Content Marketing
WE CREATE AND DELIVER CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGIES FOR OUR CLIENTS.
The most common forms of content are blogs, but content also comes in many different forms, including videos, webinars, podcasts, presentations, white papers, case studies, newsletters, and so on.
UNDERSTAND YOUR GOALS
The first stage in the process of creating a content marketing strategy is to understand the primary goals of the business.
It might be to deliver sales or to generate leads, or to develop relationships and build trust with prospects and customers, or to create engaging content that can be shared by industry influencers to their followers. We invest time in research and planning to create an effective content marketing strategy – this might involve getting to know a client’s business and the marketplace they operate in, looking at what their competitors are doing to seek ideas and insights from which we can learn, identifying media journalists, and understanding the needs and drivers of the target audience.
Content marketing helps to demonstrate thought leadership credentials, and ensures that a business is perceived to be a serious player in the marketplace within which it operates by potential customers and other important stakeholders.
It helps a company to stand out from the competition, and conveys the image of a dynamic and authoritative organisation that knows what it is talking about. This leads to a perception of added value, and is likely to move conversations with prospects away from price-related discussions.
THE VALUE OF CONTENT
Content is invaluable for businesses interested in SEO. Search engines crawl websites on a regular basis – part of their function is to check for fresh content and to cross-reference this against keywords being used on the website.
That is why non-written content (such as videos and presentations) need to have transcripts added to whatever hosting platform is being used (e.g. YouTube, SlideShare, etc.), so that search engines can optimally crawl content and keywords.
Fresh content also ensures that there is a constant supply of relevant and interesting news for social media feeds. But never forget that quality is just as important as quantity – to both search engines and potential customers. Good quality content will build up a positive brand reputation over a sustained period of time. This benefit will be quickly diminished by poor quality content, or too much content, or content that is too sales-focused.
CONTENT TAKES TIME
Writing high quality content takes time and effort. We understand that many organisations find it difficult to find the time to create content on a regular and sustained basis, especially when they have limited resources or where their key people are tied up delivering existing client work, or prospecting for new business.
That is why it is helpful to appoint a third party such as us to create this content. To be able to deliver high quality work, this will require an in-depth knowledge of the business, access to relevant materials, interviews with key people, and so on. As a general rule of thumb, it is often easier to engage a third party to create B2C content, because it tends to be less technically-oriented than products and services delivered in the B2B world.
Once content is visible on the internet (either on a company’s website or on third party websites), its benefits will remain in place for a long period of time. That is why content marketing is particularly beneficial for organisations seeking long-term value from their marketing efforts. It is also why all businesses with an interest in SEO should ensure any physical content that they create – such as brochures, leaflets and newsletters – is also available to download from their website in digital form.
KEYWORD STRATEGY
Although we have mentioned SEO a number of times, one should always write in the first instance for the benefit of end users, which are normally customers, prospects and suspects – and then to edit this copy with search engines in mind.
That being said, the first stage in the process is to think about keyword strategies relating to what potential customers might type into a search engine to look for products and services delivered by the client. Content does not just have to focus on a company or the products and services it sells.
It might also be beneficial to create articles relating to corporate social responsibility (CSR), environmental and workplace policies, associations with charities, and so on. Anything which implicitly enhances brand values and corporate positioning.
Another way to demonstrate thought leadership is to comment on news relevant to the industry in which a client operates – for instance, if there is some major new legislation coming into force that affects its customers, writing an article about its impact will demonstrate that a business understands the issues that are likely to affect their target audience.
Taking this further, a monthly newsletter summarising and commenting on industry news is a powerful tool of great potential benefit to customers, as well as providing SEO and social media benefits. That is why content, SEO and social media work best when delivered in unison.