With customers being constantly bombarded by advertisements, emails, text messages and social posts, you may wonder, “Is it really worth spending my time producing even more content?”
The short answer is yes. Creating great content is still key to building your online presence and positioning yourself as an expert in your field.
Here are three reasons why content is still king (and a few tips on creating some):
1) It answers your customers’ questions
Blogs, social media posts and FAQ website pages are a great way to answer questions for your customers. Answers are available online, 24/7, for customers to find when you and your staff aren’t around to speak to them in person. Unlike spam emails and unwanted pop-up ads, if viewers find your content through a search, it’s because they were looking for it.
TIP: Talk to your sales team (or other people in your office who most often deal with customers) and find out the most popular questions asked by prospects and customers. Add questions and answers to your FAQ page on a regular basis, or post them to your Facebook page and then include a link to your website so customers know where to go for the latest information.
2) It makes Google happy
Today, over 93% of all online experiences (on all Internet-connected devices) start with a search engine – and not surprisingly, that search engine is usually Google. That’s why every business owner wants to have their website rank well.While getting a high rank in Google is complicated (their algorithm is made up of over 200 components), there’s no doubt that Google rewards sites for good content. Industry studies consistently show that relevant, comprehensive content is one of the most important factors for better rankings.
TIP: Don’t write content stuffed with individual keywords. Google prefers more relevant content written in natural language. On your website, write more content about less topics on each page – you can always create another website page for each topic you want to cover.
3) It positions you as a leader in your field
When you write informative, non-salesy content that engages your audience, it also helps demonstrate your knowledge of your industry and why people should listen to what you have to say. This is an important part of building trust with potential customers.
TIP: Don’t make the mistake of many companies and use your blog, social media or email campaigns as overt selling tools. Think about the problems your customers are facing and create something that helps them solve those problems.
One final tip – while it’s a lot of work to come up with fresh content for your website, blog, emails, social media posts and other marketing materials, you can often ‘repurpose’ good content and save yourself a lot of time and effort.
For example, let’s say you have some text that’s been written for a company marketing brochure. With a little editing work, you can probably use some of the same information on your website, in a blog post, as a script for a YouTube video, an email campaign, a SlideShare or PowerPoint presentation, or for a Twitter or Facebook post.
Have thoughts, questions or other suggestions about content creation? Need help in producing content for your site? Let me know.
