We have all likely heard the phrase “content is king,” but what does that actually mean, and why should you care? Today, it is understood that to operate a successful and scalable business, you must have a solid online presence. In order to do so, investing in quality content that serves a purpose is non-negotiable.
Here are a few things to consider when it comes to the value of content and why quality content is important, and keep in mind, if you are not doing this, your competition likely is.
5 Benefits of Creating High Quality Content
1. Solidify Your Branding and Increase Brand Awareness
Oftentimes, content creates opportunities for brands to introduce themselves to new consumers who have not previously crossed paths with the brand before. Additionally, great and consistent content is the best way to really let users get to know the brand and understand what the tone and voice is.
Content Is King but Consistency Is Key
“Content is King” may reign supreme, but consistency is extremely important to note here. When the tone of your content varies from your social media presence, to your email campaigns, to informational content living on your site, it can create a very confusing experience for users and makes it difficult to nail down who you are as a brand. However, when content is consistent across all platforms and accurately represents your brand, it makes it easy for users to understand and connect with your brand.
2. Build Trust With Your Audience
One of the easiest ways to build a trusting and loyal relationship with your audience is to provide them value through excellent content. As a point to reiterate, consistency allows users to learn what they can expect from brands, and when brands consistently deliver on those expectations, they are deemed as reliable and trustworthy.
Additionally, if you are able to provide your audience with unique content that answers all of their questions, has accurate and nuanced information on a subject, and offers them a new perspective, they will be more likely to turn to you again in the future.
3. Assert Yourself as an Authority in the Industry
Differentiating your brand from the competition can be tricky. Perhaps you provide new features or a more approachable price point than the competition. Content can be a great way to display these unique value propositions and push users who are in the consideration phase to the point of conversion. However, ideally, your audience also turns to you because you are an expert and know what you are talking about.
Talk About What You Know
And the best way to showcase your expertise is by doing just that… talk about what you know! Having a healthy assortment of highly educational content that provides updated and accurate information about key industry updates, along with first hand perspectives and nuanced opinions that can only be formed through hands-on experience, is one of the best ways to show, not tell, your audience that you are an authoritative voice in the industry.
4. Increase Your Online Reach
While it is recommended that writing content is the primary intent of providing value to your users, layering on SEO optimizations in your website content will ensure your content is viewed by as many people as possible.
SEO (search engine optimization) is essentially a way to get search engines such as Google to display your content when a user searches for relevant information, which ultimately drives more traffic to your website. When a targeted keyword strategy and SEO optimizations get infused into high quality content, search engines will serve that content to users around the world indefinitely. This strategy vastly expands how many potential customers you are able to reach, and creates a new passive stream of users coming to your site.
5. Create Long-Term Sustainability Through Building a Healthy Funnel of Users
What happens once a user makes a purchase? Or, what if your business has a 12+ month sales cycle? Do you go hands off during these phases, or are you still providing value to your users that ensures you are staying top of mind?
High–quality content is an excellent and cost–effective way to ensure you are continuously providing value to your audience and keeping them engaged. In turn, you are able to maintain a relationship with your audience, keep leads warm, and encourage repeat business.
Providing thoughtful and meaningful content to users post-purchase — this is seen through multiple avenues but one such strategy is through email marketing — shows that you care about their satisfaction and that you value their business. Likewise, providing value to users outside of your specific service and product offerings shows you are tuned into the needs and desires of your audience, and are there to serve them along the way. Over time, this becomes a passive way to keep your marketing funnel full and drive consistent leads year after year.
There’s an understanding now of why quality content is important. Next up in the equation is the how factor.
4 Tips on How to Create a High Quality Content Strategy
Tip #1: Be Realistic About Your Capabilities
While setting internal content goals such as “Write and publish 4 pieces a month” or “Create content to address top 15 customer questions in Q2” can be solid given the right processes are in place, they might not be attainable given your existing resources.
First, assess who has the ability and bandwidth to write content, or what your exact budget to hire external resources looks like. From there, you can prioritize and create a plan of attack. Remember, quality over quantity. If you are working with limited bandwidth or budget, focus on creating the best content possible for your highest priority customer questions. Focusing on pain points only enhances the position of why quality content is important by addressing what matters.
Tip #2: Listen to Your Audience
Not sure what content you should be focused on? Always focus on addressing your audience’s needs. A great place to start is by consulting your sales and customer service teams to get a sense of what type of questions or frustrations they hear voiced most frequently. This is direct feedback from your audience, and will also ensure your content marketing efforts are directly supporting the needs of your sales team.
It can be tempting to go full steam ahead writing about exciting new features or updates to your product, but if you are still consistently getting the same questions from your user base, it is probably smart to be sure you take the time to address those first.
Tip #3: Share Unique Insights and Opinions
It can be tempting to look at what other brands are writing about or look at top ranking articles for a certain topic and want to emulate them in your own content. However, it is extremely important to write content that is unique and conveys your brand’s personal perspective on various topics.
The best way to do this is by writing about unique insights and experiences, and offering well thought out and supported opinions. This makes it clear to both readers and search engines alike that you are not just regurgitating content that already exists on the web, but that you are an active member of the community with a unique and valuable viewpoint.
Tip #4: Consult a Content Marketing Professional
While creating high quality content does not need to be complicated, when you are wearing multiple hats or juggling a heavy workload, it can feel overwhelming. Consulting with a content marketing professional can help take a lot of the time and guesswork out of crafting a new content strategy, and will ensure you have effective content processes that actually align with your business goals and needs. Or, you may elect to work with a full service content marketing agency like us here at Logical that can own the entire process, from strategy, to creation, to distribution on different channels and platforms (such as utilizing organic social media), and reporting.
To get started with your content marketing strategy and understand how our team of SEO and content marketing professionals here at Logical Media Group can help you achieve your goals, reach out today.
