Business owners must be content creators these days – there’s no getting away from it. And the situation is unlikely to change anytime soon.
But content writing, planning and strategising is more than self-promotion. Here are five ways businesses can improve their online content strategy.
It’s not about singing your own praises
“The most successful content strategies are from businesses that don’t constantly spout their own worth,” says Rachel Smith, Copywriter at Cultrix. “At least not directly. Providing useful content users actually want to read, is, indirectly, proving worth, but without the obvious self-promotion. The focus must be on what your readers need and desire.”
Take self-promotion out of focus
Businesses should focus on other elements of their content that centre on their customers’ needs. Here are our five ways and suggestions to take your content strategy to the next level, and provide real value, which will ultimately benefit your business, reputation and bottom line.
1. Content so useful, readers will share it for you
“The problem with constantly telling readers how great you are all the time, turns them off. Potential customers see through self-promotion in a heartbeat. Much better to provider useful content that they will organically share for you.”
Look through your emails and find those questions customers ask you. What are their pain points and irritations? If you’re the expect they turn to in their time of need, make sharing your expertise part of your content strategy.
Offer help in your content, tips and tricks, workarounds, time-savers and insider knowledge. How will your readers thank you? By finding your content so useful, they’ll share it for you – doing the job of extending your reach for free! Just make sure you provide sharing links to make this as seamless as possible.
2. Become an educator
“Sound bites and click-bait are no substitute for offering real solutions in language readers understand.”
Listen to and understand real business or consumer problems to provide the sound advice your readers are looking for. Research the answers, but don’t just repeat what everyone else is publishing in their content – make yours better.
Useful content ranks higher the more useful it is. It’s about providing the answers your readers want to refer to and positions you as the authority and expertise to trust.
3. Don’t ignore high-ranking factors
First and foremost, content must be useful. But that’s no reason not to forget about higher -ranking content factors, particularly if you’re after featuring higher up in SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Long-form content of 2,500 plus words is known to improve SEO – but only if it’s content browsers want to read.
Pay attention to ease of reading, short sentences, structured information with the important facts first, and clarity, to improve readers understanding, experience and keep them engaged.
4. Be a guest blogger
“Why keep your useful, educating content all to yourself? Cultivate your relationship with other experts in your industry and extend your reputation and reach.”
Make it part of your content strategy to reach out to other reputable companies, organisations and blog sites, to provide content for them. Check their submission guidelines to ensure your content is a good fit.
Linking back to your own content hub, creating those partnerships that build your presence and reputation. Don’t forget to use social media to alert audiences to your guest blogs, host invitations and comments.
5. Repurpose, recycle, refashion, reuse
The 4 Rs of the purposeful content rechurn – repurposing, recycling, refashioning and reusing content that you’ve already written to get maximum value.
Once you’ve written or created your valuable content, think about how you can reuse it to fit other channels your audience inhabit. You can repurpose content into short video form, refashion with voice over or recycle previous content with fresh updates, if appropriate.
Reframe content strategy – make it a focus
Online content strategy should be part of an overall business strategy. For busy business owners, this can be a challenge.
But the benefits of having a rich content strategy affect bottom line and are worth the investment in time and focus.
If you need help to think differently about your content strategy and re-focus away from purely self-promotion, get in touch.
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