Why content is king for your digital marketing

Content is king and this month’s Marketing Stockport event included Richard’s regular ‘Geek’ spot – golden nuggets of insight that can help your business to be found out – for all the right reasons.

Stuart Bradley from Trust reminded us that 93% of sales are influenced by online research. It’s never been more important for your products and services to be seen by the search engines and, like it or not, that means Google.

Content is king; before visitors to your website can see it, Google needs to find it. Think about Search Engine Optimisation – SEO – What keywords are your audience using? Have you used tags? Treat Google as though it is blind – you need to tell Google what is there.

Advertising was historically the accepted route to sales; agencies created campaigns to be ‘pushed out’ on TV or radio, printed in the press, on posters –and people bought.

Today the whole landscape has changed; we live in a world where we choose what we see and when we see it. So, content is king.

Replace ‘advertising’ with ‘research’; ‘word-of-mouth’ with ‘referral’; advertising with ‘social media’ – putting you back in control.

Social media and search engine optimization (SEO) are undoubtedly connected and will only become more interdependent in the future.

Social media is too powerful a tool for brands to ignore and its value will continue to grow over the coming years.

Search engines factor in the size of your following on social media as a measure of your authenticity, but make sure they are genuine. Real users who click through from your social media accounts to your website or blog and share your content will ultimately boost critical website stats and help you to be found.

These tips will help you create social media posts that boost clicks to your website:

1. Cut Down on Word Count – use the words you need and no more.
   Try to keep posts to 40 characters and include a link.
2. Tell People What You Want Them to Do – use words and phrases like “check out,” “see,” “retweet,” “like,” and “follow”to get people to engage with your social media content.
3. Give People a Reason to Click Through – don’t sell to people; help them. Answer a problem or pain point that’s common to your customers and they will click through to your website.
4.  Optimise your profile for keyword searches – identify your own key words and use them in your profile. Search results can assist in-bound strategy.
5. Optimise your copy with keywords – keywords in your posts, links, and hashtags help elevate your rank in social search results and add to the visibility of your brand.
6. Use Keywords to drive content creation – boost your visibility by answering queries related to your expertise – “what questions can’t I ask in an interview”?

Author: Helen White, Marketing Stockport

The infographic was designed and recreated by Sally King from SK Graphic Design via Flickr