The future of content marketing is already here, so it is vital to learn how it may impact your marketing strategy. Many businesses are still cranking out 500-word blog posts, but in many marketing circles for the past few years, the talk has been about how this will no longer be enough to get you on the first page of Google. It’s time for marketers and businesses to think about what the true state of optimized content marketing truly is.
This doesn’t mean content marketing is dead; it just means businesses need to start looking at the purpose of content marketing and understand how to use it beyond keywords and 500-word blog posts.
Build Trust
Content marketing has always been a great way to build trust with prospective customers and move them into sales funnels. While many people only think of blogs as content marketing, it was not invented solely for the Internet. It has existed for hundreds of years. Brands such as Betty Crocker had made fortunes using content marketing long before the first blog was ever invented. Content marketing can be direct mail, brochures, videos, and more. It is essentially a way of getting content out to consumers.
Find More Creative Ways to Reach Consumers
Recently, many marketers have gotten complacent and act as if Google will always drive organic traffic to websites if a few simple practices are followed. However, those days are long gone, and marketers need to find more creative content marketing methods.
While blogs can still be a powerful way to build a business, it now takes much longer to see a return on investment than in previous years. Marketing experts agree that blog posts need to be more detailed and longer than previously required. Blog content should now be between 2000 to 10,000 words long. Although these are much more expensive to produce, they can provide a much higher return on investment than short blog posts if used wisely.
How Your Content Strategy Needs to Change
Chances are, whatever you are writing about, someone has already posted something about it. With so much information available on the Internet, your content can easily get lost amongst the crowds. In today’s fast-changing world, your content needs to be something original and unique to be recognized.
Sharing life experiences and tying those experiences into your content can help your site rank better. By ditching the generic posts and writing more about your own experiences, they will become unique and popular. Whether your content is based on a personal experience or is data that people haven’t seen before, posts that are unique and can only be written by you will perform the best.
In other words, being original will get you noticed not just by Google but by people. This fresh quality content for your website can be a considerable investment, but experts urge that it’s worth it. By providing an original perspective, you will create a niche that your potential customers will be more willing to share on social media, giving you more exposure.
Some Still Do Well
Some businesses may still do well with generic content. However, their content is usually older, so they were one of the first to cover the topic, or they have high authority. Companies with high authority simply rank because they have lots of brand queries, social shares, and backlinks. It is vital for small businesses that cannot rely on high authority to have an up-to-date optimized content marketing strategy.
Content marketing is designed to show your audience what you can do and provide an entrance into your sales funnel. If your content only generates views, likes, and shares, you may be doing it wrong. Effective content marketing should collect contact information from your customers and generate email list signups. For help with your content marketing strategies, contact Unwired Web Solutions today.