Content Marketing: What is it? Best Practices?

Content marketing — you’re likely already engaging in this marketing strategy and may not even know it. But if you want to get your brand’s name into the world, drive traffic to your website or increase conversions, developing a content marketing strategy can be an effective way to reach these goals. Many businesses put content into the world without optimizing for the best results. Keep reading for the ways that you can reap the maximum benefits of content marketing.

What is content marketing?

Blog posts, social media, podcasts, video, white papers. If your business is doing any of these you already have an entry point to content marketing. At its core, content marketing is the way that an organization uses various pieces of content to provide value to its audience and customers, ultimately driving organic traffic to their website for leads and conversions. Content marketing also provides an opportunity to build expertise and authority around the subject matter that pertains to your organization.

So, how do you make the most of the content that you’re putting out into the world? Taking the time to implement these content marketing best practices will ensure that your content is performing to its maximum potential. The time invested on the front end will reap benefits when your content starts to help you reach your goals.

1. Strategize and optimize.

Your content is only as good as the strategy behind it. So, what is content marketing strategy and what does it entail?  First, take some time to understand what topics your content would be able to address in your industry. Do your research ahead of time looking at what keywords and questions people are asking about your products and services. Second, determine measurable (and achievable) goals. Consider what constitutes success for your content marketing.

2. Know your target audience and stick with them.

For your content to be effective, it needs to reach the right people. Determine who your audience is, how they prefer to consume their content (video, written, etc.) and where they consume it (print, Facebook, Tik Tok, etc.).

The best content strategy also touches your customers during multiple steps in their buying journey. A blog post might be a great way to develop leads and inform people about your services. But it may take a white paper or video deep dive to close the deal.

3. Focus on quality over quantity.

In a crowded content landscape, businesses have to stand out to be noticed. Put your energy into making content that is unique and useful. Focus on what content helps build authority around subjects that pertain to your business.

Search engines will reward your efforts to build expertise and trust. If a potential customer comes to your site via search and seems to be engaged, search engines may put your content higher in search results.

4. Review and repurpose your content.

Develop a process for auditing your content periodically. Looking back at your measurable goals, see what content is working and what isn’t. If content is outdated or underperforming, how can you revamp and revise it to improve performance?

If content is performing well, you have a chance to repurpose it for other channels. This doesn’t mean reinventing the wheel — turn multiple well-performing blog posts into a white paper or convert a video into digestible social media posts. The more channels you can hit, the more opportunity to rank in the search results.

5. Don’t forget SEO (search engine optimization).

In every content piece you create, optimize for organic search where you can. Follow your SEO basics such as keyword use, backlinks and meta descriptions to help your content find the right searchers.

6. Consistency is key.

A content calendar planning your various content pieces and channels in advance can go a long way to staying on track for your content strategy. No matter what your publishing cadence is, keep it consistent. It’s more effective to have quality pieces a couple times per month than sub-par content multiple times per week.

Bonus: Embrace video.

It’s 2023, and short-form video reigns supreme. With the rise of Tik Tok and Instagram reels, audiences turn to these bite-size videos for information and education. Embracing video can be as simple as behind-the-scenes looks at your organization or a product how-to.

Putting Content Marketing Best Practices to Work for Your Business

If you’re ready to take the next step in content marketing, you don’t have to do it alone. Get in touch to talk about how a content marketing strategy may be able to take your business to the next level.