You are continuously publishing content on your website, right? You have read raving articles and blog posts about the power of content marketing and how it outshines conventional marketing and how it brings inbound traffic to your website without having to spam people. But you know what, content marketing isn’t just about creating and publishing content. You need to have a clear direction. One thing is indisputable: as a business you DO need to publish high-quality and highly valuable content on your website. But what purpose does that content solve? How does it help your business generate more leads and consequently, more business? How does it help your visitors make up their minds, preferably, in your favor?
In order to implement an effective content marketing strategy you need to figure out the two why’s publishing and promoting content:
- Why are you publishing content on your website?
- Why should your visitors care about your content?
If you are able to figure out these two why’s you have got something really good going on. Let’s go into some detail now if you are not in a great hurry.
Why are you publishing content on your website?
I assume you are savvy enough to know that you need to inform your visitors; you have to lay your cards on the table so that they are convinced you are not holding something up your sleeve. The great thing about having a website is that it is available to everybody 24 x 7 x 365. The bad thing, although it is not a bad thing and it depends on how you organize information, is that people are not able to talk to you. There is a more than 95% possibility that they are visiting your website for the first time. If you are a known brand, you have crossed a major hurdle already, but if you are not, people are not familiar with you. They doubt you. Even if they don’t doubt you, they need some more information about you, about your product, about your service, and about the way you do business. They might be impressed with your website design but when it comes to spending money, people are more cautious. They are interested in words. You need to convince them that you are a genuine business offering a genuine product or a genuine service. How do you do that?
- Publish content that informs them without manipulating
- Publish as much information as is needed in order to make a conscious decision
- Organize your content in such a manner that it can be easily accessed as soon as it is needed
- Share your knowledge and wisdom so that people trust you
This is one aspect. The above points take care of your business once visitors are already on your website. Your content should also be able to draw more visitors to your website. This can be achieved by creating compelling content that people want to talk about and even share on social media and social networking websites. Your content should also motivate them to sign up for your regular updates so that you can constantly keep in touch with them.
Try to define clear-cut goals for every blog post and article you publish on your website. There should be a well-defined measuring parameter so that you know you are in the right direction. The measuring parameter can be anything. Do people sign up for your newsletter after reading your articles and blog posts? Do you get mentions on Twitter? How many people favorite your article or blog post on Google+, Twitter or Facebook? How many people directly approach you after accessing your content.
These are just my assumptions. Every business has unique requirements so you can draw your measuring parameters according to your own goals and objectives.
Why should your visitors care about your content?
You may care about your content because, well, it is your content and you think it is going to have a positive impact on your business. But what about your visitors? Why should they care about your content? What do they get out of it? Are you offering them something that they cannot get from other websites? Are you creating an experience for them? Are you empowering them? Are you educating them and then letting them decide whether they want to do business with you or not?
Take for instance my website, or this blog. I provide professional content writing and content marketing services. Why should you read my blog posts and my other pages on the website? When I publish content on my website my primary purpose is to share what I know with you. Then after reading, whatever you have learned and absorbed, you can either apply on your website on your own, or you can hire me. I solve two purposes here: display my knowledge and give you a choice whether you want to use that knowledge on your own or you want me to pitch in.
For a successful content marketing strategy it is essential that you are able to define these two why’s before creating 100s of webpages and blog posts and then realizing they mean nothing.