Make content a business priority

Four reasons content rules digital marketing

I recently had a VP of Marketing tell me their company wasn’t prioritizing content. My mind was blown. No matter if your business sells tater tots or tech solutions, having strong and relevant content that speaks to your target audience is vital for your brand.

The average internet user spends almost seven hours a day on the web… and not all that time is taken up by watching cat videos or liking pictures of the Kardashians. Some of that time could be yours. If you’ve got great content, you’ll keep your core customers engaged and coming back for more, which is good news for your brand.

Here are four reasons you need to create great content:

It tells your story: In a world where we are constantly bombarded by advertising and not-so-subtle marketing messaging, storytelling creates a connection between your brand and your customer. Your story is unique and allows you to demonstrate how you can help solve your customers problems. Don’t wait for others to tell your story. Traditional media and public relations still have their value but going directly to the customer lets you filter out the noise.

It improves your SEO: Keywords, keywords, keywords. Am I right? Well, yeah you need keywords to improve your SEO, but to make them work, you need to tie those words into authoritative and relevant content. Case studies are a great way to create authority because they pare down a lot information into digestible, outcome-driven stories. Look at what your competition is doing and, more importantly, what they’re not doing. Is there a new trend causing disruption in your industry like, for example, experimenting with robot umpires — I’m watching you Major League Baseball — that no one has delved into? Write about it! Going after unaddressed pain points makes you an authoritative voice that will bring you to the summit of search.

It grabs your customers’ attention: The human attention span is in a downward spiral. You’ve got a mere eight seconds — one second less than the attention span of a goldfish, by the way — to grab and keep your customers’ attention. Great content hooks your customer and then gets read and shared. Which brings me to…

It improves your social media: One of the best ways to connect with your target audience is through social media. How do you do that? Post great content! It’s the beginning of your customers’ journey to your product. Your social media channels allow you to directly engage with your customers, solicit feedback, and drive them to your website so you can get them into the sales funnel.

It may seem like a trope, but content is indeed king (and queen). And creating strong and relevant content is the gateway into the digital marketing kingdom.