Content is king, right? And a picture paints a thousand words?
Both are right, but we need to remember what their purpose is, as part of the marketing strategy. I often feel like I am in-undated with content and much of it doesn’t seem to have much purpose. Online content for a business or marketing purpose specifically should, in my mind, have all of the following things covered. Here’s my the litmus test…
Does it resonate with the brand? Hold the same values, tone, imagery and in short behave and build the right picture? Does it build a story? If I’ve read something previously, does it build from that or remain consistent? Does it build thought leadership or provide information in the right spaces that your company or product sits?
Does it contain keywords, supporting your search engine optimisation (SEO)? Using key words that you need to be found and want to be found with?
Does it engage and draw on trust? Bring the customer along a path that is more subtle, a ‘get to know you’ step. We have all experienced a ‘hard-sell’ and know how off-putting it is. Customers are now owning the journey, wanting to do their own research, find their own paths. Content can be the key to over-coming this problem and giving deeper insights - from “does it fit with what I need” to “is it aligned to me” to help tip toward the sale.
So, what to do with all of this content?
Firstly, it must be found on your website if it is going to be of any help. This means that it is set up as a blog/news or video channel that can be linked directly to your website to make the SEO and traffic that is delivered meaningful.
You might share via a link on social media and onto your newsletters – this is owned media.
Perhaps you could boost it across all social channels to increase reach and target specific groups. The algorithms of Facebook especially don’t mean that all of your followers will be shown the content when it’s posted.
It is helpful if it has a publisher ie written on behalf of the GM, for example. Then it could be published via their LinkedIn profile. Not always ideal for Google to have two exact copies, but you can probably get away with it.
Then, you could look at placing it as native advertising (sponsored ads), which allows you to use an image, a headline and sub-heading within your programmatic software, with a link to the longer format content. It can be targeted by many different audience and interest groups with a desired budget, bidding rate and time-frame set up. It will self-optimise; meaning you could set up two or more images and headings with the same link to see which captures better results. The programmatic software will automatically show the better performing content.
The key part to this; if you are going to spend the time on creating content, ensure that it is seen as far and wide as you can get it. It then needs to align back to your marketing goals, including generating a UTM code, so it can be tracked back into the wider Google analytics understanding.
Key tip – Ensure there is a call to action at the bottom of every blog. It might be as simple as sign up to the newsletter to find out more detail.
Need content written we can help