Strategic content marketing is the backbone of any successful business. When coupled with a targeted SEO strategy, content marketing becomes a powerful tool for getting your website to rank highly in search engines.
Weaving impactful, clearly written content throughout your website goes beyond improving SEO. Unique content creates the personality behind your brand, setting you apart from your competitors. People-led content marketing also humanises your business, allowing customers to see beyond the corporate to the personal – from your company’s ethos, to how it started, to what your director’s favourite new hobby is (for Cognique MD Nige, it’s skateboarding).
All this leads to improved search ranking and conversion of sales through your website. Good content increases high quality lead generation, leading to new business from customers who might not have been able to find you before.
How does content marketing do this and why is it so important for your website? Read on to find out more.
1. Improving SEO
Having a fantastic website with a well-thought out SEO strategy behind it is the key to getting your business noticed. However, the best SEO strategy in the world won’t make any difference if your website doesn’t have great optimised content. SEO and content go hand in hand when it comes to people finding your website online.
Start with getting the content across your website tip top. From category pages and product descriptions, to an about us page explaining how your company started – your website should tell the story of your business.
Copying and pasting the latest buzzwords, or directly plagiarising from other sources won’t cut it – Google can see through this a mile away, will deem your site untrustworthy and move you down in the search results. Engaging, entertaining, well written content that sets your business apart from the rest doesn’t just stick in your audience’s mind – it looks good to Google, too.
It’s also important to have a consistent output of high quality content, making sure you stay on top of industry trends and keep generating content that answers the latest queries. Ensuring everything is written with keywords in mind means people searching for terms relevant to your business will be able to find you online.
2. Building audience trust
Great content doesn’t just make you look good to search engines – it makes you look good to people looking at your company online too. Once potential customers have found you, you want them to look at your website and think, ‘Wow, these guys really know what they’re talking about.’
There’s several things to check when producing web content. Does this content inform your audience? Does it answer any questions they might have about your business, and how your offering differs from that of your competitors?
Creating educational content for your audience also makes you seem like more than just an empty brand, a business whose only goal is to sell, sell, sell. Educational content helps your audience better understand what you do and how you do it, showcasing your business’s empathy and expertise. Both potential and current customers will see that you are conscious of their needs and issues and, as a business, are committed to helping them.
3. Establish a brand tone of voice
Your audience – from established customers, to curious potential customers checking your business out for the first time – will get an instant impression of you from your content.
Establishing a business brand is all about having personality – and the way you get this across is through content marketing. Your content expresses the values and ethos of your company. Through content, you can show visitors to your website what drives your business, the foundations it was built on – and the goals you are hoping to achieve.
Having a distinct tone of voice isn’t about peppering your website with zany jokes, clickbait headlines, and pages upon pages of blogs bragging about how great you are. People are far more likely to respond to a business that comes across as genuine, relatable, and people-led. Create content that focuses on the people at the heart of your business – both employees and customers – and let your tone of voice shine through in heartfelt, friendly content.
4. Increase high quality lead generation
Having relevant, engaging content on your website written with your target audience in mind will naturally appeal hugely your to existing customers. But what about those looking for your services who haven’t found your website yet?
When good content marketing is paired with an excellent SEO strategy, the content on your website will also lead to new people discovering your website through search queries. Producing high quality content filled with keywords relevant to your industry will send your website rising up the search rankings. That way, when someone searches for a query relevant to your business, Google will see that your website represents a company who can help fulfil that query.
Is the content on your website in need of a revamp?
From keyword research, to producing SEO-friendly content that will get your website rocketing up the search pages, contact Cognique to find out how we help market your website with your target audience in mind.
