Content marketing can seem counter intuitive to business owners. Essentially, it’s a method of communicating with your existing and potential clients without pitching your products and services to them. If it’s not sounding much like a traditional marketing strategy at this point, then you’re spot on.
Instead, content marketing is the sharing of valuable knowledge and experience to engage your market. Through content you can reposition your company’s relationship with your clients and the nature of your communications with them. The idea is based on reciprocity, which can be a very effective persuasion tactic.
It’s a simple idea: be nice to your web visitors and they’ll be nice back.
Applying a content marketing strategy to your blog
You’ve got a website – and maybe even a blog, too – but you’re not yet getting the ranking and hits you were hoping for. What can you do?
There are several ways you can boost your website traffic instantly – such as pay per click advertising – but a more comprehensive strategy is required to ensure your business continues to show up in relevant search results in the long term.
Step 1: Getting started
The first step to a valuable blog is deciding exactly who your audience is. Try to avoid anything too general, like people looking for an accountant in Sydney. The more general you are the more competition you will have and the less likely it will be that people who are truly interested will find your blog.
Use your strengths and unique selling proposition to inform your content marketing niche. If you are an accountant, as an example, you could focus on becoming the expert on tax to small retail businesses based in the Hills area. You will have a lot less competition and because your blog is very specific to that group they will find your content more helpful.
Once you have achieved that goal, start building your audience and adding articles that may apply to other areas nearby. It’s all about choosing achievable steps rather than deciding to climb Everest from day one.
Step 2: Post regularly
Search engines love relevant, up-to-date knowledge and if you’re not adding content to your website on a regular basis you may be missing out. However, remember to keep it relevant to your niche.
Step 3: Share
Think about what this type of audience normally asks during tax time. What are they worried about? Once you have thought of a few questions, pick one and start an article that answers that question. These articles don’t have to be Shakespeare, in many cases 200 – 300 words should be enough and once you have completed writing go back and see what you can do to make the article more succinct. With all the information people get bombarded with every day they will appreciate you answering their questions as quickly as possible.
When people are searching for an answer and find that your blog not only covers that specific question but others they may not of even thought of yet; then they are likely to think of you first when it’s time to get their tax sorted.
Step 4: Becoming the expert in your niche
Search engines look at many factors when deciding on how to rank your website pages. One of those factors is they look at the websites who link to your website. These are essentially your recommendations; websites who say your content is great and recommend it to their viewers. The more recommendations the better, however most search engines are smart enough that the recommendations need to be from websites related to your industry to have any weight.
If you want recommendations you need to provide content that is valuable to your target audience – and not just talk about how great your new product launch party was last week!
And finally…
While your website is a tool to promote your business don’t feel like you have to close a sale right away. A simple gesture such as sharing some basic knowledge that is relevant to them can help you down the road.
So break out that keyboard and start sharing your knowledge. At Orion Creative not only can we help setup your website and blog, we also have copywriters who can help you create useful blog articles that your clients will love.
