You may have heard the phrase ‘content is king’ thrown around a bit in relation to SEO and digital marketing in the last year or two, but what exactly does this mean? And is it something you can use for your online marketing strategy? Yes! And depending on the region or countries you’re targeting or running in, you’ll need to tailor that content for those languages. That’s where translators come in, helping to professionally translate your content to begin some website localisation work on your site. But that’s a whole other post. For now, let’s look at what YOU can do.
WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
Content refers to, well ‘stuff’! Content is text, like these paragraphs here, images, video, diagrams, infographics, music etc. Anything that gives information, is content. A website empty of content is just a framework and domain name – not very interesting. Content is what brings a site, a blog, your business and your social marketing strategy to life online. And because it’s what brings it to life, you should plan it all in line with your brand and do it often. Supermarkets don’t buy beautiful fresh vegetables and then never buy anymore. They buy them on a daily basis so the supermarket is always full of fresh, healthy goods. Likewise, you can and should do the same with the content on your blog.
HOW CAN I IMPLEMENT A CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY?
1. THINK ABOUT YOUR BRAND, PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.
What do you provide? Your content, if it’s going to help your online marketing, will need to relate to this. You can pick niche, varied and unique angles, but keep it in line with what you’re providing most of the time. A cute cat picture or excellent quote every no and again will do no harm.
2. CONSIDER YOUR AUDIENCE.
Who are you trying to reach? Write and choose content that matches with what your target market will be interested in. If you sell expensive designer jeans, there’s no point in writing blog posts about ‘cheap’ or ‘free’ jeans or clothing. Even if these are keywords that are searched a lot, they’re going to attract the wrong traffic. Be faithful to your services. If it’s designer, write about the designers, the quality and give your customer a feel for your great, top notch, online customer service. Reinforce that with beautiful packaging, on time deliveries and kind returns policies to create loyal customers who want to shop with you again.
3. CONSIDER WHERE YOUR AUDIENCE ARE.
Online, there are two ways you need to think about this. Firstly, what platforms or spaces does your audience ‘hang out’ in? If you’re a B2B organisation, people you’re targeting could well be doing their homework and research through mediums like LinkedIn and possibly twitter. If you’re providing something young fashionistas are going to be interested in, make sure you are providing content they love where they are – Pinterest, Instagram and probably twitter.
Secondly, think about where these potential new customers of yours are geographically. If they’re English speakers, make sure your site and related content is in English -and that counts for your social media and other platforms too. If they’re Russian speakers, translate your content into Russian or indeed set up a Russian site specifically for these customers. Do they same for the languages of any other markets you’re targeting too and implement these handy steps to make the localisation efforts work even harder for you.
4. BE READY TO SNAP!
When I say be ready to snap, I don’t mean lose the plot, don’t worry. I mean be ready to take a great photo, capture a video or record an impromptu interview. It will help to have a smartphone with a decent camera and pictures really enhance and attract customers, even if your content isn;t necessarily visual. If you own a bakery, snap the fresh bread out of the oven in the mornings. Ask a customer can you take a little video of them telling you what they love about your cakes! Think about what you’d like to see from businesses you love or don’t know much about that and provide that content to your customer.
If your business is more B2B, go to conferences, corporate meetings, networking events etc. ready to take photos and tweet interesting facts, new developments etc. Get someone else to take pictures of you with members of other businesses and organisations and get them onto twitter. Make sure to include the other company’s twitter handle so that they know it’s their and can retweet it to boost your exposure.
Have you seen any really excellent content strategies or ideas online? Share your experiences – good or bad, in the comments below. If we can help, we’ll provide or direct you to some other tips that might help.