The internet now contains at least 5.45 billion indexed pages. Does your website stand out from the massive amounts of content out there? If not, you could struggle to reel in traffic.
With a strong content marketing strategy, you can boost traffic to your website. Consumers will see the value you have to offer. In time, you can build brand trust, boost sales, and retain long-time, loyal customers.
Not sure where to start? Here are the eight tips you need for a strong content marketing plan. With these tips, you can boost your ranking and generate more traffic.
Start reaching your target audience with wow-worthy content. Begin with these eight easy digital content marketing tips today!
1. Know Your Audience
Before you start building your content marketing strategy, you’ll need to gather a little research. First, consider your target audience. Who are you creating your content for?
Learn as much as you can about your target audience. What products and services do they use? What problems do they experience on a daily basis?
How can your product or service improve their lives? What value can you offer them?
If you’re targeting a large audience, segment it into smaller buyer personas based on:
- Age
- Gender
- Location
- Marital status
- Education
- Family background
- Language
- Pain points
- Personal or work goals
- Household income
- Buying behaviors
- Interests
Think of each buyer persona as a real person. Then, develop a separate content marketing plan with each group in mind.
2. Establish SMART Goals
What do you want to accomplish with your content? You’ll fail to accomplish your goals if you don’t know what they are. SMART goals can keep you on track.
SMART stands for:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Attainable
- Results-driven
- Timely
Do you want to boost traffic to your website by 20% in the first quarter? Would you prefer to generate 100 leads a month?
Establish a key performance indicator for each goal. For example, you can track website traffic, form leads, or phone calls.
3. Focus on Educating
Before you use these content marketing tips, consider the information you alone can provide your readers. How can you help them?
Focus on creating educational content. As readers recognize the value you have to offer, they’ll come back for more. They’ll rely on you for high-quality, educational tips and tricks.
Show readers how your product or service can make their lives easier through your content.
4. Make It Easy to Read
As you format your content, make sure it’s easy to read and consume. You can experiment with different formats, including:
- Blog posts/articles
- eBooks
- Polls
- Quizzes
- Calculators
- Videos
- Infographics
- Checklists
- Podcasts
Learning how to start a podcast can help you entertain and engage your audience.
For longer pieces of content, break the text into headings and subheadings. Use short sentences and paragraphs. Then, add bullets and numbered lists to make your content easy to read.
End each post with a strong call-to-action. Push readers to contact you, fill out a form, or shop from your store.
5. Add Imagery
Adding visuals to your content can make it easier to consume. You can use photos, illustrations, animations, and videos.
Make sure these images fit your brand guidelines.
6. Get Optimized
The top three positions on Google earn 75% of all clicks. If you’re not at the top of a search page, you could fail to generate traffic. Your content marketing plan won’t succeed if people aren’t clicking on your content!
Instead, you can boost your ranking with search engine optimization (SEO). SEO will help search engines see the value your content can offer users. As your search engine ranking improves, more people will see your content.
SEO can help:
- Improve your search engine ranking
- Boost brand awareness and recognition
- Build brand trust and credibility
- Establish you as a thought leader in the industry
- Increase traffic to your website
- Boost leads and conversions
- Improve your ROI
In order to optimize your content, you need to understand what keywords your customers use in a search. You can use content marketing tools like:
- SEMRush
- Google Trends
- Keyword Planner
- Ahrefs
Use these tools to make a list of target keywords. Then, start creating content with these keywords and topics in mind. You should have one focus keyword for each post.
Your focus keyword should appear in the:
- URL
- Title
- Opening paragraph
- Closing paragraph
- Body text
- Image alt text
Don’t overstuff your content with your focus keyword. Instead, sprinkle relevant secondary keywords throughout the content.
Keep up-to-date with the latest SEO trends, too. For example, VR and AR are becoming more popular. Voice searches and video content are changing SEO, too.
Keeping up with the latest trends will help you get a competitive advantage. You can rank above your competitors and reach consumers before your competitors can.
7. Keep EAT in Mind
Before you start developing fresh content, keep EAT in mind.
EAT stands for expertise, authority, and trustworthiness. Google’s machine learning capabilities look for EAT when establishing search rankings.
Share your unique experience and expertise. Show consumers you have the information and tips they need.
Improve your brand’s authority by leveraging credible resources in your industry. You can link to studies, research papers, and statistics within your blog posts.
Internal and external links can improve your clickthrough rate. A higher clickthrough rate can boost your SEO ranking. Internal links send readers to other pages on your website.
External links send readers to other resources.
To build trust, remain transparent and honest with your readers. Over time, you can use EAT to boost your ranking and credibility in the industry.
8. Start Sharing
Once you start using these content marketing tips, start sharing! Post your content on social media or send a newsletter to your email subscribers. You can post your content on other websites, too.
Consider guest blogging as well. Guest blogging can help you leverage another website’s existing audience. You can send these readers to your website to help them further.
By sharing your content, you can expand your reach and generate more leads.
Boost Your Business: 8 Tips for a Results-Driven Content Marketing Strategy
Ready to reach more customers? With these eight tips, you can develop a strong, effective content marketing strategy. Boost your reach and generate more traffic with these easy tips today!
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