Content comes in different shapes, sizes, and formats, but one thing that remains true is that content is an essential element of any digital marketing strategy. It might sound a little cliche, but the content is still king, and you won’t see any reasonable marketing success without it. Therefore content marketing cannot be done without content.
So what is content exactly? It is the ultimate medium that brands utilize to engage with and deliver value to their clients.
If there’s anything every business wants to be known for in today’s business clime, it is premium-level content. Excellent content will set any company apart from its competitors and position them as thought leaders and, consequently, a preferred solution provider within its niche. Perhaps, this is why it is shocking that 63% of businesses have no workable and documented content plan.
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What is content marketing?
It’s one thing to have great content, it’s quite another to know how to put this content to work, and that’s where content marketing comes in. Content marketing definition is simply putting your content to work. It is the series of strategies you apply to present your content to your audience in a way that optimizes a favorable response to your brand perception and, ultimately, your revenue.
Any business without a robust content marketing strategy is dead on arrival, especially in today’s massively competitive online business space. Little wonder 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketers use content marketing to reach out and engage with their current and prospective customers/clients.
You could have much better content than your competitors; it would mean nothing if you can’t market it. Since the ultimate objective of content is to rank your site and your business higher on the SERPs, effective marketing is crucial if you want to see the conversion and return on investment you’ve been craving.
We’ve outlined five rock-solid content marketing strategies that make sense for your content strategy marketing in 2020. These tips will give you a fighting chance you need to grow your business.
- Put Value First When Creating Content
Many digital marketers already understand that ranking content on search engine page results is crucial for their target audience to find their business. The problem is that some of them pummel their content with a plethora of keywords and uncommon phrases.
This extreme sort of ranking effort doesn’t help your content and backfires most of the time. Your content should focus on providing absolute value first. When creating your content, make sure that it addresses the particular issues that need addressing as directly suggested by what your target audience is searching for online. This strategy makes it easier to rank for just the right keywords and to incorporate them organically in your content.
This tactic is easier said than done sometimes, especially when you consider that 6 out of 10 people experience difficulty in producing quality content consistently. If you belong in this category of people, you should seriously consider using a writing service like Textbroker for your writing needs, or leverage a writing services reviews platform like Best Writers Online to find the perfect writing service for your content type.
Remember, if your content doesn’t provide the value people are looking for, it won’t matter whether it makes it to the first position on SERPs, it won’t convert for your business. If anything, it will build a negative reputation for you.
- Optimize All Content For Mobile Experience
A few fun facts from Quoracreative to think about for your content marketing strategy:
- 80% of netizens did their online searched on mobile devices in 2019
- 63% of Google visits in the US happen on a mobile phone
- 40% of transactions online are conducted on a mobile device
- About 50% of users read product/service reviews on their mobile phones before making a decision
- About 50% of mobile users will move over to your competition if they have one bad experience on your site using their phones.
All these stats should tell you one thing: if your content is not optimizing for the mobile experience, you’re losing out on more than half of your potential content engagement and revenue.
The importance of a mobile-first approach cannot be overstated. This is especially true given that Google tweaked its algorithm to prioritize mobile traffic and experience a few years ago. Mobile devices have since taken over the top spot from desktop, and this trend will only continue to grow. Every business owes it to themselves to capitalize on this trend and boost their mobile traffic and engagement.
Any website that is not user-friendly on mobile devices will notice very high bounce rates, which can give Google all the wrong ideas about your website. Neglecting mobile compatibility on your website and content will cost you your ranking. It won’t matter if you have an avalanche of stellar content.
- Adapt Your Content for Voice Search
The same way mobile search took over from desktop search, voice search is becoming prominent too, especially among millennials and younger. According to 99 Firms, voice search makes up 20% of Google’s searches, and 31% of people use voice tech on their smartphone at least once every week, thanks to voice assistant tools like Siri and Google Assistant.
The growth in voice search is also reflected in the fact that 20% of American homes now use a Smart Speaker. When you consider all Google Home and Alexa, that translates to about 10 million voice-enabled devices.
To get on top of this trend, utilize Google’s schema mark-up to boost your content’s voice search visibility, and gain the richness of snippets, consequently increasing your share of voice search traffic.
- Take Care of All the Technical SEO Elements
Content marketing doesn’t end with having valuable content and ranking for the right keywords. Even when your site is compatible with mobile devices, it may not be performing at its best. There are a few other factors that affect not just the visibility and availability of a site’s content, but also its overall performance.
The technical side of SEO is often overlooked, a dangerous oversight given that, beyond content, site performance is a huge part of Google’s ranking considerations. Factors like the proper use of title tags and meta tags, extensive mark-up language site map, and website load speed are integral to how users connect with your content.
All the factors mentioned above need to be leveraged appropriately to get the most out of your valuable content. Even after implementing these, continuously perform site audits from time to time to tackle all the technical issues affecting your site ranking.
- Continuously Keep An Eye On Performance
Like with the technical stuff, you also need to keep an eye on every other important performance metric. Measurable like your traffic volume, average time spent on your site per user, bounce rate. Google Analytics is a choice tool for most people to keep an eye on their content performance.
A good strategy would be to analyze these metrics on a content-by-content basis. This way, it is easier to trace the source of any problem. If a particular piece of content is dropping engagement or traffic for some reason, you’ll be able to address the problem and get it back on track quickly.
Simply put, a tool like Google Analytics will help you to keep your performance at its best while optimizing your website and content for the best possible results.
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Conclusion
Content marketing, like other forms of digital marketing, will continue to evolve. However, if you never let up on your optimization and engagement goals for your premium content, you will be able to keep on top of any changes in trend and keep your content and business on the first page of SERPs, where it belongs.