Online marketing is all about the content. Content marketing is an essential part of building your business. How else will people find your content — and by extension your website. Part of converting is a good content plan that allows people to find you and decide that you offer something valuable enough to buy.
But is your content marketing as effective as it could be? If you are struggling a little bit with getting your site to the next level, here are seven ways you can improve:
1. Start with Quality
In the past, content marketing was a quantity game. While quantity can help, don’t forget about quality. Search engines — and consumers — are more sophisticated than they were 10 years ago. Quality content is a must if you want to stand out. Even if you post less frequently, you can see results if the content is high quality. This means including in-depth, useful pieces. While it’s tempting to give in and focus on the click-bait, at some point you need to provide value to your audience.
2. Check Your Grammar
While you might not be completely error-free all the time (we all make mistakes), you want to do your best to use proper spelling and grammar. Proofread your content before releasing. This goes beyond looking at website copy and blog posts. When content marketing, it also includes your social posts. Ensure URLs are spelled correctly and use a link shortener to shorten URLs when sharing them on social media. You want everything to look as clean as possible.
3. Post Consistently
Start with a smaller number of posts if you aren’t sure you will be able to maintain quality output. These days, it’s more about expectations and consistency than it is about making a big splash and then tapering off. If your readers and customers know that you will post consistently once a week, and your information will be high-quality, they will be more likely to return. They will even look forward to what you have to say.
4. Research Your Topics
Just because you think something is a great idea for your content marketing strategy doesn’t mean that it is. Instead, research your topics. There are plenty of tools out there that can help you analyze results of different topics. You can even figure out which are likely to do well using keywords or URL. Research to make sure that your chosen topics are going to convert well with your audience before you commit.
5. Take Advantage of A/B Testing
It can be a little tedious to use A/B testing with your content. However, effective content marketing includes keeping metrics on what works and what doesn’t. Pay attention to things like short articles and long articles, which headlines seem to do better, and which topics your readership prefer. Compare different efforts so you can refine your topics and approach to become more effective.
6. Optimize Your Website
Make sure your website is optimized for search engines. You want people to find you, and to stick around. Don’t forget to optimize your social posts as well. Content marketing that goes to the next level requires a great deal of planning on optimization. You need to coordinate what goes on your website with your social sharing.
7. Know Your Audience
Understand what your audience is looking for and deliver. You don’t need to try to appeal to everyone. In fact, you are likely to fail if you try that approach. Instead, consider who is likely to buy your product or service, and focus your content on what is likely to be useful and relevant to that segment of the population.
