06 Feb How Can a Powerful Content Strategy Boost Your Traffic?
From social posts and infographics to email newsletters and blogs, users are absorbing your business’ content from a variety of angles. Content marketing will deliver you a level of success when it comes to bringing organic users to your website but employing a strategic approach will deliver results with much more punch.
The issue with content is, many people believe that it is a case of quantity over quality. Whilst web pages do need a certain amount of words to be recognised by Google, and newsletters could look sparse without ample prose, it is better to cut down on words if it means the content is tuned specifically to your target audience.
Whilst venturing into the world of content strategy alone is not advised, this article will enable you to start developing ideas that will greatly help your digital marketing agency tailor the best plan of action for you.
What Content is Included in a Strategy?
The ideal starting point for any business is to take a look at how the content you have currently being absorbed by users is performing. Take a look at your website traffic and keep an eye out for fluctuations in traffic…are these aligned with any content changes? How have your social platforms performed over the past 12 months? What is the open rate and click through rate for your newsletters? Auditing your current content gives you an insight into where you want things to improve.
Although you cannot get hold of all the stats and data, scour the web for what your competitors are up to. At Chillibyte, we have a number of clever tools we can use to see what different websites are up to, meaning we can made side by side comparisons and help you stay ahead of the game.
Regardless of how well your business or a competitor is performing, there are countless opportunities for company to get their voice heard. All of the following (and more) can be developed in a content strategy:
Onsite Content
- Homepage content
- Landing page content
- Blog
- Category pages
- Product descriptions
- Forms
Offsite Content
- Promotional emails
- Email newsletters
- Social media platforms
- Collateral
- Packaging
- Letters
- Adverts
- Interviews
Who is Your Audience?
As companies grow and develop, sometimes the concept of audience can easily be lost. Going back to the drawing board and redefining the people you want to target can help revitalise not only content, but the direction of the business as a whole. It can help refocus and set new goals.
Before any content is created you need to consider the person you want to read it. Not only do you need to pinpoint their details, but also understand their journey.
Whether your audience member comes across your content through an organic search or via a social platform, newsletter (or something of the same vain), the reason they are absorbing your content is because they have a question they need answering or a problem they need solving. Always keep in the back of your mind that your content will be a solution for somebody.
Talking of ‘somebody’, let’s draw our minds back to the topic of target audience. Whilst taking notes of demographics is an ideal starting point, creating personas can help businesses dig deep to pinpoint their ideal customers. To show you persona creation in practice, we will be creating two audience members for the brand new (fictional) shower gel, Sensitive Soul. Sensitive Soul is a free of alcohol and parabens and helps keep skin of all ages healthy and moisturised. See Sensitive Soul’s ideal customers below:
As you can see from the examples above, both of the target personas are very different. Chances are, you will want to tackle a variety of different people. However, the key is that they all want your product/services/information etc.
Get to know your niche again and create a list of keywords that you think your audience would search for to come across your site. For Sensitive Soul, taking into consideration Sarah’s and Dennis’ biographies, these could be:
- Shower gel for eczema
- Bath products for babies
- Products for sensitive skin
- Shower gel for sore skin
- Gentle shower gel
- Eczema moisturiser
Having your finger on the pulse of what your target audience are searching for will allow you to, with the expertise of your content marketing agency, create content geared around certain words that are applicable to your business. This will, ensuring that audience research has been completed thoroughly, increase the organic traffic heading to your site over time.
What Content Does Your Audience Want?
Having a grasp on the target audience of your content is a fundamental foundation of any cohesive content strategy. Next, the task of determining the correct type of content your target audience wants to consume is integral. Chances are, you are going to want to use a wide variety of content types, but always remember that you don’t want to spread yourself too thinly.
Research from the Content Marketing Institute revealed that, on average, most businesses that are deemed successful operate around 15 different content marketing channels. However, if you are new to content strategising, it can definitely be beneficial to focus in on one or two.
To give you an idea of what content avenues may suit different types of businesses, check out our graphic below!
Chillibyte’s Favourite Core Content Marketing Choices
Depending on your business, there are going to be some content ideas that will benefit you better than others. For example, having an Instagram account for a financial advisor or monthly email newsletters for a local MOT centre isn’t going to give you much bang for your buck. However, at Chillibyte, we like to implement as many of our core content marketing tools as possible. However, as we have said, it totally depends on the business! Have a read of some of our key contenders below:
Content Rich Website
If the content of your website isn’t helping you gain traffic, there is little point in it being live. Company web pages are the first port of call for my prospective clients and customers and having optimised and informative content on your website will not only see you ranking well in the SERPs, but also becoming a hit with users as you have provided them with exactly what they needed.
Blog
Not only are blogs informative and add a different voice to your business, they also provide credibility. As an expert in your field you need to be up to date with the latest industry news and trends to ensure you are considered the best in the business. Optimised and useful blog content is a fantastic way to gain more traffic and introduce new visitors to your business.
Social Media Platforms
Twitter. Facebook. Pinterest. Instagram. Snapchat. The list of social media platforms that businesses are utilising nowadays is forever growing and we have our finger on the pulse of what platforms best suits which businesses. Many people assume that content is restricted to text on a webpage or in a magazine. However, anything you put out line, whether it be video, graphic, or text is all considered content, and this is why social media platforms can fall into the content sphere.
Your website and social media platforms should work in unison as blog content and business news can be easily transformed into social media worthy content if you have the knowhow.
If you are struggling with your content strategy, need a boost of creativity, or simply don’t have the time to do it yourself get in touch with us today on 01403 750560 or via hello@chillibyte.co.uk
No Comments