What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
What separates content marketing from other marketing initiatives is its focus on generating valuable content that pulls people toward the business – instead of chasing them with advertising messages. And, in turn, customers are more likely to value the brand and buy from it over time.
It’s worth noting that while many marketers use the terms “content marketing” and “inbound marketing” interchangeably, there are slight differences between the two terms. In short, inbound marketing focuses more narrowly on generating leads and driving conversions, while content marketing can be used as a broad umbrella term that encompasses inbound marketing along with other digital marketing efforts – such as email marketing, social media marketing, etc. For our purposes here, we’ll focus on content marketing definition and best practices.
Why Does Content Marketing Matter?
In order to understand why content marketing matters, you first need to understand how the modern buyer has changed – and continues to change. The Internet has leveled the playing field in many industries; buyers now have nearly unlimited access to information about products and services. They can find out everything they need to know without ever talking to a salesperson.
As a result, buyers are much further along in their purchase decision when they finally do reach out to a company. In fact, research from CEB found that buyers are now 57% of the way through their decision-making process by the time they contact a vendor! Because of this shift, traditional “outbound” marketing methods – like interruptive advertising or buying lists of leads – are no longer as effective as they once were. Buyers tune out these messages; they’re bombarded with them everywhere they turn. Instead of trying to fight this trend by interrupting people with unwanted messages, savvy marketers are using “inbound” methods like content marketing to draw people toward their products or services instead.
But simply producing any old type of content isn’t enough; it needs to be high-quality content that provides value to your target audience if you want it to be successful. That means its: Relevant: Is this something my audience will care about? Timely: Is this timely information? Useable: Can my audience use this information right away? Interesting: Is this something my audience will find interesting or enjoyable? If you can produce content that meets all four of those criteria…you’re well on your way towards creating successful content! Of course, even the best pieces of content won’t matter if no one ever sees them. That brings us to our next point… How Do I Get My Content Seen By My Target Audience? This is where SEO comes into play. Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of optimizing your website and its contents for Google search with the goal of earning higher web traffic levels and improving your visibility in search results pages (SERPs). There are two main types of SEO: On-page SEO: This refers to all the measures you can take within your own website to improve your ranking – such as using keyword-rich titles and meta descriptions , creating fresh and unique contents , etc . Off-page SEO : This refers to all the measures you can take outside of your own website e .g., building backlinks )to improve your ranking . A successful SEO strategy should make use of both on-page and off page SEO tactics . But what does all this have to do with getting your content seen ? Well , if you want people reading your blog posts , subscribing To Your Email List , or downloading Your Ebook , then you need those potential customers coming across your site first …and that means ranking well in SERPs ! Fortunately , there are lots of things you can do right now Improve Your Rankings And get more eyes on Your Content Marketing Efforts … Let ’s take a look at some key tips : 1st Tip : Publish High – Quality Contents One surefire way lose rankings (and visitors) is by publishing low-quality contents . Not only will Google penalize you for it …Your Visitors Will Leave In Droves , too ! So what counts as high – quality contents ? Here ’s what Google has said in the past : “High – quality contents should aim at excitement rather than preachiness . Good articles don’t need expensive Standard writing does not come cheaply in terms credits but should make things easier for both writers readers alike …Avoid jargon zealotry long words needlessly Emphasize ease understanding . ” In other words , write for humans first Google second ! The better job you do at providing valuable information in an easy -to read format …The More Likely You Are To earn loyal readership as well as higher rankings ! 2nd Tip : Optimize All Your Images Whenever You Upload Them Whenever you upload images onto your site …Make Sure You Include Relevant Keywords In The File Name e .g., if you were writing an article about “How To Bake A Chocolate Cake ,” then some good image file names might be “chocolate – cake – baking – process .” Not only will this help improve your image search rankings …It Can Also Help People Find Your Article When They Enter Key phrases like those into Google search bar ! 3rd Tip : Optimize All Your Webpages For Mobile Mobile – friendliness has been one Google’s Ranking Factors since 2015 …And It’s Only Gotten More Important Since Then With mobile searches now surpassing desktop searches ! So how do ensure all your pages are mobile friendly ? Start by Checking How Google Sees Your Site On Mobile devices using their Mobile – Friendly Test tool . Simply enter in any URL see how Google rates it terms mobile friendliness Then follow any recommendations they provide improve things further ! 4th Tip : Improve Page Loading Speed Another important ranking factor is page loading speed …Or How Long It Takes For Any Given Webpage Load When Someone Tries To Visit It In their browser ! Studies have shown that even just one second delay in page loading speed can result significant decrease both web traffic conversions …So it’s definitely worth taking time ensure all your pages load quickly everyone ! Fortunately , there are lots easy ways test page loading speed find potential areas improvement …Both Free Paid Tools That Can Help You Out Include : GTmetrix Pingdom PageSpeed Insights 5th Tip : Increase Dwell Time Another key ranking factor is Dwell Time …Or How Long People Spend Engaged With Any Given Webpage Once They’ve Found It Via A Search Engine Result ! The thinking here is simple ; if someone clicks through one search engine results see another almost immediately afterwards …Then It’s Likely That First Result wasn’t particularly relevant them after all which isn’t good news terms rankings Google wants keep people its platform engaged for long possible …Which Means Providing Relevant Contents Helps Both You Them In The Long Run citizen! 6th Tip : Improve Social Shares & Engagement Last But Certainly Not Least ; Improving Social Shares Engagement Can Also Help Boost Rankings social signals have been known help improve rankings since 2014 when Matt Cutts ( then head Google’s Webspam team ) said following during hangout session : ” I believe we’ve seen evidence social signals really helpful achieving better rankings .” Since then numerous studies confirmed what Cutts said back 2014 holds true today improving engagement social media platform helps directly improve SERP rankings 7th Tip : Publish Monthly Blog Posts Finally ; As Mentioned Earlier On Publishing Monthly Blog Posts One Proven Ways Help Improve Rankings Traffic Levels Over Time ….It also doesn’t hurt that blog posts give you never – ending supply great ideas topics share across social media email list build up blog post archive which drives traffic back old posts 8th Tip Conclusion Those Are Just Some key Tips Can Help Improve Rankings Drive More Traffic Those Efforts lead increased brand awareness higher conversion rates more customers sales So What Are Waiting For ? Start Implementing These Tips Today Watch How Things Change For Better Good luck
