What is Content Marketing
Content marketing is building trust and brand loyalty by providing the information people seek.
When you provide accurate, helpful information, you build brand loyalty. When your loyal audience is ready to purchase, they'll choose your company because they trust you.
Creating high-quality content that addresses your customers' questions, problems, and issues is a service. You're providing the content they want to read and finding the answers they need. That's the essence of content marketing.
Content marketing is not advertising.
It's not about selling, though it can lead to future sales once consumers trust your brand and the information you provide. Refrain from pushing sales to your consumers or searchers. They want information. Selling will turn them away.
The content on your web page should NOT:
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Be advertising
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Be a print brochure adapted for your website
Your site should contain information people seek at each sales funnel stage: Awareness, Information, Decision, and Action.
Leave out the sales pitch until the time is right.
When researching a subject, customers don't want a sales pitch. Content marketing builds sustainable brand loyalty, though it doesn't happen overnight. Providing valuable information continuously grows your customer base.
Creating content that customers seek builds trust with your audience, expanding it over time.
Use fresh content that is informational, problem-solving, and helpful.
Think about the last time you "Googled" something. You were looking for information, not products or services. You wanted the best answer to your question. You continued at any site that had sales pitches.
Content marketing is about audience engagement.
According to the Content Marketing Institute:
"Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action." – Content Marketing Institute.
Old-school advertising might still be valuable elsewhere, but not on your website. Modern online marketing is about providing relevant, helpful information that solves your customers' issues.
Focus on SEO from the beginning.
SEO professionals and content creators should work together. Both are key to creating the right content for real people and search engines. Involving an SEO professional at the beginning is crucial for success. Their research is essential, and their early involvement prevents many issues.
Your SEO professional will:
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Search for the best keyword phrases to use
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Ensure keywords are in all the right places (H1, page title, URLs, etc.)
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Check all other ranking factors that could impact your content
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Work on backlinks, which only happen if your content is exceptional and linkable
Involve an SEO professional at the start of your content marketing project for the most efficient outcome, saving time and reducing copy edits.
On-Page SEO and Content Marketing
Content marketing uses on-page SEO to build better web pages that help search engines find and index your content. Search engines prefer in-depth, high-quality content with properly applied on-page SEO. Your SEO professional can ensure your content meets these criteria.
Sharing Your Content is Off-Page SEO
Sharing your content on social media is a form of off-page SEO, expanding your reach and potentially creating backlinks to your site. Backlinks signal to search engines that your site is a trusted authority.
Another form of off-page SEO is Pay-Per-Click (PPC) ads. These ads use your keyword phrases to attract people to your content. PPC can be expensive, but it helps build your audience if your content meets their needs.
Use caution with PPC, as it can be costly if you need help understanding the process. Consider consulting a PPC professional before starting to help you understand the bidding process.
Marketing Funnels and Flywheels
Your content marketing strategy should include content for each marketing funnel stage.
There are five steps to the marketing funnel:
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Awareness
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Opinion
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Consideration
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Preference
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Purchase
Marketing professionals also use the flywheel method to measure the stages of their potential clients. The three stages of a flywheel are:
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Attract
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Engage
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Delight
Both funnels and flywheels require content for each stage to guide customers through their journey.
Conclusion
The four most important ideas to understand about content marketing are:
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Solve your customers' problems and issues through your content.
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Use your customers' words in your content; an SEO professional will research the best keyword phrases.
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SEO professionals and content creators must work together to achieve the best results.
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Provide content for each stage of the marketing funnel or flywheel.
If you're looking for a content creator or web designer, please let me know—I can connect you with the right people.