10 Essential Activities to Produce Great Content
The rules of the game have changed. In the past the only way that a person or Business could find stuff out was through information being fed to them through advertising, direct mail, cold calls, editorial in newspapers and other media. They could perhaps also ask a few friends for advice.
Then the world changed with the arrival of the Internet. That change has accelerated with the advent of Social Media. Nowadays, every one of us is a broadcaster and we own the channel. We can broadcast to a few and they can disseminate our information, if it is relevant and interesting, to the many. They distribute our content to their friends and followers.
Search engines are no longer interested in static 'brochure sites' or sites that simply rely on keywords.
For a while, clever marketers and SEO specialists made sure that you reached the dizzy heights of first page on Google based on meta tags and keywords. Nowadays, that’s a flawed and limiting strategy. Most marketers understand that a regularly updated site with relevant content is:
In the past, you might send a mailing to 1000 people and a few might reply. Even fewer would keep the mailer and show it to their friends. Now, at the click of a mouse, they can share good (and bad) information with thousands of others and those thousands can share it with many more thereby increasing the distribution of the message exponentially.
The impact is enormous and companies cannot ignore this revolution. Social media means that we can reach our audience in more relevant and compelling ways and we need to provide information that engages, challenges, informs, educates, entertains and much more.
Search engines are no longer interested in static 'brochure sites' or sites that simply rely on keywords.
For a while, clever marketers and SEO specialists made sure that you reached the dizzy heights of first page on Google based on meta tags and keywords. Nowadays, that’s a flawed and limiting strategy. Most marketers understand that a regularly updated site with relevant content is:
- Crucial to attracting the right kind of visitors to your site
- Keeping them on there
- Encouraging them to engage
- Ultimately driving some kind of financial benefit from them directly or from someone within their personal or business network
We can now all harness the power of networks that was once impossible. But if the content you serve up is not interesting, why would people bother?
Convention suggests that we need to write copy first with the customer in mind and for search engines. But there's a lot more to it than that. We suggest that website owners and marketers need to consider the following and take action:
- Research and understand your market - What are the hot topics? What are those in the know talking about? What challenges exist in the market on which you perhaps have an angle?
- What are the keywords and keyword phrases that are being used?
- Who are the primary influencers? Who is talking about the hot topics? Identify the main influencers and engage with them and use their knowledge (blogs and so on) for inspiration in your content.
- Develop a content strategy and plan. What are you going to write about? Why? How often? Where will you distribute that content?
- Find people that can write. It's a skill. Poorly written content might not necessarily harm you directly but it certainly won't help and it's likely to lead to readers quickly clicking away.
- Write compelling content. Build content around relevant topics that your audience wants to read. Make sure the content is keyword rich but not overloaded. Readers first, search engines second.
- Design and optimise your site for good content. Use a tool such as Wordpress so that search engines can find and index your site.
- Tell people about your content. There's no point writing great content if you don't tell anyone. Content needs to be shared on social media, in emails and through placement in key online sources relevant to your audience. Provide backlinks in articles to support your SEO efforts.
- Engage with the key influencers for each of your strategic business areas so that they spread your word to their audience.
- Monitor and measure through online tracking tools so you can identify what's working and adapt as required
Building strategically relevant and targeted content is possibly the most important marketing challenge for today's businesses. Without great content, over time it is likely that you will slip down search engine rankings. Your potential customers won't see you. You will ultimately miss opportunities and your competitors will steal a march in the market.
GSA is a London based new Business Development and telemarketing consultancy with an office in Manchester. We offer new business development and marketing strategy, senior-level telemarketing services and telemarketing training to ensure that clients generate more new business and deliver ROI.
If you’d like to find out how GSA Business Development can help Generate Growth for your Business or book one of our new business development and marketing strategy workshops, contact us now on 0845 658 8192 or send us an email.
If you’d like to find out how GSA Business Development can help Generate Growth for your Business or book one of our new business development and marketing strategy workshops, contact us now on 0845 658 8192 or send us an email.
