Do you write on your blog? If you’re like most small businesses, either the owner or one of the employees tries to carve out some time to devise a topic and write a blog post every once in a while, but it’s such a low priority that it gets done perhaps weekly or even once a month. Modern content marketing requires that a focused strategy be put in place to ensure that high-quality, compelling content is produced regularly in order to keep search engines like Google sending visitors your way.
For many reasons it’s helpful to adopt a “publishing” mentality. In today’s blog post we’ll explore content marketing, why it’s important to think more like a publisher than a blogger, and how to get your team on board with contributing to your content marketing strategy.
The ‘New SEO’ and Why Content is Important
In the past, search engine optimization didn’t involve a whole lot of work if you understood what you were doing. As you can imagine, on today’s internet the sheer volume of webpages, blog posts, social media posts and other pieces of content makes it very challenging to be heard. Consider this: on WordPress.com alone more than 41 million new blog posts are posted each month – and that’s just on a single blogging platform. If your business is posting a single new blog post each week with no defined strategy, how can you expect it to stand out from the tens of millions of other posts that went live?
There’s no doubt about it – you need to be producing new content to keep your website alive and healthy. If you fail to invest the time and resources to take your content marketing seriously you will see little in the way of results.
Your Blog Isn’t Just for Company Updates Anymore
You might think of your blog as an area of your website where you can quickly post news about your business or the occasional product update, and that’s true. However, successful content marketers rely heavily on their blog in order to draw in organic visitor traffic from search engines and to provide landing pages for visitors clicking on advertisements.
Try to think about how else your blog can be used. For example, do you produce any video content? What about photos or images? Are your customers asking questions which can be answered in a blog post? Blogs can be used in a variety of ways, so try to do more than just posting about a change in your store hours.
Consider Bringing on a ‘Brand Journalist’
Many of the brands that are successful with content marketing have either hired or contracted skilled journalists to help develop their brand’s message. Journalists are trained professionals who understand how to craft messages that attract attention and create interest. If you have the budget, hire a journalist to help create a story around your company and your products. Allow them to share their expertise and help to tweak your content marketing strategy as well. If you have a smaller business or your online marketing budget is a bit tight, look around your local university campus to see if they have a journalism department. Recent graduates (or even students) will be looking for work and can contribute in a positive way.
Get the Entire Team to Contribute to Your Content Strategy
It’s not necessary to get every employee in your entire operation to write, record videos or shoot photos to use in your content marketing. However, it’s very important that you get everyone on board with content generation, whether it’s by asking their opinions on great blog post topics or having them share a new piece of your content on their social networks. Before you start trying to engage your customers, it’s a good idea to start by engaging your staff.
A Word of Warning About Outsourcing Content
While outsourcing the development of your blog content can be tempting, it’s absolutely critical that you invest in a professional service that provides a top-quality job. When you hand over the keys to your blog you’re giving a vendor the responsibility of keeping your brand viewed in a positive light – something that certainly won’t be true if your blog is riddled with spelling errors, grammar issues or reads as if it was written by a second-language speaker. Always have someone on your team read through your post drafts as well, as having a second pair of eyes scan the work can help catch any errors.
If you’re ready to experience the drastic increase in visitor traffic and new business that a well-executed content marketing strategy can bring to your web properties, we’re ready to help. Contact Riverbed Marketing at your convenience at 1.855.858.7500 and let’s get started.
