September 9, 2021 •DJ Team
If you're wondering why every marketing publication advocates content marketing and encourages brands to invest in building a content strategy, this article is for you.
Content marketing is among the most effective and affordable ways to build a credible brand image, generate qualified traffic, and drive sales consistently.
In this article, we'll explain how investing in a content strategy can help you get ahead of your competitors.
What Is Content Strategy?
Content strategy refers to a well-defined marketing approach that aims to attract strangers to your website, turn them into leads, and convert them into customers using various online content assets.
What Does a Content Strategy Consist Of?
When building a website content strategy, you can consider various content assets, such as your site's home page, feature pages, and blog articles.
A well-designed SEO content strategy revolves around the problems and questions of your target audience.
Why? Because research shows that consumers read online content to learn something new and find answers to their questions.
If your content answers the questions they are asking, they'll return for more. Otherwise, they'll go to a competitor's site that offers better content.
Why Content Marketing Is Crucial for Brands
Why bother investing in a content marketing strategy when you can use advertising to get your message across much faster? That's a fair objection.
However, research shows that 69% of consumers distrust traditional advertising focused on selling products and services. In comparison, 70% of consumers learn about brands from their content rather than ads, and 61% of consumers purchase products because of a blog post.
This is why brands are increasingly investing money in content marketing.
According to a recent study by the Content Marketing Institute, 67% of organizations plan to increase or sustain their content marketing budgets for the next 12 months.
The reason is simple.
When you create problem-solving content, people start trusting your brand and prefer buying from you when the time comes. In comparison, advertising doesn't give you much time or exposure to build your credibility.
As a result, consumers don't trust your messaging and are more likely to look away.
A Simple Content Strategy Template for Startups
Is there a content strategy template or framework that you can copy and paste for your business? Not really.
Content marketing is a sophisticated strategy that considers your product's strengths and weaknesses and the needs of your target audience. Therefore, every business has a different content strategy based on its unique circumstances.
However, the thing that remains the same across all businesses is the need to create high-quality, problem-solving content.
What Are Some Recommended Content Marketing Strategies for Beginners?
Every content marketing strategy will be unique to the business it supports, but there are some strategies out there that make excellent starting points, such as:
- Pillar-Based Marketing - This strategy focuses on the creation of written content. It also involves tactical interlinking of related content in a way that increases your website’s search engine rankings.
- Social Media Marketing - Strong social media presence is a must. In fact, users typically spend around 147 minutes a day on social media. If you’re not consistently posting on multiple platforms, you’re missing valuable opportunities to appear on your audience’s feed.
- Podcast Marketing - Content doesn’t just mean written content. Creating a podcast to reach people while they’re driving to work or taking a walk is yet another way to gain loyal customers.
And these are just a few of the many approaches you can take. Really, content marketing strategy isn’t a one-and-done solution. It’s about combining multiple mediums and ideas to boost your brand and reach your audience.
If you’re looking for some written content tips, that’s our speciality here at DemandJump. We’re all about discovering and creating content that increases first page rankings and drives outcomes. Keep reading for some of our favorite content marketing strategies!
5 Content Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business
Content marketing is a vast field with multiple dimensions and areas your brand can leverage to its advantage.
Let us share a few proven content marketing strategies to help you understand how it works.
1. Create Long-Form Content
Long-form content should be at the core of your content marketing strategy. Unlike most brands that reluctantly invest in content marketing, successful marketers fully commit to long-form blog content that's generally in the 2,000-3,000-word range.
What's the benefit?
It helps you cover a topic comprehensively and answer all the relevant questions of your audience.
As a result, your brand becomes more visible, people quote it in the relevant forums, and they become regular consumers of your brand. Strategies like pillar-based marketing revolve around this kind of long-form content.
2. Use Lead Magnets to Generate Leads
Content drives traffic to your site. But to convert that traffic into leads and subscribers, you need to use engaging lead magnets.
A lead magnet is a content marketing resource that you offer for free in return for your visitors' email addresses. It can be a free e-book, video tutorial, cheat sheet, checklist, or in-depth report that your website visitors can download by entering their email addresses.
Lead magnets are a crucial part of your content marketing strategy because they allow you to build your email list and start a relationship with your subscribers that ultimately converts them into customers.
3. Optimize Your Content for Long-Tail Keywords
Targeting long-tail keywords is a proven SEO and content marketing strategy to drive qualified traffic to your site. Unlike head keywords (one to two-word keywords), long-tail keywords consist of three or more words.
You can think of them as search phrases rather than keywords. They have low search volumes but high user intent. This is why they're so crucial to your content strategy.
When you create your content around long-tail keywords, you convert more visitors into leads and customers because your content satisfies their intent.
4. Use Calls to Action to Drive Sales
Another critical aspect of content marketing is using calls to action (CTAs) in the right places. CTAs are links or buttons that invite users to take action.
When you add them to your content, they silently persuade your readers to try your product or sign up for your email list.
Use at least one CTA in the middle of your content and one at the end, as a general practice.
5. Get Backlinks With Link-Worthy Content
To rank your content on Google's first page, you need backlinks. To get backlinks, you need to create link-worthy content.
What's link-worthy content? Content that's so good that people willingly reference it in their content.
Here are a few easy ways to create link-worthy content:
- Back every argument on your content with data and facts.
- Frequently share examples.
- Publish original studies or survey results.
- Create long-form articles that cover your topic comprehensively.
- Use infographics.
Are You Ready to Automate Your Content Strategy?
Content marketing is a proven way to generate sustainable traffic to your site, build your brand's credibility, and grow a loyal community around your brand.
However, it all starts with a well-designed content marketing strategy.
Wondering where to start? You’re not alone.
That’s exactly why we created DemandJump, a content marketing platform that tells you exactly what your customers are asking and looking for on search engines, what your competitors are saying to those customers, and what you need to do to take traffic share from those competitors.
With a prioritized list of content to create, one-click SEO content briefs and recommendations for updating current content you are sure to see results - fast!
Work smarter with an automation tool designed to make content marketers look like rockstars.
Write content that ranks fast, and save time doing it - get started today!
