Having a content strategy is an important part of most digital marketing strategies. Sadly most content strategies are haphazard and poorly planned without much thought given to whether churning out endless content is worthwhile.
Unless you have unlimited time and money, creating content needs to be done efficiently and effectively. In other words, write content that will bring in the most amount of business, with the least amount of effort.
In this blog I will explain how to find exactly what to write on your website in order to entice, educate, entertain and ultimately convert your customers. This is the exact process we work through with our Total Digital Marketing clients.
The Content Sweet Spot in a nutshell
Essentially, you need to write content that you can be an expert on, that meets your customers’ needs and precisly mirrors what they search for. Where those three areas meet, is your content sweet spot!
Why is this the sweet spot? Well, because it creates content that engages your customers and also content that enriches your website for the search engines. Win, Win!
Before you begin – Create a persona for each customer type
For every type of customer you have, create a fictitious person with interests, pains, needs and level of understanding of your products/services. Use a fake name and even a fake photo if you want.
The important paradigm shift here is to realise you are writing for your customers and not for yourself. Visualise these people and write for them.
Your Expertise
In relation to your business, is there an area that you feel you are an expert in? Do you have a unique way of approaching certain tasks/activities? Have you got experience that others will benefit from? What sets you aside from the competition? These are the subjects that you need to focus on.
What your customers want
Think about your customers. What are their needs? Imagine 100 of your future customers in a room. Chances are that almost all of them are not ready to buy from you today but may over the next few years. What do they want today/tomorrow/next week? Use tools like Answer The Public to put in words relating to your products and you will get hundreds of search phrases and ideas that your customers may be searching for.
What your customers search for
This is slightly different from what your customers want. Using keyword tools like Google Keyword Planner, you need to find out precise phrases that people are searching for the most. By doing this, you can create content that will bring you search engine traffic for years to come.
Two final tips
- You have to promote your blogs or other content. Search engine traffic will come in time but use your social media and other channels such as email to drive views
- Link, Link, LINK! Remember that the main reason you are writing blogs is to ultimately get customers. Link throughout your blog to services/products on your website.
Planning and implementing a content strategy that brings in customers forms a part of many of our Total Digital Marketing contracts with businesses large and small.
