Content, content, content…you’ve probably been hearing a lot about it. The good news: content creation is a key aspect of digital marketing that isn’t going away any time soon, and if you know how to use it to your advantage, your content can boost your online rankings and help you build your business. 

The bad news is that if you don’t have a well-planned content marketing strategy, it’s easy to let your content fall by the wayside, or worse, start creating content as fast as possible just for the sake of it. This can lead your material to suffer, not to mention your brand.

The quality of your content helps shape your readers’ impression of your business, so it’s essential to put your best foot forward with a careful and consistent content strategy. We’ve put together an overview of what content marketing is, why it matters, and some ways that the right approach can help you succeed.

What is Content Marketing? 

So what is content marketing? Essentially, it means creating and posting content that will become a reliable part of your customers’ online experience and position your business as an authority in its field. 

Why Is Content Marketing Important?

We’ve all heard that “content is king”, and the debate over the truth of that statement is still raging. However, before we worry about if content matters most, it’s important to grasp why it matters at all. In very basic terms, the more content you create, the more of a platform you have on which to unfold your SEO strategy, and the more pages search engines are able to index which will, over time, lead more customers to your site.

How Do You Integrate Content Creation Into Your Digital Marketing Strategy?

So you’re ready to start creating great content, but first: what do you want to get out of it? Between Google Analytics and a plethora of other tools that measure visitor engagement, your website and social media can yield abundant data. The downside is that data becomes meaningless if you can’t position it within the context of your business. Whether you’re looking at your click rate, your open rate, or your conversion rate, having some concrete goals and benchmarks will allow you to determine what works and what doesn’t. From there, you can refine your strategy and take your content creation in the best direction. You have to start from somewhere to reach the top!

How Do You Keep the Ball Rolling?

Effective content marketing is a never-ending task. With the amount of content being churned onto the Internet on a daily basis, the work of getting to page one of a search engine just leads to the work of staying there. 

If your content marketing strategy is comprehensive, that work is easier than it sounds. The problem is that no matter how many great ideas you have, and no matter how in-tune you are with your audience’s wants and needs, content marketing takes time. 

Unless you choose to work with an agency, posting regularly may become one more item to cross off your already long to-do list. However, with consistency and a solid plan, you can realize your strategy efficiently and to great effect. There are many tools that can help automate the process; you can also streamline your content marketing by setting aside time, whether weekly or monthly, to put together your entire content schedule at once. As an added bonus, this will also help you keep your content consistent.

Quality Or Quantity?

Finally, when creating content, remember to prioritize quality over quantity. With a bit of balance, these two don’t have to be mutually exclusive. The important thing to remember is that the end goal of content creation isn’t just to get to page one of Google, it isn’t just to get the most hits all at once, and it isn’t just to increase your sales. In fact, none of those things will happen if people don’t want to read your content. So focus on producing valuable content that your customers want to read, and maybe even share!

Today’s customers know the difference between substance and fluff, and they’ll recognize your content for what it is. Your insights and the content you provide must deliver the information your visitors want, and this is what will drive your engagement and conversions. That’s why the most important part of your entire content marketing strategy is this: mean what you write. Every post, whether on your blog or on your social media, is an opportunity to build your relationship with your customers through the content you produce. The rest will follow.

Ready to put your best foot forward with an SEO-optimized content marketing strategy? Eden Advertising’s team is ready to deliver the content that will super-charge your online presence. Contact us today!