Are you running a business online? Then you must have heard about Content Marketing and the phrase ‘content is king.’ Content Marketing is everywhere you see and listen in this Digital era. Many of them used content marketing to stand out from their competitors, but now it has become a necessity.
Content Marketing is the heart of digital marketing campaigns. Behind every successful brand, there is an excellent, creative, relevant, and optimized content that attracts and keep consumers engaged.
What is Content Marketing?
Content Marketing
Content Marketing
It’s a type of marketing wherein you will be creating and distributing valuable and related Content, consistently posted to attract and retain your target audience. You can create Content for your website, write a blog, and articles. Through daily postings on social media, all comes under content marketing.
In my experience, content marketing is nothing, but using a piece of Content to market your Business. Content can be what you have written or created, which is in the form of text, image, infographic, or a video.
Content marketing is a kind of strategic marketing approach, not just posting on your social media. You know what you need to accomplish and how your content is going to move you closer to your objectives and also to digital marketing strategy.
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Content must benefit a defined audience. Go beyond demographics here. What are the needs, interests, questions, concerns, and points of your prospects? How your product or service can Help? What kind of expertise you have which is of better use to them?
When people see your brand posts on many valuable articles, you’re essentially letting the world know that what is your brand is all pointing. You’re establishing your identity online through your daily postings.
When people are looking for information that falls right up your niche, then there are chances that people will be able to better recall your brand over your competitors!
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What sort of Content to distribute?
Content Marketing
Content Marketing
What sort of Content could you distribute that would inform, entertain, and engage them in a meaningful way? Your Content should be valuable, relevant, and consistent To the audience.
1. Valuable
People who read your blogs or watch your videos must get something worth out of it. They should feel like they’ve learned something or that people got entertained in a way that they return to your blogs and videos to watch.
2. Relevant
Your Content must relate to consumers, needs, and interests. You should show your audience that you get them, that you understand what’s entertaining, funny, heartwarming, or essential to them.
3. Consistent
Effective Content, delivered over the same time, which makes you recognizable. Your look, feel, tone, and writing style, and of course, the Content should speak with the same voice that helps consumers to get to know you and grow familiar with your organization.
Why is Content Marketing important?
We research online before buying products and services to purchase. When you buy a car you will check for the model complete details online, buy groceries online and you see the reviews and ratings of software before purchasing like so many things we are dependent on Content over the Internet.
People are looking for good and reasonable Content to help them make decisions in their day to day life. According to one of the study, 70% of consumers prefer to learn about companies and brands through articles instead of advertising.
A Survey of business decision makers found that 80% prefer to get information about a purchase from articles than from advertising. Also noticed that 70% say Content makes them feel they are closer to the sponsoring company, and 60% say Content helps them to make better buying decisions.
Why Content Marketing is essential to Search Engines
Consumers come to search engines to find solutions to their problems. Sometimes your best opportunity to get new customers is to be there when they Google it. You might have created a search engine optimization (SEO) plan. But You may also know that search engines frequently updated with the algorithms that they use to crawl the webpages. So, they can improve the quality of results.
Google’s updates in these years increasingly reward the quality content and punish low quality. And what does quality mean for Google? For one thing, up-to-date Content paid. So, publishing new articles, and updating your existing Content, will help you maintain an active search engine results pages (SERPs) and let your audience to revisit your website.
Second thing, Google punishes what it considers to be “spammy” or overly optimized web pages. For example, “keyword stuffing,” which means using the same keyword many times when it adds no value to an article. The Moz Guide to SEO gives an example for keyword stuffing:
Bob’s cheap Seattle plumber is one of the best Seattle plumbers for all your plumbing related needs. Contact us for a cheap Seattle plumber before it’s too late.
The first thumb rule is here that is if you are unable to read, it’s for sure a red signal for Google. The best thing is to write for the reader first and search for long-tail keywords to use a synonym. That way, your Content will be user-friendly and SEO-friendly.
Why Content Marketing is vital to Your Business
As we see, useful Content helps us to build customer relationships and avoids less effective hard selling techniques. Well-crafted Content can draw more traffic to your website and social media accounts. It also boosts your performance on search results pages and allows audiences to share Content with their friends and family.
