Content marketing is a form of digital marketing that focuses on creating and distributing valuable and relevant content to drive leads, build customer loyalty, and increase brand visibility. Content marketing can come in many forms, such as blogs, infographics, videos, whitepapers, webinars, eBooks, and more. Utilizing effective content helps brands become trustworthy sources for knowledge and insight about related topics in their field. It can give companies a competitive advantage by making them an authority resource for industry news or specialized product information. Ultimately, content marketing builds greater connections between businesses and their customers by helping them create personalized experiences with the brand.
To ensure success in content marketing, there are a few tips and strategies to keep in mind that will help increase conversions, grow an audience, and build customer relationships. Following these essential content and search engine optimization (SEO) writing tips can help make your digital marketing successful and yield great results.
1. Work With an SEO Team
Successful content marketing requires an in-depth process before writing can begin. Yes, you can find any writer on Craigslist or Upwork, but there is much more to content marketing besides the writing itself. An experienced SEO team should prioritize keyword research, topic development, and on-page SEO optimization. These steps are the foundation of a prosperous content marketing strategy.
For example, SEO teams can analyze which topics and keywords are used the most when searching for a particular product or service. They can use this data to determine what type of content to create and optimize it for search engines. This is important for driving organic traffic to your content, making it easier for potential customers to find.
The best SEO teams will:
- Learn “What is SEO writing?” and execute.
- Conduct keyword research to understand user intent and match content to it.
- Create an analytics strategy that tracks customer engagement with your content.
- Develop an editorial calendar that outlines the topics and frequency of your content.
- Optimize content for search engines with meta descriptions, titles, URLs, and the latest tips for SEO content writing.
2. Develop a Brand Outline
Take the time to develop a brand outline. This is essentially a short document (1-3 pages) that clearly spells out tone, target market, style elements, and other consistencies that should be in all blogs (e.g., wanting Zero Gravity Marketing to be spelled out instead of using ZGM). If you prefer that each writer use their own voice, that is okay too; just make sure they understand how you want your company to be talked about.
For example, you may want to have the same type of format followed (i.e., a blog should start with an introduction, two or three body paragraphs, and a conclusion). Or, you may decide to have a certain number of words per blog post. Whatever it is, be sure to document this in your brand outline.
The components of a strong brand outline include:
- Your company’s mission, vision, and values.
- The type of content you want to produce (blogs, videos, infographics, etc.).
- Tone/voice to be used in the content (e.g., professional vs. conversational).
- How often should the content be published?
- Desired length of the content.
- Who is the target audience?
- SEO strategies to be incorporated.
- Style elements to be used (e.g., font and color choices).
3. Humanize the Articles
Remember, your content marketing strategy isn’t just about catching Google’s attention — you want your readers to be drawn to you too. The best way to attract the right audience is to develop a persona for your target market and write the articles with that person in mind. For example, if your target market is a millennial working mom in the United States, choose the topics and tone, and write as if you’re talking with her.
In addition to creating a persona, you want to ensure that your content is relatable and helpful. Avoid using technical terms and jargon that your target audience may not understand. Instead, opt for simpler language and cover topics that directly relate to your audience’s needs or interests.
Finally, don’t be afraid to inject your brand’s personality into your content. Have some fun with it and make the content come to life. Include stories, quotes, and humor that can help your audience better connect with the SEO article writing and your brand.
Content that successfully humanizes your message is more likely to be shared, commented on, and remembered. And that can go a long way in developing relationships with your audience.
4. Set Your Writers Up for Success
Content writers may be responsible for putting the words together, but it’s your job to give them enough information so that the end result is what you want. Gather any facts or statistics you want mentioned, make sure the writer understands who your audience is, and maybe even provide them with a rough outline. Just as important, give them enough time to get the article done so they can perform ample research on the industry and the audience. And make sure to include a day or two for revisions to make sure the article is perfect before it’s posted to your site. The last thing you want is a rushed article.
Components of a solid writer-success model include:
- Collecting necessary facts and stats before the start of the project.
- Offering resources that help ensure accuracy.
- Allowing enough time for research and revisions.
- Understanding the writers’ strengths and weaknesses.
- Offering feedback on how to write for SEO.
5. Ask Employees to Help
Sometimes, short blogs are sufficient, but long-form content can earn you more shares and viewers. However, expecting one writer to write the amount of long-form articles that you need for a strong content marketing strategy is naïve. No realistic amount of online research could make a writer an expert in your field. A better option is to ask your employees to supply content in their areas of expertise. At the very least, ask your staff to develop outlines, which include facts and sources, to take some of the burden off the writer, speed the process along, and make an overall better article.
Collaborations between professional content writers and industry experts can be the most powerful content on a site. As an extra incentive, you can offer your employees a bonus if their content reaches certain predetermined benchmarks, such as a specific number of social shares or website clicks.
To ask employees for their help and ensure quality content, consider the following components:
- Encourage employees to offer ideas for articles.
- Allow employees to volunteer their time to write SEO content.
- Provide guidelines and pointers on how they should prepare the article.
- Support employee SEO writing with an appropriate reward system.
- Offer a bonus for articles that reach pre-determined milestones.
- Reward employees who meet or exceed expectations.
- Allow employees to link articles they’ve written on your site to their own personal blogs or social media profiles.
6. Share on Social
Speaking of social shares, our next content marketing tip is to remember to share your content on social media. You and your SEO team spent a lot of time developing and producing the content, and now you want the world to see it. You don’t need to worry about sharing the content on every social media site — select the social media outlets where your target market can be found.
To ensure your content reaches maximum visibility on social media, consider the following:
- Share content regularly.
