Content is the key to inbound marketing, and if done correctly can help you achieve your target of getting the right leads to come to you, instead of wasting your time and effort on chasing people who aren’t interested in your product or service.

The main issue that people find with content is that the rules around SEO are constantly changing, and it can be a full-time job trying to keep up with them. It’s not all bad news though! One of the main rules around SEO, which never changes, is that the content you produce online should give your readers value. At the end of the day, if your writing doesn’t make sense and is just stuffed full of keywords, you will lose your readers and Google will penalise you.

So, how do you ensure that your content is giving value?

Who Are You Talking To?

Whenever you write you should be keeping the person you are talking to in mind. This is where buyer persona research comes in really handy – how can you write for the customer you want if you don’t know who they are? You could waste a lot of time and energy writing about all the different topics within your industry because you don’t know exactly what your customer wants to know. And it doesn’t take much for you to find out what they want – social media is a fantastic free tool for talking directly to your customers. Don’t just push out content on your social media channels, but use them as a tool to talk with your customers and find out what they like and dislike, and use their answers to create your content. And don’t just think that content is blogging alone – video is one of the most shared types of posts on most social media, so why not literally talk to your customers using a video format?

Don’t Just Sell

A huge amount of content that gets pushed out there is product or brand-centric and often has a selling tone. Your blog should really focus more on the things you have learnt about what your customers want – focus on what you can do for them rather than what they should be buying from you! Nurture your audience, let them know you understand what they want, and show them how you can help them solve their problems. This should give you lots of things to write about, and will definitely earn you loyalty from your customers.

Be Engaging

Very easy to say, quite hard to do. How can you engage your customers? Again, it is not just producing articles around your keywords with keywords stuffed in, but being more creative with what you write about. Prioritise your blogging, and don’t just think of it as a way of getting the search engines to notice you. Think about how to get customers to notice you – be inspiring, be interesting and write things that will get people talking. Take time to think of some ideas, research them and talk about them to different people well before you sit down at the keyboard. Take the time to produce good quality content and it will pay dividends.

Don’t Forget About SEO Totally

Having said all that, SEO is a vital part of content marketing so don’t forget about it. Chances are if you have listened to what your customers want, and written an engaging blog post, your keywords will pop up naturally in there anyway. Entertaining your readers and pleasing the search engines – what could be better than that?

So, if you want to produce a strategic Content Marketing campaign then please email us on [email protected] or ring on 01625 238 770.

The Best Way to Add Value to Your Content Marketing Strategy

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Content is the key to inbound marketing, and if done correctly can help you achieve your target of getting the right leads to come to you, instead of wasting your time and effort on chasing people who aren’t interested in your product or service.

The main issue that people find with content is that the rules around SEO are constantly changing, and it can be a full-time job trying to keep up with them. It’s not all bad news though! One of the main rules around SEO, which never changes, is that the content you produce online should give your readers value. At the end of the day, if your writing doesn’t make sense and is just stuffed full of keywords, you will lose your readers and Google will penalise you.

So, how do you ensure that your content is giving value?

Who Are You Talking To?

Whenever you write you should be keeping the person you are talking to in mind. This is where buyer persona research comes in really handy – how can you write for the customer you want if you don’t know who they are? You could waste a lot of time and energy writing about all the different topics within your industry because you don’t know exactly what your customer wants to know. And it doesn’t take much for you to find out what they want – social media is a fantastic free tool for talking directly to your customers. Don’t just push out content on your social media channels, but use them as a tool to talk with your customers and find out what they like and dislike, and use their answers to create your content. And don’t just think that content is blogging alone – video is one of the most shared types of posts on most social media, so why not literally talk to your customers using a video format?

Don’t Just Sell

A huge amount of content that gets pushed out there is product or brand-centric and often has a selling tone. Your blog should really focus more on the things you have learnt about what your customers want – focus on what you can do for them rather than what they should be buying from you! Nurture your audience, let them know you understand what they want, and show them how you can help them solve their problems. This should give you lots of things to write about, and will definitely earn you loyalty from your customers.

Be Engaging

Very easy to say, quite hard to do. How can you engage your customers? Again, it is not just producing articles around your keywords with keywords stuffed in, but being more creative with what you write about. Prioritise your blogging, and don’t just think of it as a way of getting the search engines to notice you. Think about how to get customers to notice you – be inspiring, be interesting and write things that will get people talking. Take time to think of some ideas, research them and talk about them to different people well before you sit down at the keyboard. Take the time to produce good quality content and it will pay dividends.

Don’t Forget About SEO Totally

Having said all that, SEO is a vital part of content marketing so don’t forget about it. Chances are if you have listened to what your customers want, and written an engaging blog post, your keywords will pop up naturally in there anyway. Entertaining your readers and pleasing the search engines – what could be better than that?

So, if you want to produce a strategic Content Marketing campaign then please email us on [email protected] or ring on 01625 238 770.