[cposhort_focus color="light" background="#E3E3E3" gradient="" style="shadow"]For a business or brand to be found online - publish quality content online regularly[/cposhort_focus]Your content must be communicating effectively, so consider what is relevant for your audience - Answer real questions, provide product and services information, talk about the latest news, be interesting and entertaining.Adding fresh new content to your website with the aim to target your audience and increase "eyes" on your website is known as "Content Marketing". It is as important as SEO - they go hand in hand. Since Google indexes content continuously, to enable it to provide the best response to a search query, if you want your website to appear in the search results you need to not only add fresh new content regularly, but you need to use a plan.Here are some questions to consider when formulating your content marketing strategy.

Question 1: Does your headline create curiosity?

headline create curiosity for better content marketing

Hints:When creating an effective headline, ask yourself whether or not it is "clickable". If someone did a Google search and your headline appeared on the search results page, would it evoke enough curiosity for them to take the action of clicking on your link?Is the headline short and clear? Try triggering emotional responses. Also include your keyword phrase if possible, as the words in your headline or title are used by Google.

Question 2: Where is your introduction?

every blog post should have an introduction

Hints:Just like any piece of great writing, blog posts should contain an introduction. If you enticed your reader with your headline, then the next hurtle is to actually get them interested enough to read your article. So hook your readers in by making a bold statement, or by asking a question in your introductory paragraph. Keep your intro short, no more than 2-3 paragraphs, and give them a taste of what to expect. Add in a picture to make it visually appealing also.

Question 3: How is your body looking?

content strong body

Hints:When writing an article or body of your webpage, keep in mind the following:

  • use subheadings - many readers will not actually read your article from start to finish, they might only skim over the article, so provide informative subheadings for scanning
  • avoid big blocks of continuous text - use short paragraphs and no more than 3-4 paragraphs in a block of text
  • use questions, tell stories and write as though it were a conversation with an actual person in front of you
  • use different forms of content such as images, charts, videos and other interesting types
  • keep your content as concise as possible - not wordy
  • use emotions to appeal to the reader
  • make sure you check your spelling and formatting before publishing
  • refer to other experts and sources, and if using facts provide the evidence

Question 4: Have you effectively ended your article?

writing effective conclusions

Hints:Don't just end your blog post without wrapping up the aim of the article. You wouldn't start a conversation, say what you have to say, and then walk off on the other person. So why do this in your blog post. Write a short conclusion (less than a paragraph or two) that sums up the most important points, lead the reader into the next step that you want them to make, ask a question to keep the conversation going in the comments, provide links to related content, offer them a bonus, whatever it is don't just walk out on them and hope they know what to do next.

Question 5: What about after you hit publish?

Promotion after publishing new content

Hints:Ok so you went to all the effort to publish your masterpiece, so what now? Don't sit back and admire your work, it isn't finished. Now is the time for promoting. This may include sharing your new page on social media, sending an email or tweeting to a person that you mentioned in your article, or perhaps someone who you know would enjoy or benefit from reading your article.Some more ideas might include:

  • create short snippets from the article for sharing - you could use your subheadings or quotes - and auto schedule more social mentions of the article over the next month or so - using a service like Hootsuite or Buffer
  • design a graphic for Instagram or Facebook, include an interesting quote from your article, and share your graphic with a link back to the blog page.
  • make a video that relates to your article, for example if you wrote about a new product, you could produce a short video demonstrating a key feature, then post it to your YouTube channel and link back to your article
  • create a PDF of your page content and print it out as a leaflet
  • send out an update to your email subscribers and provide a snippet from the article with a link to read more

Wrapping it up

There are some hints to get you started to more effective content marketing. It's important to realise that getting the perfect mix in online marketing requires more than just following a series of steps to creating some web content. You need to continue to invest time and effort into your website and web presence. Sometimes the difficulty lies in finding content to talk about on your website. Start with your audience, either think about your business from their perspective, or ask them, to decide what they want to read more about. If you found something useful in this article, then why not share it with your community by clicking on your favourite social place below.

Comments: