Digital Sales & Marketing
The importance of good content is something that can’t be overstated. With the right content, your brand can build trust, increase engagement, and boost conversions—all core components of a successful digital marketing strategy.
To optimize your digital marketing strategy, start by optimizing your content. Here are some ways to do that:
1. Understand your target audience to write the best content
The first step to writing great content is understanding whom you’re writing for. This might seem obvious, but it’s easy to get distracted by the creative work of writing and forget about what you’re trying to achieve—and that’s why it’s important not to lose sight of your end goal.
In order for your content marketing strategy and projects to bear fruit, you need a strong understanding of exactly who your audience is. Taking the time upfront in research will help ensure that all subsequent efforts are well-targeted and highly relevant.
2. Write relatable and original content
Remember that your content should be relevant and relatable. It’s not enough for you to write about something your audience would find interesting. Your content must also address a problem they are facing or are interested in solving, otherwise, it will fall flat on its face.
If you can’t think of anything your potential customers might be interested in, ask them! Ask questions on social media and see what they say. Use polls (like this one) so people can vote on the topic they want you to cover next, or even just ask friends and family members what topics are important for them right now.
3. Optimize your content using SEO tactics
Keywords are the words people type into search engines to find out more about a particular product or service.
There are many tools available to help you identify which keywords your customers use when searching for products like yours.
Create a list of keywords, put them in a spreadsheet, then sort the list by popularity. The top 10-15 should be used for each content piece you create. If there are too many relevant keywords found, it may be necessary to split your content into several pieces instead of one lengthy article or blog post so as not to overwhelm readers.
4. Deliver the right content on the right channel
It is also important to deliver the right content on the right channel. This means that you have to create different content for different channels and platforms. For example, if you have a website, it would make sense to publish blog posts. If you’re active on social media, then videos or images might be better. Also, if someone’s subscribed to your email list, it may make sense to send them well-written emails instead. The key here is that each piece of content should offer something unique that reflects their preferences and interests.
5. Don’t sell through your content, try to intrigue and educate your audience
No one wants to be sold on something, we all know that. They want an excellent product or service that is going to solve their problem. So if you are trying to push them into a sale before they even understand what the problem is, then you’re going to lose them. You need people who will buy into your idea and trust you enough that they’ll listen when you do start selling them something else in the future.
6. Make room for improvement in your strategy
While you want your content strategy to be a living thing that evolves, it’s also important to make room for improvement. If your most recent content doesn’t perform as well as you hoped or expected, it would don’t get discouraged! Don’t limit yourself by thinking that one type of blog post will work universally—it might not! Consider trying different formats: maybe podcasting is more suited to the topic at hand than writing long-form posts or articles. Or maybe video is the way forward.
7. Use content to interact
Engagement is the holy grail of digital marketing. If you want to increase your business, engage with your audience on a personal level. Create content that can be shared easily. Whether it’s an image, video, or blog post, make sure it’s something that people will want to share with their friends and family. That way, they’ll get more exposure to your brand and start seeing what you’re all about. Channels to respond with their opinions or ideas about those topics!
8. Create a content calendar
A content calendar is a document that helps you plan, schedule, and organize your content. It’s the backbone of your digital sales and marketing strategy, so use it to:
- Plan what kind of content you will create and when.
- Schedule when each piece of content will be created and published online.
- Organize all the resources needed to create that piece of content (e.g., interviews or photos).
