?Content is King…?
Perhaps the most overused phrase in the content marketing world over the last few years, annoyingly it continues to highlight a valuable point. Gone are the days of a business simply popping a product onto a webpage and expecting the customer to appear and purchase.
In the age of savvy online shoppers there?s more pressure than ever for companies to be on top of their game with digital marketing. The web is where it?s at and we must embrace it?
Without straying into geeky marketing territory the reason good quality content is so very important in a marketing strategy is that is subliminally creates an identity for your brand that draws consumers in and feeds them snippets of information without a hard sell force-feed. Softly softly catches the worm – and pleases Google!
A couple of years ago the giant that was Google decided that the more relevant the content on your website was in regards to a search term, the higher it would place your website on its search rankings. Hardly rocket science you might think but higher rankings = more clicks = higher revenue. Happy days indeed.
How do you go about creating great content?
Readers are smart. They have zillions of channels to scroll through and a very limited attention span (the average human attention span has declined from 12 seconds in the year 2000 to 8 seconds now according to a study by Microsoft Corp). With so many articles to read and images to view – the key is to understand your audience and ultimately what makes them click.
For example, if you run a private gym in a city, the chances are that your target clientele will be somewhat interested in health, fitness and wellbeing. By creating educational content that focuses on these areas (e.g. a guide to finding the perfect fitting trainers) you are drawing your audience in, giving them something useful to digest before going on to mention that luckily you actually provide the means and product to become healthier and improve their fitness.
This is the crux – no hard sell before you have given something of interest first; snappy headlines, useful snippets and tips can all help to keep a reader engaged – ensuring they connect with the writer before you ask them to do something for you e.g. click a link, add a comment, sign up to a email database.
Here?s a quick step by step guide to the thinking behind great content, a process I follow with all new clients before creating anything – whether it be a blog, social media campaign or web copy.
What is your niche?
Consider what makes you as a company different and more interesting than your competitors? Mould your content plan around this and don?t be afraid to go a little quirky.
Own your tone of voice
This is your chance to give your content personality. People connect with people – not computers – this is a barrier we must break down by carefully considering how we communicate with others online as a business. Consider your ideal customer – who are they and how would they like to be addressed. Do you wish to sound educational? Funny? Silly? A bit edgy perhaps? Take your tone and own it across all of your online content.
Think outside that pesky box
This is the main stumbling block for many of the businesses I speak to. Just because you?re an estate agent doesn?t mean all your content has to centre around that two-bed semi you?ve got on the market and need to sell to make the company target.
Why not create a guide to the local area that the house sits within, interview other interesting local businesses, profile brilliant restaurants that are nearby – market the location NOT the house. Think about what makes your product desirable and what compliments it.
Don?t drop the ball
Now you have curated a great piece of content – don?t underestimate the tools you have to hand to spread it far and wide. Utilise Facebook and it?s boosting capabilities, share your story on Instagram (the fastest growing Social Platform in 2016) and tweet your heart out.
Over a third of Instagram users have purchased a product online? making them 70% more likely to do so than non-users (Brandwatch 2016). If you?ve got a great tangible product why not invest in promoting it via relevant influencers within your industry, or play around with visual content by using the ?your stories? feature. Consider changing your Instagram URL to the content or campaign you are trying to promote to encourage a higher click through rate.
Hustle, hustle hustle. Keep an eye on Google Analytics to traffic the effectiveness of the post/campaign you are sharing and take learnings as you go.
At Creative Blend we are very lucky to work with the amazing Emma Pryke as part of our content team. So if you’re interested in developing your own content plan/strategy why not contact us on 01273 640315 and we will help develop your next steps.
We’d also highly recommend checking out Emma’s Instagram & Linkedin for some great insights and foodie updates!
Check out Emma on LinkedIn
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top image from: Historythings.com
