Although a relatively new trend in corporate advertising, content marketing has quickly become one of the most transformative and revolutionary efforts among businesses of all sizes and in virtually every industry. Content marketing was at first a fairly simple and one-dimensional game in which businesses posted short blogs and news stories rich with target keywords.
The topics covered, grammatical prowess and literary integrity of the pieces were generally moot points compared to the advantages of sheer volume. Just as quickly as the trend began, though, it transformed into a highly quality-driven, brand-focused marketing tactic which even today continues to evolve rapidly amid Google algorithm changes, consumer preferences and corporate innovation.
Pinning down best practices
Regardless of whether a business leader is beginning a new online marketing strategy or working to improve upon older frameworks, these considerations can help enhance the visibility and conversion-driving power of content marketing efforts:
Inform the strategy: Though writing blogs on a semi-regular basis might come naturally to more outspoken staff members, a content marketing initiative needs to have a guiding light to truly boost the brand’s stature. Executives or small business leaders will need to establish clear, time-sensitive and realistic goals for the strategy that are informed by market research.
Keep the content informative: Readers are far less likely to continue reading blogs, posts or news stories after feeling as though they wasted time with a prior piece. Fluff, which is an industry term for either irrelevant or non-substantive content, should be placed atop the list of the strategy’s biggest enemies. Articles and blogs must be targeted and unique to truly make a difference for the brand.
Personality: As one delves deeper into the inner-workings of content marketing, the value of authorship and personality becomes clearer. Readers want to know who is writing the pieces, and leaders should always work to make that information readily available. On the other side of that coin, writers should be encouraged to inject personal characteristics through phrasing, statements and insights.
Quality, quality, quality: As mentioned earlier, today’s top content marketing strategies are also the ones which sustain high quality ratings each time an author publishes a piece. From spelling and grammar to the topics covered and amount of unique information included, every article or blog should be held to exceptional standards.
Repetition: Soren Kierkegaard published one of his most celebrated pieces, Repetition, roughly 170 years ago under the pseudonym Constantin Constantius. In the same way the Danish philosopher attacked the dangers of constantly recurring life experiences, managers and writers need to be fiercely opposed to repetitious content. If a reader does not need to read the text to understand what it says, engagement will falter, followed swiftly by the strategy’s effectiveness.
Give them something to talk about
Once businesses have ironed out strong, engaging and unique content marketing strategies, the next step is to incorporate the efforts into broader branding efforts. Articles and blogs will be best supported by optimized organizational websites, as well as plenty of communications and interactions through social media channels.
Organizations that walk the line between diversity and consistency will often enjoy the highest returns on web-based marketing investments.
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