What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is one of the fundamentals of any digital marketing campaign, it’s basically the words, images, videos and (in some cases) audio that appears across the internet. The most important of which is of course your website, but it also encompasses any content that you feed onto other websites, such as social media posts, PR articles, YouTube videos etc.
It is often the only form of communication you will have with potential customers and it’s what will lead them to deciding whether or not to take any action. If your content is sloppy and badly written and your images are fuzzy then it sends out the wrong impression to your potential customers about how your business operates.
It’s important to understand what information is most important to the people that visit your website or interact with your business online and then construct that information in a way that encourages people to take action.
How does Content Marketing Work?
We always approach content marketing with SEO in mind, after all there is no point in having amazingly constructed and informative pages if no one has any interest in the subject matter. That’s why everything has to start with research to understand what people are searching the internet for and what it is that people want to know about first.
Every business will have their core services or products, this is the area to start. Remember that visitors to your website will be interested in their own needs not yours. They are trying to solve their problem or answer their question. This means that when you are creating content, you need to be focussing on them and what they want to hear, sometimes that will be different to what you want to say. No one really cares about how amazing you are, accolades and memberships are great for instilling trust, but don’t spend all of your valuable space talking about yourself. You need to be fulfilling their needs, what can you do for them.
Once any content has gone live it’s important to analyse on a regular basis to understand how successful it is. How long are people spending on your pages? Do they look at lots of pages? Most importantly, do they take action?
- Research
- Subject / Topic Selection
- Content Creation
- Editing
- Publish
- Analyse and Adjust as necessary
Content Marketing Pitfalls to Avoid?
Like most things worth doing, content marketing takes time to get right. Not only do you need to be continually reviewing the content you have, you need to be adding to it on a regular basis. The more frequently you add new (relevant) content, the more often Google will index your website and this is good for SEO too.
Here are some things to avoid when embarking on content marketing:
- Don’t copy other website content, plagiarism is against the law and you could see yourself in a lot of trouble.
- Don’t be tempted to outsource to a freelancer ‘on the cheap’ that has no idea about your business, you will likely get poor content in return.
- Be aware that people read differently on websites and want core information served up quickly.
- Break up long pages of text with images and design features, people won’t hang around your content doesn’t gain their interest aesthetically.
- Steer clear of keyword stuffing, it’s not great for anyone visiting your website and search engines really don’t like it either, try and keep your content natural but with laser sharp focus on the subject or topic.
- Try and keep in mind one page one topic, don’t try and cram in too much information about different areas of your business on one page.
- Remember to write what people want to read, not what you want to say. No one really cares about you, only what you can do for them.
- Don’t hide key information away, be as transparent as possible, it helps instil trust.
Different Types of Content
Words
Writing content is time consuming and sometimes difficult if it’s not something you are comfortable with. But it’s one of the most important time investments you can make to the success of your content marketing. We encourage clients to write their own content if possible or outsource to a reputable and SEO focussed copywriter if it’s an area they aren’t comfortable with.
Once the content has been written, it’s our job to optimise it so that it’s as SEO friendly as possible.
Images
If you sell products then you really need to have your own images taken to showcase your products properly. The photo’s need to be consistent and professional, we would always advise working with a photographer on an ongoing basis to ensure consistency as new products are added.
If you are a service based business then it’s of course better to have your own photo’s and images, but stock photo’s are very frequently used for this type of business.
Whatever the type of images, they need to be good quality and in a format that your website will support. Any design features need to be added in keeping with the rest of the website and of course your company branding. Otherwise things look ‘stuck on’.
Video
People like video, it shows them that there are real people behind the website. Again, get a professional to shoot any video you use for your website, for social media accounts you can get away with less professional video providing it fits your company brand.
How to videos are great if you are a product based company, a lot of people prefer video instructions to reading text.
Video is also a really good medium to use with case studies, testimonials and to really showcase your products.
Why Work with us for your Content Marketing
Our aim is always to help our clients to achieve their goals. Content marketing should be viewed as a partnership, we work together on creating good quality, relevant and well optimised content with your potential customers in mind.
Because we work on an ongoing basis with our clients, we can continually tweak and improve existing content whilst researching and writing about new topics. We generally find a mixture of client generated and TU Marketing generated content works really well.
The other benefit is that because we look after all of our clients digital marketing requirements, we can tie in content with other marketing activity. This means that it appears on a technically sound, fast and high performing website, is consistent with other work that is happening and therefore it performs much better.
Everything we do is aimed at achieving results and not just creating content for the sake of it. This is different from client to client which is why we offer bespoke services, tailor made to each individual set of requirements and circumstances. We don’t offer cookie cutter services and why should you accept that, after all, you aren’t a cookie cutter business!
If you want to discuss your content marketing requirements or digital marketing in general, please do get in touch today.
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