Reinvent how you market to boost returns in a difficult climate
In a digital world where competition for attention is fierce, and the battle to secure consumer spend is ratcheting up as the cost-of-living crisis starts to bite, the way you craft your content to promote your brand has never been more critical.
Whether it’s the copy on your website, the substance for your social media posts, the subject matter for newsletter or the call to action for your ad campaigns, the words you use – and the way you use them – can make the difference between a brand that’s instantly memorable and converts, and one that gets lost amidst the digital noise.
First and foremost, online content must talk directly to your potential customers. Your business needs to make itself instantly memorable, cementing itself at the forefront of minds when people think of your product area or service. Skilfully structured content will lead readers – both new and loyal regulars – on a clear journey of discovery that ultimately results in conversion.
That, in itself, is no easy task. But then comes the added challenge which many businesses forget – when it comes to website copy, this must also ‘talk’ to Google to drive your SEO strategy. Content that is cleverly written to target the essential keywords used by your desired audience will ensure that a steady stream of new customers discover your business via search.
But if your mind is now in a boggle about how to create killer content that not only inspires but converts, fear not, here are six tips to help you start the process:
Get inside the minds of your target audience
A one-size-fits-all approach to content and your audience will never work. Every business’s audience is multifaceted, and as a result different content streams will be needed to appeal to each consumer type. To do this, segment your audience and create defined personas for each one. This will enable you to plan your content according to each persona’s specific preferences. Do your research here and make sure you really know how each different persona behaves online.
Never neglect your keyword research
Search habits are constantly evolving which means so too are the keywords your brand needs to be targeting. Before creating any new piece of content, do your research to identify how others – especially any competitors – are already talking about this topic, product type or service. Map the essential keywords, research their variations and their potential search volumes and ensure the most relevant are then naturally woven into your copy.
Create valuable content that fuels brand ambassadors
Content that strikes the right tone with readers, and proves useful, will make them much more likely to reshare it organically with their own networks. These natural brand ambassadors instantly increase your reach and expose your brand to new potential customer pools. To harness this, ensure your content adds value to your readers. Work out the pinch points and concerns of each of your audience personas and answer these.
Exploit the potential for content arbitrage
Once you’ve created content on a key theme, make sure you use that to its full advantage across your website, social media profiles, newsletters and podcasts. Content from a landing page can be repackaged as videos or an infographic for social media, a listicle for a newsletter or as the basis of a podcast. Certain audience personas may prefer particular methods of communication over others and using these different formats enables you to improve your reach and authority.
Find time to plan ahead
The best content is never created in a rush. Set up an editorial calendar to ensure you can plan ahead – with keyword research, creative assets, landing page URLs and the content format fully mapped out well ahead of your intended publish date. This will help your content to achieve maximum impact and enable you to align your output more closely with the business’s relevant product launches and promotions.
Make fresh content a key pillar of your business strategy
Your business strategy and content strategy need to work in tandem. For every area of your business, make sure you have a content strategy in place to support it and use your editorial calendar (as above!) to ensure no area gets neglected. Customers increasingly expect newness from brands, so as your business evolves, make sure your content strategy does too. Don’t risk disappointing potential customers and clients with tired, outdated content.
If you need further advice and support with your content plan, get in touch today!