A recent survey for 600 marketing professionals asks what they thought are the most important digital marketing trends followed. Content marketing was in the number one with 29.6% ahead of other hot topics, big data (14.6%), mobile marketing (11.0%), marketing automation (12.8%), and social media marketing (8.9%).
Other research found that 63% of companies said that postings daily on all social media channels increased their marketing effectively.
Companies with blogs attracted more inbound links, and blogs on company websites tend to attract more visitors.
content_marketing_stats_infographic
Top 3 Content Marketing Myths
In today’s digital marketing era, Content is the king of Marketing strategies.
However, as you know, not just any content can rule the search engine results pages (SERPs) content marketing involves a way of writing that takes the “rules” of SEO into consideration while still prioritizing the reader. Unfortunately, these “rules” aren’t always distinct, which might lead to some common misconceptions.
Myth #1: Duplicate Content Is fine
Officially, Google has told that certain instances of duplicate Content might not be for an adverse action. But these instances are determined based on what Google decides the intent of the Content is. And it’s generally best to be on the side of caution and avoid duplication.
In a nutshell, the duplicate Content written is a Content reused across multiple pages and sites. So what’s the big deal? This type of behavior utilized as a way to manipulate search engine results, so when these types of websites found, Google tends to hide them from consequences.
But if you want to include information about a product you offer, so you take some content from the official website and publish it on yours? Looks harmless.
But unfortunately, Google might not see it in that way. If your website features original and quality Content, which helps you to rise to the top of the SERPs, another site may steal your Content to boost their position. It’s Not cool. Google agrees, which is why you shouldn’t take up material, either even if it’s your own. Whenever duplicate Content of this nature discovered, pages can potentially hide from the search results, so it is crucial.
Myth #2: Increase in keyword usage = increase in SEO
Although stuffing keywords into your Content was a common practice in the past, this method of content marketing is outdated. When writing Content for your website, you should consider relevant keywords in it, and written in a way as naturally flowing and beneficial for your users. Stuffing your Content full of keywords can quickly begin to sound unnatural and awkward, but including them when and where they make sense.
When you are planning blog topics for your site, think about what your target audience is searching over the Internet. This planning will help you to identify which keywords used. You can use this technique to optimize your Content for voice search.
You can use some keyword tools like Ubersuggest by Neil Patel.
Myth #3: Good Content Doesn’t require any Update
A fast-growing and informative website is not truly complete. You are revising and adding Content to your existing website adds more value. Beneficial Content, sort of information related helps the reader, and it can also improve your SERP position.
There are lots of benefits to regularly updating your Content. SEO is continually evolving, so making tweaks to your Content is one way to stay ahead of the curve. When learning Content is added to your site frequently, it becomes a resource within your niche and attracts visitors.
Fresh Content triggers Google and other search engines to re-crawl the page, which potentially improves your SERP position. Remember, always write for the reader when updating pages. If you are Adding useless Content to a page just for the sake of adding new Content doesn’t help anyone.
How quality content helps you to improves your search engine rankings?
When you publish Content which is relevant and highly focused over a long period, when you distribute your Content over the channels available to you, it starts to improve your search engine rankings. Does publishing high-quality content get good search engine rankings? Yes, But no.
Your Content should be search engine friendly so that it gives all the necessary signals to ranking algorithms that the Content talks about the issues promised in the title, and for the keyword, it is optimized. To understand why is that content marketing for SEO works for businesses, you need to understand what exactly is SEO.
SEO is doing keyword research and preparing a long list of keywords and search terms that people use to find your website. Writing and publishing lots of Content on those keywords and search terms to the search engines that you have good quality content about those keywords.
SEO is about getting social sharing your newly published content and social media websites and encouraging people to engage with you.
When others share your Content on their social media platforms, it gives you value, and then the validation is used by search engines to rank your Content. You are encouraging people to link to your website and blog. The more people link to your website, the higher your search engine rankings.
Is it all these things an integral part of content marketing? Yes, they are. These steps, and many more, you repeatedly take to implement your content marketing strategy.
Is it only Content that matters?
If content marketing and SEO are the two sides of the same coin, then it means this is the only way to improve your rankings? And you will no longer require your SEO experts?
