Are you looking to drive more traffic to your website to find new customers? Wondering how to attract tons of targeted website visitors?
Content marketing is a traffic generation strategy focused on creating valuable, helpful web content. The best content marketing solves people’s problems and, as a result, builds trust and gains new customers.
Are you wondering how your business can implement this highly effective digital marketing strategy? Want to know how you can get started right now to produce quality content and grow your traffic?
Keep reading for the top strategies that Massachusetts and Rhode Island businesses can use now.
What Is Content Marketing?
So what exactly is content marketing, and why is it effective? It’s the process of creating content that markets your business.
Content can include blog articles, videos, social media posts, informative newsletters, and much more. Rather than spending time writing content about how great your business is and why you are better than your competitors, you report content that solves problems.
For example, if you are a local plumber, you can write content on how to solve common plumbing issues. As you add value to your website visitors, many will eventually become customers.
It’s typically not an immediate conversion into a customer. Instead, content marketing is a long-term strategy that builds trust over time. After visitors have received enough helpful content from you, they will eventually become customers in their own time.
Content Marketing Strategies to Focus On
So, what strategies should you focus on when it comes to content marketing? The most popular and effective include SEO, email newsletters, how-to videos, and podcasting.
SEO
One of the most effective marketing strategies today is SEO or Search Engine Optimization. It can potentially drive hundreds, thousands, or even millions of visitors to your website every day, month, and year. And the best part is, you don’t have to pay for those visitors like you would by purchasing advertising.
SEO is all about creating content that shows up at the top of search results on Google, Bing, and Yahoo. As a result, the websites that appear on the first page of search results get between 70 and 90 percent of all clicks for that search query. And the first three results on the page get 67 percent of those.
So your goal with SEO is to convince search engines like Google that your website should be listed at the top of the page. But how do you make this happen?
You have to create specific content, using exact keywords, that not only impresses Google but solves a user’s problem or answers their question.
How to Implement an SEO Strategy
SEO starts with keyword research. To create content that has the potential to rank high in search results, it has to use relevant keywords. These are the terms that your customers are searching the internet for.
Let’s say you own a plumbing company. If you were to use a keyword research tool, you would find two of the most popular plumbing-related keywords: water heater repair and replacement.
There’s a good chance that many people are also searching for those terms in their local area. So, for example, those in Boston might search for water heater replacements in Boston.
Once you know what keywords are valuable to your business, you can create relevant content. For example, each page or blog post on your website needs to focus on one keyword.
In our example above, you’d want a page focused on the keyword water heater replacement Boston.
You’ll want to use this keyword multiple times on the page as naturally as possible. You’ll also want it to be in the title of the page, as well as in at least one heading.
Once this is done, you’ll have a page on your website optimized for this keyword. You can repeat this for each service, product, or location your business offers.
Email Newsletter
An email newsletter is another way to build trust with your website visitors through content. Send out educational, helpful emails a few times per month is a great way to nurture leads and eventually convert them into customers.
You don’t want to spam your subscribers by simply promoting your company all the time. You’ll get a lot of unsubscribers.
Instead, send out regular tips and tricks your subscribers will find helpful. Over time, you’ll convert some into customers, especially if you offer a discount once in a while.
How-To Videos
Video content has exploded in popularity over the last few years. As a result, many people prefer to watch videos rather than read articles, newsletters, or books.
If your company deals with physical products or services, such as a bike shop, a lawn care company, or a plumbing company, you can easily create how-to videos to help solve your customer’s pain points.
Now you might be thinking that you are working yourself out of business. But you’ll find that many of these people you offer educational content to for free will eventually become a customer. They will run into problems too hard or technical to solve on their own and come to you.
Podcasting
The most significant new content marketing medium is podcasting. This content continues to increase as a form of education and entertainment.
When it comes down to it, podcasting is very similar to other forms of content. It’s about finding your audience and creating content that solves their problems.
Not all industries are naturally suited to podcasting, however. Most homeowners aren’t going to subscribe to a podcast about plumbing, for example.
So you may need to get creative about your angle. For example, rather than a bike shop creating podcast episodes about bicycle maintenance, maybe you create content around bike routes and trails in your local area or how to become a more efficient rider.
Playing the Long Game
Content marketing is most effective when part of a long-term marketing strategy. It’s not something that you can try for a month or two to see if it works.
It does work, but it takes commitment and putting in the position over the long haul. And for those looking for the most reliable results, SEO is the best place to focus your efforts, especially as a local business.
Are you looking to rank your local Massachusetts or Rhode Island business high in Google search rankings? Contact us today at The Web Detective to get your SEO campaign up and to run the easy way.