Consider Your Content

Are you providing quality content?

Too much content can overwhelm the audience. Companies once believed the more they published the greater their brand, everyone would be talking about said business and the digital world would be full of their content.

Brand awareness: yes. Audience retention: unlikely. Too much information and content makes it difficult for the consumer to filter through and find the answers to the inevitable questions they have.

The main reasons consumers look for content on a particular brand or product is because they want to know more. Whether that is general knowledge about the business, product reviews or a more detailed enquiry, it’s likely that people searching for specific content have a purpose.

There is the other audience, the “browsers” just surfing the internet, these are the people to stand out to, catchy topic lines, bold images and interesting content not only entice them, it can encourage them to want to know more.

Let’s not forget that once you have; answered the consumers question, grabbed the attention of a random web surfer, shared your company ethos or shown an informative video, you want to keep the audience engaged, establish yourself as a credible source of information, provide share-worthy content and keep hold of those people.

Content and Strategy

Content Marketing is a vital part of any good Digital Marketing Strategy. If you are paying for content, make sure it is of good quality and if you are generating it yourself there are several points to consider.

We have said before that the main purpose of content is to engage and capture the reader’s attention, offer them value or a solution. Content doesn’t have to be a blog or article either, books, videos and events are all types of content. People love content, if they are not looking for an answer, they want to be entertained.

When a Director makes a movie they aim for an Oscar, when a writer pens a novel they want a Pulitzer, even footballers want to win the world cup! Aim to be the best, aim to provide exceptional content. If your content is worth reading it will be read.

Content marketing negatives:

• Don’t make it all about you. There is nothing wrong with posting about an achievement or award, but if content is consistently focused on you and your business then it isn’t relating to the audience. Share experiences, case studies or solutions.
• Step away from the sales pitch. The main goal of any business is to generate revenue. however if every piece of content has a selling angle, consumers will get bored pretty quickly.
• SEO heavy: keyword stuffing and excessive links are off putting. If you are selling a product for example a “4 slice toaster” your keyword will be “4 slice toaster”but if said keyword appears in every other sentence of the content it’s unlikely anyone will continue ready let alone share.
• Information overload. Content needs to be regular, however there is  regular, then excessive. It’s better to drip feed content, depending on the product or service once a day, once a week even once a month would suffice. Adding 5 articles in one day will not only appear unprofessional, it’s likely that the audience won’t pay attention, they may read one article or watch one video. If you have a number of great pieces of content, adding them all at once could be a waste.

Analyse

Don’t forget to analyse interactions with content. Downloads, views, social shares; all provide information that can be reviewed to get content marketing just right. If one tactic doesn’t work, try another.

Ultimately there are simple rules to creating a good content marketing strategy:

• Quality content
• Share-worthy content
• Informative content
• Interesting content
• Never underestimate the power of a good headline….

For more information on content marketing and how we can help, get in touch today.