ll be able to schedule your content creation, publish it and measure its performance.
Increases your website visibility
The content you publish on your website helps you build links, which is one of the most important SEO factors. Creating valuable content helps you build a relationship with your audience. You will get links to your website when other websites publish your content on their websites. This increases your website’s authority and helps you rank higher in the search engine results.
Optimize your website for organic search
Google’s search engine is used by almost 90% of all web searchers. If you want to be seen, then you need to optimize your website for organic search. That means paying close attention to the on-page SEO factors: title, keyword usage, header tags, bulleted lists, and more. We’ve written a full guide to help you optimize your website for organic search, but keep in mind that just like content needs to be unique to your business, so does your website. If the content on your website is the same as a competitor, then you’ll naturally struggle to rank higher.
Create localized content
If your business is only accessible to your local customers, then you need to create content specifically for them. Localized content is content that is created for a specific location or region. Examples of this content can include local directories, local news, informational content, and more. This content can help bring more visitors to your website from that area who are interested in what you have to offer.
Build out local landing pages
Even if you’re not a local business, you can still attract customers by promoting your business in the local area. The key is to start small, create local landing pages, and optimize for SEO. Then, you can attract customers by linking to your local SEO optimized website and social media profiles. The goal is to build out a local web presence that allows you to target local customers and help them find you.
Create localized content
If you’re doing any kind of e-commerce, localizing your content helps you show up in search results for your local area and helps you increase your sales. Google reviews, phone number citations in local directories, and citations in the local citations index all increase your website’s authority and help it rank higher in search engine results. If you’re trying to grow your brand, you should also consider incorporating local citations into your content marketing activities as well.
Build out local landing pages
Creating a local landing page helps your business establish an online presence in your community. A local landing page is essentially a website designed for your local customers, a page that gives your potential customers all the information they need to help them make a decision about the products or services you offer. Your local landing page can be designed to include things like a location map, hours of operation, contact information, and even reviews from past customers. The more content you add to your local landing page, the more visible you will be to potential local customers, making it easier for them to learn more about your business.
In conclusion, if you want to learn more about content marketing and how it can benefit your business, then check out this ultimate guide. It provides valuable information on what content marketing is, how it works, and how you can use it to achieve your marketing goals.
