Content marketing has quickly become a key factor in online marketing. The current world of blogging and social sharing sees a more trustworthy approach to advertising that involves building relationships with customers instead of producing a sales pitch.
A company website is no longer enough and marketing must involve a direct engagement in order to thrive.
1. Getting Social
Social sharing is fundamentally important as it provides a whole new approach to sales. Word of mouth has always carried more power than standard advertising, but now it can carry the same power on a global scale. The act of sharing content is a recommendation from trusted peers without the pressurised sales pitch. This means that customers are able to get to know a specific brand and potentially build a relationship with them through comments, shares, favourites and other interactions. It’s this relationship that increases the chances of making a sale. But content marketing isn’t just about making a sale, the main focus is to change views and behaviour towards that particular brand.
2. Create a Voice
Once you’ve created a voice for your company, you can focus your attention on branding and building a personality. It’s not worth creating content for content’s sake. Make sure you produce in depth and thought-provoking articles that spark conversations and discussions. Content is there to encourage interaction in as many ways as possible.
This creates an opportunity for your company to stand out from the crowd.
We’ve already mentioned building a personality but this is very important when creating content. Your posts should be helpful, informative and fun – but jargon free.
3. Visibility
Effective content marketing will ensure you appear on the radar for more than one reason. Multiple shares and engagements through social platforms will help to boost your Google Search rankings. Original and high quality content will also creep up the list. But it’s more than that. If your content is being shared then traffic will eventually find its way back to your website and this allows prospective customers to browse your archive of knowledge, get to know your brand and use your services.
By creating informative content and sharing it on the right platforms, you open yourself up for validation from the public. This will positively impact your website, and with the right call-to-action you will be able to convert this traffic into sales. All of this will indirectly make your website easier for others to find.
Content marketing is the heart of online success and allows the powers of thought leadership to become the forefront of campaigns and brand association. Ultimately it’s more than this – through content you will be able to build your identity and grow customer relationships, and with word of mouth as powerful as it is, keeping up with it is paramount and unavoidable.
