In recent decades, digital marketing has become one of the main modes of marketing for large and small businesses trying to increase their brand awareness. The best thing about digital marketing campaigns is that they’re relatively cheap and simple to put together. Such being the case, content marketing has become one of the most pervasive methods togged the word out about a product or service.
Whether you’re a small business trying to grow your customer base or a large corporation looking to tap into local markets, content marketing is one of the most powerful tools you have at your disposal. However, there are some basics and best practices you should know before you begin developing your content strategy. Continue reading to learn the ins and outs of content marketing and what it can do for your company.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is the practice of consistently creating engaging digital content for a variety of platforms, including your enterprise website and social media, to reach your target audience and drive organic traffic to your website. Content creation can take the form of blog posts, social media posts, eBooks, and product videos.
The key to effective content marketing is to create content that disseminates relevant information related to your industry without explicitly marketing your brand. For instance, if you owned a hair supply store, you could create content that teaches people how to use certain hair care products you sell and achieve popular hairstyles. Venterra Realty commonly uses content marketing as a way to help real estate investors make wiser investment decisions while also furthering company interests. Seeing as Venterra’s CEO John Foresi has a wealth of knowledge about the real estate industry, creating content is a great way to get the message out about Venterra’s expertise when it comes to running apartment communities and other aspects of the real estate realm.
Content should be engaging.
No matter what type of content you’re planning to create as part of your content marketing strategy, the number one rule is that each piece of content has to be engaging. That means that all of your content must be both entertaining and informative. That means you have to figure out who your target audience is and direct your content towards the right people to achieve the results you desire.
If content marketing plans aren’t your thing, you should consider contracting your content creation needs to a digital marketing agency that offers content marketing management solutions like Welcome Software. They have content management tools that will make it easier to create various types of content, from email marketing to podcasts and blog posts.
Link-building is integral to creating traction with your blog posts.
You’d be amazed at what a piece of content with the right backlinks can do for your search engine rankings, brand awareness, and brand visibility. Backlinks are hypertext embedded within content pieces that take readers to different websites when they click on them. By putting links in your content that link to more authoritative websites, you can build the authority of your own website.
In addition to placing links to other content in your own content pieces, you can also negotiate arrangements with other content creators to put backlinks in their content that takes readers to your content. This is known as link building, and there are several ways to go about it.
Paid links are the easiest way to get backlinks because you simply let the money do the talking for you, and you can get nearly any link you can afford. However, if you want to drive organic traffic to your website, reciprocal link building is the best method. Reciprocal links are partnerships developed between content creators in which they agree to swap links with each other.
Consistency is key.
Consistency is one of the most underestimated facets of content creation. You don’t want to start developing your target audience and then leave them high and dry. To prevent lulls in your content, you should come up with a content marketing strategy that gives your company direction for the next couple of months.
With a content calendar, you can automate your posts and ensure you never miss a beat. The more consistent you are, the more authority your brand will carry with search engines.
These days, you have to have an omnichannel marketing plan that reaches your target audience across all mediums, which means content marketing is integral to your company’s success. As long as you create engaging content, use keyword research and link building to drive traffic, and remain consistent, your company should be successful in its content production.
