The Art of Creative Content
“Leaders must be close enough to relate to others, but far enough ahead to motivate them.”
– John C. Maxwell
If your goal is to drive site traffic while increasing sales leads, you must understand the art of creative content marketing. Gone are the days that you can write a sales pitch in order to earn business. Instead, you need to learn the fundamentals of content marketing so that your site engages potential consumers and builds your reputation as an expert in your field. After all, it’s much more enticing to conduct business with an authority. How is your online content defining your company brand and voice?
What is Content Marketing?
In a nutshell, content marketing is any form of media that attracts or engages your consumer without asking for their business. It might be informative blog posts, FAQ, funny or entertaining videos and tutorials, or perhaps images posted on your social pages. No matter the medium, when done right, content marketing will result in loyal, long-term relationships with your audience.
What Do I Write About?
Current and updated site content helps keep your website on the forefront during searches. Search engines crawl thousands of websites in order to find those that appear to be authorities on the topics, thanks to freshly updated content that is both useful and informative.
In order to know what to write or post, you need to get to know your current customer and what they’re interested in. This is why social pages, discussions, business rating and comments, shares and human interaction are valuable. When thoughtfully analyzed you can predict the needs of your consumer, often before they even exist.
Can’t I Just Write a Sales Pitch?
If you have visitors to your site, half of your battle has already been won. In our tech-savvy world, buyers are researching information and reading reviews long before making purchases. Rather than tell your customers what your business can do, you need to master the art of showing them by providing something useful in the interim.
Nobody wants to do business with a beggar. People are more opt to buy when they believe you understand them, and have already provided something of value.
OK Done, Now What?
In order to see whether or not you are effectively publishing quality content that engages your unique audience you’ll need to do a regular analysis and look at your progress.
Long after your content marketing strategy is implemented it will continue to lurk on the web, drawing new and existing people right back to your site. This will help your search rankings and establish your credibility.
Measure and track your progress to see what changes need to be made. Are your efforts resulting in more exposure or sales, or are they tiresome, old, and quite frankly, worn out? Be willing to adapt to the ever-changing demands and interests of your consumers. Follow pages and people that inspire both you, and your business. Use your insights as a tool to further develop your content marketing plans.
Relationships are a two-way street. If you rise up to the interests of your consumer by marketing valuable content, you’ll separate your brand from competition while positioning yourself as a leader.
Are you being followed?