- Use appropriate images, videos, and infographics.
- Make sure content is optimized for each social media platform.
- Take advantage of trending hashtags.
- Team up with influencers.
- Track the reach and success of your social content.
- Engage with followers to keep them informed.
- Respond to comments and feedback in a timely fashion.
- Monitor mentions of your brand, product, or service on social media and respond accordingly.
- Analyze data from your social media accounts to determine what content is most effective.
7. Track Results and Make Adjustments
A good content marketing strategy should track results. This allows us to make adjustments based on performance, enhance what works, and cut out what doesn’t. For example, Google Analytics will tell you how long a person spent on your article. The average person can read 300 words per minute, so if they are not staying on the page for a minute-and-a-half for a 500-word article, you may need to figure out why.
To track results and make adjustments to your content marketing, consider the following:
- Monitor page views, shares, and click-throughs.
- Track blog comments and email sign-ups.
- Analyze data from Google Analytics, such as bounce rate, time on page, and page views.
- Measure leads, conversions, and sales generated from content marketing efforts.
- Track social media mentions, likes, shares, and comments.
- Use A/B testing to determine the most effective content and strategies.
- Monitor email open rates, click-throughs, and unsubscribes.
- Use heat maps and other tools to determine how users navigate your website.
To help you track your success, there are many tools, such as HubSpot and Google Analytics. That being said, these tools do have their limitations. It’s difficult to figure out which customer touchpoint led to a conversion. For example, a visitor may have seen your product on social media the day before they stopped by your site to read an article, and both interactions combined prompted them to purchase. The good news is that science is starting to catch up with the needs of a content marketer, so there should be new analytics tools on the horizon that can dissect every piece of data available.
8. Update Old Blogs
This content marketing tip is a win-win: It’s a win for you because you can make some quick changes and have a revised blog post to share on social media, and it’s a win for your readers because they can know that all of the information they are reading is accurate and up to date. Most high-ranking blogs are older ones since they have been around longer to gain momentum; however, the data within them is not always evergreen. Statistics, methods, and opinions tend to change over time, so reposting outdated blogs with new information is imperative. The reader doesn’t always pay attention to the date your article was posted, and you don’t want them to be led astray. Just make sure to follow these tips when republishing old posts, especially the one about keeping the same URL.
Checklist for updating old blogs:
- Have SEO writers read through the entire post and take notes on what needs to be changed.
- Research to find new facts, figures, and up-to-date information.
- Make the necessary updates in your post.
- Update any outbound links to ensure they are still valid.
- Keep the same URL as the original post for search engine ranking consistency.
- Repost and share with your readers.
9. Be Excited About Your Blog!
This is your chance to speak to your clients. You get to share helpful information while boosting your ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs). A content marketing strategy can be fun if you approach it with the right attitude. Your enthusiasm will come through in your SEO content writing, and it’s contagious. People want to know that you love what you do, so show it! If you’re having a good time creating content, your readers will have a good time reading it.
To infuse your posts with enthusiasm:
- Get inspired by other experts in your industry.
- Don’t be afraid to let your personality shine through.
- Take a break and come back to the topic with fresh eyes.
- Write content that you would enjoy reading yourself.
- Include anecdotes and stories if you can.
- Make sure there is a call to action at the end.
- Always keep your audience in mind.
10. Invest the Time: It’s Worth It
Put in the time to follow all of the above content marketing tips. Content marketing isn’t going anywhere. As Google gets smarter, a robust content marketing strategy will be critical to staying afloat. When you invest time into each article, page, or post, you can reap the rewards for years to come. All of your hard work will pay off in the long run.
Creating quality content takes time and effort, but it is worth every minute you put into it. When you make content with a purpose and keep your readers in mind, you will see your efforts pay off. So invest the time, stay organized, and use the right tools, such as an analytics platform, to measure return on investment (ROI). That way, you can build a content strategy that will continue to serve you in the long run.
11. Keep Track of Your Progress
Content marketing helps you stay organized and on track with your goals. Keep the momentum going by monitoring your progress. Start by tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), such as website visits, social media engagement, and email subscribers. Then use this data to analyze what’s working and what isn’t so you can tweak your strategy.
There are a few ways you can monitor your progress:
- Create reports to track KPIs easily.
- Track your website performance with analytics software.
- Monitor social media engagement levels.
- Analyze backlinks to your site.
- Check email list growth.
- Track keywords to see how your content is ranking.
By monitoring and analyzing your performance, you’ll be able to determine what’s working and isn’t. This will help you create better content moving forward and make sure that your content marketing strategy is successful.
12. Don’t Forget to Have Fun!
Content marketing isn’t always easy, but it doesn’t have to be dull! Don’t forget to have fun with your content; it will make the entire process more enjoyable and productive.
To have more fun with your content:
- Try creating it in different formats, like videos and podcasts.
- Incorporate visuals into your content.
- Ask questions to engage your readers.
- Tell stories and show personality in your SEO writing.
- Keep it relevant and up to date.
- Bring in guest experts for interviews or Q&A sessions.
Contact Zero Gravity Marketing Today
A solid content marketing strategy is only as good as the team behind it. At Zero Gravity Marketing, we have the experience and know-how to create a content strategy that works for your company with top SEO content writing tips. We can help you develop engaging, insightful, and tailored content for your audience.
For help developing a surefire content marketing strategy, contact Zero Gravity Marketing today. We know exactly what to do to get you the results you desire. Let’s start building your content marketing strategy and creating content that reaches, engages, and converts. Contact us today. We look forward to learning more about your content marketing goals.
