Most business owners today appreciate the importance of having a website, but for all too many businesses their online marketing strategy begins and ends with that website. According to one recent study conducted by Econsultancy, just 41% of businesses have a digital content marketing strategy in place. More than half of all businesses simply let their websites exist in isolation, or use scatter-gun SEO and display advertising to bring in traffic without having a strategy to back up their web presence.
What is a Digital Content Strategy?
A digital content strategy is a marketing plan that helps to ensure that the consumers you reach with your website are engaged, convert well and want to keep coming back for more. If your business does not have a digital content strategy, then there is a high chance that when you acquire visitors through paid search, SEO or offline marketing, you will simply alienate them because they will come to your site and find nothing of interest.
A good digital content strategy might include:
• Informative articles
• Funny or viral videos
• Topical articles
• Promotions and discounts
• Regular podcasts
• Interviews with minor celebrities in your niche
Local businesses have an advantage in that it is fairly easy to use the local connection to build engaging content. For example, a sporting goods shop may interview a team of marathon runners from the Sussex area or have an employee blog about their preparation for a major local sporting event. A restaurant owner could visit the farm that supplies some of the fresh produce that they use in cooking. The possibilities are endless. The challenge is coming up with creative, engaging content to post on a regular basis.
Digital Content Marketing
Consistency is perhaps the single most important part of digital content marketing. It is better to post a single piece of content a week, if the content is added on the same day each week, than it is to post four items at the start of the month and nothing for the next three or four weeks. Your users will not accept an erratic posting schedule. Give them something to look forward to, and reward their loyalty by providing consistently engaging and high-quality content on the days that they expect to see it.
In addition to on-site content, you should consider offering some free downloadable content. E-books and a video series are popular in many niches and provide some long-term engagement for the customer. Offering downloads in exchange for joining a mailing list is an old but effective marketing technique, and one that your brand can leverage to capture leads and hopefully earn the user's custom at a later date. Even Colgate, a long-established household name, uses content marketing to build trust amongst parents via their new health-advice website.
Digital content marketing is one of the things that we specialise in at Sussex Websites. We have helped many businesses create valuable content and more.