Content Marketing
I’ve always been of the belief that when approaching the design of any website, the copy must be of the highest quality. As they say within the SEO world, content is king, but it absolutely should be for any material you put on your web presence if you want to be a successful organisation, stand out from the competition and maximise your conversion.
In other words, and in order to achieve this, you need to make your web presence irresistible.
The copy should be of the best English, grammatically perfect and free flowing. If you are a transactional type business then the style is likely to be more leading, suggestive and motivating. You’ll want to think carefully about being to ‘salesey’ though as alienating customers is a potential risk and you don’t want to but people off your brand.
When it comes to content ‘Thought Leadership’ is now an important part of the content marketing mix. Everyone likes to visit a web presence, forum or social media platform that is fresh and up to date, so offer the same for your prospects. Create new content through articles, case studies and how-to guides and create a hub that is bursting with information! Sometimes a blog will be part of your set-up and these needn’t be anything sometimes longer that a paragraph of text. The most important thing here is to create new, content rich material that is of value to your prospects and contacts that will also act as a credible piece of collateral that will aid your sales process and motivate your potential customers. One reminder however is that the web and is becoming cluttered with the mass of articles and blogs on almost every subject – so you should be highly focussed on your specialist area, sector or opinion topic.
The added bonus is the SEO benefits this content can have can be instrumental in where your search ranking is on Google. If you wrote a new interesting article or blog and published it on your website every week for a couple of years, you would almost certainly see an increase in web traffic through your enhanced placing and with the associated extra visitors that would yield.
Dynamic Search
Understanding that the demographic of your users are different and will search, find and buy products in different ways is critical – and very important at a stage where people are purchasing and interacting with the web and businesses in very different and often hybrid ways. So organisations need to be dynamic as possible in the way they present, offer and distribute their products.
In a world of web 3.0 we are now blending our digital experience across a range of platforms and interfaces more than ever before. From tablet to TV, Twitter to telephone, we are accessing the internet more, in different places and via different means. That means businesses need to be as sharp and proactive as ever to ensure they are seen, heard and ‘available’ through these means.
Whilst the ‘noughties’ time period saw only the most dynamic businesses embrace social media, it’s now seen as a ‘must-do’. The basic social platforms you should already be familiar with and you’ll need to decide which and what is appropriate for your business. It’s worth noting that platforms come and go in popularity and also have a different uptake in different parts of the world. So if you’re internationally trading, you’ll need to know that Twitter isn’t big in China but Weibo is (the Chinese equivalent). The same goes for age demographics. In my experience Facebook has been popular with the 25-35 range but now less so with the younger generation. Likewise Twitter is more 14-25 whilst Instagram even younger. You need to test, trial and research what works for you and your business but it is crucial in understanding what your target audience does to communicate and how – rather that just asking around your colleagues in say the marketing department.
A new breed of user is now making purchases completely separate to a business’s main website. They will often hear about a firm in the online news, research it via a forum or online friend, and purchase something using their iTunes account. If this trend is growing then they may not ever experience your traditional web presence and you may not have directly influenced that users buying behaviour or purchasing pattern. One of our clients distributes its podcasts on leadership and management techniques via iTunes and find they are a popular alternative in what is an increasingly hybrid purchasing world. So what distribution channels does your business need to be aware of or present on? What is growing popular in your marketplace and what resource do you put into these emerging ways of buying products? Again you will need to ask these questions yourself as part of a ongoing review of your business strategy.
By James Skeels, Director at Atlantico Digital.
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