No, I don’t say that. Traditional professionals who help you to improve your search engine rankings have their place in the scheme of things. Many search engine optimization companies provide content marketing as an integral part of their SEO services. Most of the reputed SEO services understand that without content marketing, there is no SEO.
So, either providing content marketing services through their in-house staff, or they collaborate with content writing and content marketing services like Credible Content to provide their clients content marketing for SEO.
1. Content Marketing Benefits That Helps
You can earn trust yourself as an expert in the industry. When delivered Content is related, informative focused, timely, and helps readers to find solutions to the problems they have, people will return and refer to your Content continuously. Thus, your Content will become a credible and authoritative source
2. GO VIRAL
The Content you deliver gets people to talk about your Business and spread among their networks. Attract and engage the targeted people to your website to generate traffic.
The Content delivered to the right people using the right channel at the right time will generate high volume traffic to your website. Every piece of Content you post can help you engage with and attract today’s tech-savvy and social media customers to the Business.
3. CONVERTS READERS TO CUSTOMERS
Engaging with the audience on the social media channels, forums, etc. where they are spending most of their time online, you can get them in reading more of your Content and learning services you give and the products you sell online. On your website and business blog.
As more visitors come to your site. You can convert them into leads.
4. NURTURING LEADS, GET LINKS, FEEDBACKS AND CUSTOMER REVIEWS
Call-to-actions, thank you pages, and email marketing can move the leads further. Provide long-term service online and catch the attention of your audience the moment they need and search for it. What you publish or share on the Internet remains forever.
Different Types of content for Better ROI
1. Infographics
Are generally long, vertical graphics that include statistics, charts, and other information. Infographics can be passed around social media and posted on websites for years. You can get professionally designed infographic by hiring a contractor, or if you want to remove some of the risks, you can go with a company.
A decent infographic will cost you at least $1,000 to get designed but can cost thousands of dollars if you are hiring a contractor to create. Promote that infographic to bloggers, on social media channels and the media. You could also set up a board on Pinterest and add your infographics on a topic related to your Business. This sort is also a form of content marketing, and it costs nothing but your time.
2. Webpages
What’s the difference between a regular website and a webpage that is on content marketing? Consider The Moz, a provider of SEO related tools and resources. This resource, been viewed millions of times, bringing in customers across Moz and the services they offer. Most case studies are boring. Their case studies are fascinating. That’s the difference between just putting Content on your website and content marketing.
3. Podcasts
You Should Consider Launching Your Podcast Because A podcast gives you visibility in a completely different world, primarily iTunes. I had scores of new people say they had never heard of me until they stumbled onto me in iTunes. Give valuable information and advice in your podcast for free. But that podcast might lead to more sales of books, signups for courses, and also requests for you to as a speaker.
4. Videos
Master of content marketing Gary Vaynerchuk, who uses online video, you can take a look at his YouTube channel. He started creating videos to promote his family wine store, and through these videos and other online marketing, he grew it to a $50M.
Videos and podcasts are a secure form of content marketing because people think it’s highly expensive and complicated. But with the decreasing cost of professional grade equipment creating high-quality video and audio Content is easier than ever. What video do you throw together for your company that might change your Business overnight? It might be more comfortable than you think.
5. Books
People think of books as selling themselves, but savvy marketers sell books as marketing tools. You can publish a book; there is still the perception that it’s difficult and that only reputed professionals can publish a business book.
Publish your book, and even if people don’t read it, you can use it as a form of content marketing every time you introduced as an Author of the book you published it gives you power. White papers, ebooks, public speaking, presentations, and blogs there are many ways that you can market the Content.
Conclusion
Content marketing is worth the effort since it helps people to find your Business and engage in a long-term relationship with it. Content marketing helps in increasing brand awareness, show off the company’s expertise, promote teamwork, generates high volume traffic, holds the top ranking spots on search engines, increases the number of inbound links, and ensures a long-term presence over the Internet.
Therefore, plan your Content and create consistent, helpful Content. Deliver it to the right set of people at the right time and place. Always be open to change, check results, analyze Content and costs, usage, and also to achieve a higher return on investment and repeat the cycle.
Have you used any form of Content Marketing? Which type of content marketing works better for you?
Have you used any form of Content Marketing? Which type of content marketing works better for you?