Keep them coming back

By ©ontsunan | ADobestock

Whether you’re building or redesigning your company website, there’s more to the project than meets the eye. A shiny new home page, flashy photos and clever headlines are the wrapping paper to your website. However, the “content” found on your home page and linked areas of your website represents the prized gift. And it will be coveted as the gift that keeps on giving as long as you care for it.

Keeping your website relevant and current is a never-ending challenge. It requires long-term thinking and, contrary to popular belief, there’s no silver bullet. It takes creativity, attention to detail, consistency and substance. It’s called content marketing.

Content marketing includes the creation and sharing of online content or stories such as videos, blogs and social media posts. It does not explicitly promote your company brand; rather, it’s intended to stimulate interest in your products or services. Useful content to attract and retain your target audience should be a core essential of your company’s marketing efforts.

Regardless of the size of your business, informative and knowledge-based content helps establish you and your team as experts in your field. Ultimately, you’re providing information to help your prospects and customers solve issues or fill needs.

What is and isn’t content marketing?

Content marketing is:

• Educational.
• About your audience.
• Consistent.

Content marketing is not:

• Product brochure and/or product descriptions.
• Static.
• Promotional or sales-focused.

Content can also deliver additional benefits, such as:

• Giving you a recruiting edge.
• Boosting company morale.
• Fostering trust.

7 keys for effective content marketing

1. Create a plan for a targeted audience. Rather than leaping in feet first, take time to identify your target audience. Is your company focused on residential, commercial or both? How are you solving problems for your audience? Create an editorial calendar with a list of topics and where and when you will post them. To be effective, your content must be compelling and consistent.
2. Learn where and when to post. Building your website content takes priority over social media content. Your first priority is to make sure your website reflects your story and your “why.” That’s because all of your marketing efforts should drive leads back to your website. Content is key to driving inbound content and leads.
3. Quality over quantity. It isn't a numbers game. Maybe you’ll start with one or two new website posts a week to get experience and confidence, then grow from there. The more good content that appears on your website, the more you’ll have to work with for your social media posts.
4. Experiment and mix up your social media content. Spice it up. Studies show that people frequent social media to be entertained. Even when posting about topics that seem less than exciting, you can still make them stand out. Use photos, videos, links, surveys, polls and questions. Engagement is an ongoing task. Make it a priority.
5. 5. Focus on people, not search engines.  Often, businesses spend too much time trying to beat the search engine algorithms. Focus your time and energy on creating intelligent content that appeals to your customers. Post links to social media and make sure older content is linked in newer content.
6. Optimize your content with key words. Key words are those that you identify internally and through research as the best key words to drive traffic to your site. Using these words consistently but not excessively will help your website gain more attention and clickthroughs.
7. Test, analyze and improve. Measure the success of your content against business drivers; things that matter to the success of your business. Create something people like and click on, and they’ll want more.