Content Marketing

Posted by MichealH Alexander on October 2nd, 2019

The 11 Fundamentals of Great Content Marketing

In January of 1996, Bill Gates declared that "content is king" -- and it's a saying that still holds true today. Great content is more important now than ever, and it's a direct factor in Google's ranking algorithms. The benefits of content marketing are clear and if you don't have a good content marketing strategy, it's time to get one. Here's your guide on how content marketing works, content marketing best practices, and how to solve common issues that you'll come across.

1. Quality, Quality, Quality

In the past, content of any kind was a good thing to have on your website. It didn't matter much how well it was written (from an SEO perspective, anyway) or even how long it was (as long as it was over 300 words). Websites published spammy blocks of keywords and were rewarded for it, and users looking for information came across plenty of useless pages in the top search results. Over the last decade or so, content marketing has changed drastically and Google's ranking algorithms look for much more. Content must be top quality with cohesive and authoritative thought processes, and well organised and optimised. If you can't publish copy of the highest caliber, it's often better not to publish at all until you can.

2. Touch Your Audience's Pain Points

Google's algorithms have gotten smart enough to understand how well content answers a question or covers a topic comprehensively. The goal is for Google to understand web pages the way humans do, so optimising your pages becomes a single process for both. Understanding your audience's pain points and recognising why they would come to your page to begin with is the critical first step to a good content marketing strategy -- the second is ensuring that your copy touches on those pain points and offers actionable advice and solutions. Your audience should know within the first few seconds of arriving on your page that the content in front of them will answer their questions or provide solutions to their problems.

3. Recognise Where Your Audience Is In the Buyer's Journey

Your content should be developed in such a way that it caters to where your audience members are in their buying journey. Are they simply looking for more information about a product or service, or have they made a decision that they need something and they're making comparisons before they make a purchase? It's also important to understand that you may have people at all different stages of the buyer's journey visit your website. Your content should be structured in a way that makes it easy for people at the beginning of their journey find information that nurtures them and for people closer to making a buying decision to jump ahead.

4. Analyse Your Competitors' Content

Understanding what type of content your competitors are producing and how well it's performing is an important part of the research phase. You don't necessarily want to use the information to produce exactly what your competitors are producing, but you definitely want to make sure you're covering the topics that they are and more. Analysing competitor copy can help you visualise what they're doing well, what they're not doing well, and what they're missing so you can fill in the gaps and create an informational resource that surpasses that of your competitors.

5. Create Topic Clusters

If you've looked into content marketing examples recently, you've likely come across the term "topic cluster." A topic cluster, as defined by Hubspot, is "where a single “pillar” page acts as the main hub of content for an overarching topic and multiple content pages that are related to that same topic link back to the pillar page and to each other. This linking action signals to search engines that the pillar page is an authority on the topic, and over time, the page may rank higher and higher for the topic it covers. The topic cluster model, at its very essence, is a way of organising a site’s content pages using a cleaner and more deliberate site architecture." Topic clusters aren't optional anymore -- if you want your content to rank, they're a must.

6. Use a Wide Variety of Related Keywords

With Google becoming smarter, your optimisation game must get smarter too if you want your website pages to rank. Using semantically related keywords is one piece of the puzzle. Semantically related keywords are essentially words and phrases that are used on more of the pages that rank in the top 10 for your chosen keyword. For example, if your keyword is "SEO," many of the top ranking pages will also use "marketing", "traffic", "beginners" and more. By including semantically related keywords that are used on top ranking pages, Google is likely to increase your ranking because it sees the similarities between the content on your site and the content on websites it has already deemed valuable.

7. Establish Thought Leadership

Good content marketing strategies typically involve establishing authority, or thought leadership, on a particular topic. The most effective way to do this is to establish credibility in your field, which can be done a variety of ways. Publishing well-researched, high-quality content on topics in your field and covering a topic comprehensively is the first step, and a bit of PR never hurts. Build connections with other respected individuals in your field and give them the opportunity to guest post for you and ideally vice versa.

8. Set Up Metrics for Measurement

Your content marketing efforts can all go to waste if you haven't set up ways to measure its efficacy. Your strategy should be constantly evolving and always incorporating the latest best practice. Content marketing is not something you do once and consider it done -- you should be evaluating your content for engagement and consumer response and tweaking your strategy to reflect what the metrics are showing you. Ideas that don't work well or efforts that perform poorly should not be continued, and techniques that have performed well and garnered more leads should be replicated. Establish ways to measure the performance of your content so you can continually hone your process. 

9. Maximise the Most Effective Distribution Channels

As you market your content, you'll find distribution channels that do well and others that don't do so well. As you discover distribution channels that drive traffic and leads, it's important that you maximise them. What other content could you be pushing through those channels? For example, if you're only promoting blogs on Facebook but Facebook is bringing in a lot of leads, it would likely be a smart move to develop a video or podcast and promote it through that same channel.Web Design Sydney

10. Repurpose Existing Content

Good content is costly, whether you are paying someone else to write for you or taking the time to write yourself. If you have a piece of high performing content, you can repurpose it in a few different ways to make it more engaging and get the most bang for your buck, so to speak. Say you have a great pillar page that is gaining traction. You could take the entire topic cluster and create an e-book from the content for users to download free, or you could create an infographic summing up the information on your pillar page. Repurposing content allows you to stretch your content marketing dollars further while emphasising a topic that does well.

11. Include Social Media in Your Content Marketing Strategy

Social media has many platforms that can be used to drive traffic and leads to your website. By creating highly shareable content and promoting it via social media -- usually through paid ads -- you can appeal to your target demographic and get traffic that is more likely to convert.

Content Marketing Companies is challenging without a doubt, but when you have a great strategy in place, content marketing problems become a thing of the past. Contact us today to learn more about developing strategies that work and how a content marketing firm can help you create great copy that performs.