What Is Content Marketing?
Do the words “content marketing” make your heart beat a little faster, your head spin, and your eyes slightly glaze over? Don’t worry. It’s a common reaction for people who aren’t part of the content marketing world day-in, day-out.
Content marketing may sound complicated, but it’s easy to understand. Basically, it’s any form of written, oral or visual marketing that’s handled online. In fact, your business is probably doing some forms of content marketing right now, even if you aren’t using the term.
Popular Content Marketing Strategies
Some of the most content marketing strategies you’ll definitely want to consider for your company include:
• Blogging. The art of keeping an active blog going is a wonderful way to improve your content marketing. Not only does it drive people to your website, but it also makes search engines very happy. You’re basically continuously adding content to your website, and that can improve your organic page rank.
Plus, if you happen to write a particularly interesting, notable or otherwise “sticky” blog post, it could be shared multiple times on social media by interested readers.
• Web page writing. When was the last time you updated your website? Last week? Last year? Never? It’s time to do a little content marketing and revitalize your web pages. This usually involves adding appropriate keywords, neatly woven throughout the content.
The keywords help search engines understand what your pages are about, and the updated writing adds a sense of freshness to your website. It’s always a good idea to regularly dust off your web pages because they can get outdated fairly rapidly.
• Landing page writing. Landing pages are a specialized form of web pages and are usually added to attract very specific visitors. For instance, let’s say your company is trying to geographically target consumers who are interested in your services. Your landing page will be keyword-optimized to that audience only. Landing pages, like blog posts, add more pages to your site, which is good for search engine optimization (SEO).
• Social media updating. Did you realize that every time you add another post to your Twitter or Facebook account, you’re doing content marketing? Even if you’re writing 140 characters or less, it’s still content! Social media posts are highly underrated by many companies, which is too bad. They can actually be a strong source of leads, brand recognition, reputation management, and other positive outcomes for your organization.
• Email marketing. Do you keep an ongoing list of customers and prospective customers? If so, you may already be mailing them on a consistent basis. This is email marketing, another type of content marketing. You’re essentially pushing out content to people who are most likely to want what you offer. Great email marketing should be done systematically and should always have a strong call-to-action to guide consumer behavior in profitable directions.
• Videos. Wait — video isn’t content, is it? Yes! It actually is. Even though you’re not specifically writing a video, especially one that’s given “off the cuff,” you’re still engaging in content development. After all, your video has to be optimized and described so audiences know what they’re getting. Podcasts are similar to videos, although there is a limited visual component.
• Infographics. Chances are strong that you’ve seen plenty of infographics pop up in the last few years. They’re a terrific way to compile data into usable, interesting formats. If you’re looking for a way to boost content without having to write another article or produce a short video, why not consider an infographic for a bit of variety?
Now it’s your turn to try your hand at content marketing. It’s time to map out a strategy to get the word out about your company’s products and/or services through content development.
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