You wouldn’t build a house using outdated construction methods, so why aren’t you using the latest content marketing practices? Building a strong content marketing strategy is a lot like making a good blueprint. It involves time, careful attention to detail, and an in-depth knowledge of the industry.
A blueprint needs to be clear and concise. It needs to be complete. Each element needs to work together to make a cohesive whole. The same goes for your content. Below is a set of questions designed to help you determine if your content marketing is up to par. Read on to see how your content measures up.
1. Is Your Content Being Read?
Every building starts with a strong foundation. For content marketing, that foundation is SEO.
What is SEO?
SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization. Optimizing your content involves using researched keywords and incorporating them into your content. Doing this will help when it comes to your company’s website coming up first for all relevant searches.
Without a strong SEO strategy, all your content marketing efforts are in vain; in other words, your building will crumble. If they can’t find it, they can’t read it. If they don’t read it, why write it?
2. Is Your Content Relevant?
Another important factor determining whether people are reading your content is its relevance. Every business--from contracting to construction, from plumbers to home remodeling--has a specific audience, or persona, they are trying to reach.
Know your audience! What gets their attention? What do they need to know? What are their concerns? How do they make decisions? Once you know these things, you’ll know exactly how to construct your content to reach your specific audience.
3. Does Your Content have Variety?
Content is more than words! A content marketing strategy with written words alone is like building a house with all bathrooms. Yeah, they’re important, but people need to sleep and eat!
Here’s a partial list of content types. How many are you using?
-Blog posts
-Videos
-Infographics
-White papers
-Emails
-Social media posts
-Case Studies
4. Is Your Content Engaging?
Pictures and videos in particular are eye-catching and engaging, but your written content needs to be engaging, too. Be personable, be interesting, be entertaining. It all comes back to whether or not your content is being read. People don’t like being bored. If the text is too long or too technical, will it be read and understood?
5. Is Your Content Constant?
Content marketing experts know just how much content you should publish and when. For your company, this may or may not mean daily. What you don’t want is a website with content that hasn’t been updated in two years. Whether it’s 3-5 times a week or 1-2 times a day, making sure you have a consistent stream of content hitting the web is crucial to building and maintaining a strong online presence.
You wouldn’t hand over a blueprint to your accountant. We think the same thing goes for content marketing. Leave it to the experts! We’d be glad to help you build your blueprint--a.k.a. digital strategy--to start generating leads. Give one of our Digital Strategists a call today at 419.629.0080!
