All businesses should be using a wide range of content marketing techniques by now. SEO and brand awareness are old news and should be at the top of every business exec’s to-do list. But despite this, and the fact that Google will tell you what to do, so many businesses still put out the same tired content hoping that it will do well.
Content is just like business. You have to stay relevant, be unique and have some kind of hook to draw in your target audience. Creative content can be made anytime and anywhere but you have to understand a few rules first.
Your Writing Must Speak to Your Audience
Content writing services are popular because they solve a multitude of problems most business execs don’t realise they have from poor grammar to a readable voice. If readers aren’t staying on a page long enough to read to the end, it’s probably because the writing isn’t working it’s magic.
To speak to an audience, you must understand what a brand voice is. This is the voice that communicates with your customers, showing that your brand has a personality while providing insightful, meaningful information. Every brand has a voice (often the person who writes the content) but refining yours to make it unique is essential if you want your customers to empathize with it. In other words, create a voice your customers will recognize.
The Topic Must be Relevant
There is nothing quite as painful as reading content from a business that has absolutely no value or relevance. It’s like a bus driver insisting on telling you what he had for breakfast before letting you sit down.
A relevant topic is something that speaks to your customers but also a part of your brand. For example, a fashion brand might write a blog talking about the new shades of pink spotted on the runway recently and then link to various pink items in their own range. There are lots of things you can write about from client success stories to going behind the scenes at your office – just make sure that it’s interesting and adding value to your brand.
You Must Tell People About Your Content
Here’s an example of a classic error: writing a killer blog and then telling no-one and wondering why no-one has clicked on it. You have to tell your audience that you have created a new piece of content!
Sharing content on social media is a great way to stay in touch with your audience and bring them back to your website. Similarly, sending your colleagues an email to tell them and ask them to share will boost your numbers and get the message to more people organically.
All content can be refined and tweaked to become successful; you just need to experiment to work out what your audience responds to most. Content isn’t about quantity, doing a few things really well will do more for your brand than anything else. Take your time to get it right and then tell everyone what you did.
