Today’s New Consumers want content. They want to know brands and are digitally savvy with a finger on the pulse of what the internet is saying. Brands need to meet New Consumers where they are, which is online. That’s where content marketing comes in, bridging the gap between today’s business and today’s customer.
In our last post, we broke down the various types of content available to brands in this digital age. Options range from visual to written to audio, which creates quite a marketing arsenal when used correctly. Wielding content is a necessity in today’s marketing arena, but utilizing it poorly can hurt rather than help your brand.
To give you a headstart, we’ve compiled a few best practices to help you navigate the content marketing waters.
Write Relevant Content
Content is king. But, allow us to qualify this statement: quality content is king. Posting content just for the sake of posting dilutes your influence and could potentially turn off your readers. By crafting thoughtful content that is aimed at engaging your specific audience’s interests, you encourage people to come back for more.
Another aspect of relevant content is creating evergreen content: posts that are not time specific and can relate to a broad audience indefinitely. For instance: your blog is a great space to relay information about monthly events. But once the events are over, those posts have little relevance, nor do they have a reason to be reshared. An evergreen post about a specific product your company creates or a recipe you’ve crafted has a longer shelf-life and is valuable to a larger base of readers. These posts are not “one and done,” as they are not time-specific and can be shared over and over again. It’s the content that keeps on giving!
Post Often
Your blog exists as a stage to engage your audience. But if the stage remains empty, particularly for long periods of time, it does nothing to help your business. The New Consumer needs to be fed constantly. If there is no content to consume, your audience will lose interest and stop visiting your site. Posting often entices your audience to visit your website often. HubSpot’s state of inbound report found that more blog posts lead to more traffic, which leads to more sales. Posting on your blog consistently also helps to build a content base that, in turn, can increase your SEO.
So get posting!
Use Quality Images
The New Consumer is visually inclined. With digital media so incredibly visual, today’s customers have a more discerning eye and expect a high standard of quality from a company’s imagery.
Written content should always be accompanied by an aesthetically pleasing image. Researchers have found that people were 80% more likely to read written content that was paired with a vibrant visual, and many marketers find that visuals are an essential piece of their storytelling strategy.
The importance of visual content to make a first impression also extends to other media such as audio and video content, including podcasting. These formats all require an investment of time for the audience to appreciate them, but you don’t have much time to catch people’s attention. Today’s consumer, on average, takes 10 seconds to decide whether to stay on a webpage. With only 10 seconds to draw in consumers and hook them, quality visual content can be the best bait.
Remember to Share
The advice parents drill into their young children is surprisingly relevant to today’s marketer. Creating content is wonderful, but it means nothing if no one actually reads it.
Employ your social media channels as platforms to share your content and increase your audience. Email newsletters are also a fantastic resource for disseminating your content for people to read.
Write your content, share your content and let the consumers do the rest.
Once you are ready to start creating content and dishing it out, partnering with professionals can help you accomplish these best practices.
Dish Works offers services such as content creation, professional photography, videography, podcasting and website creation to help brands achieve their digital marketing goals. Knowing when to delegate can help your business thrive!
Check back next week for Part 4 of our Content Marketing for Business Owners series!
Photo credits: top, Kaboompics; middle & bottom, picjumbo