Creating quality content that your readers want to see is essential for driving traffic to your website. Content allows you to share information with your audience, attract new customers, and set up your business as an industry expert.
The challenge for businesses is how do you create content that your audience will want to read? Before you create content, it's essential to know who you're speaking to so that you can adequately capture, inform and reward your audience with valuable information. Here are some things to think about to effectively create content that your readers want to see:
What content is right for your industry
Determining what content is right for your industry depends on your strategic approach for the results that you want your content to achieve. It's important to evaluate what goals you want for your content development, whether you want to bring in new customers, keep current customers informed, or establish your business as a subject matter expert.
There are a variety of content pieces that can help get your message out in the digital world like website copy, blog content, whitepapers, infographics, social media posts, and advertisements, as well as video. Print marketing collateral like brochures, posters, mailers, and flyers also offer value for sharing content about your business.
How personas affect the content strategy
The content strategy and development for a business depends heavily on the personas that businesses market to. Marketing personas, which are also frequently referred to as "buyer personas" or "user personas" are the foundation and framework for creating and targeting the appropriate content.
Researching, analyzing, and understanding your buyer personas can help a business create a strategy of impactful content that can inform your audience, create new sales leads, support current relationships, and establish your brand as a leader in your industry.
The importance of SEO
Search engine optimization, also known as SEO, is crucial when targeting the content you want your audience to see. SEO is important to help increase organic search rankings so your target audience can find your content. This is also essential for using your content to create opportunities for your audience to convert into prospective customers.
Once I start SEO how long will it take until my content starts ranking in search engines?
It's hard to pinpoint exactly how long it will take for your content to start ranking in search engines because of various factors. Some of the different factors that determine how quickly your content will rank include:
- The age of your website and the domain authority it has established
- How much SEO work has been done previously
- Content length
- Keyword-rich content
- Linking structure
- And more.
It is important to note that increased rankings could take several months to a year depending upon the factors mentioned above.
How long does it take to increase website traffic?
It could take anywhere from three to six months to see an increase in traffic to your website from the content you've created. A couple of factors that can help boost this timeframe. You can increase traffic through SEO or through paid advertisements to reach your target audience.
Should I invest in PPC?
Pay-per-click, also known as PPC, is an essential option to invest in for helping your content establish a following. It's a powerful way to share your content with a target audience or increase your reach to a new prospect audience. PPC is targeted toward your preferred demographic that your business serves as the keywords you will bid on will relate to your products or services.
Should I continue SEO once I have good rankings?
It's important to continue SEO practices in your content development once you've achieved good rankings. You don't want to lose momentum in driving traffic to your website. Creating and publishing new, high-quality SEO-optimized content consistently will continue to allow your content to be found for your audience and establish yourself as an industry leader.
When to and not to be salesy
When it comes to creating content that you want your audience to read, it's important to be aware of the balance needed between being informative and capturing a lead or sale. Well-written content will help to connect with your audience and once you've established trust between your company and your audience you can create a sales opportunity.
Evergreen content versus timely content
Evergreen content by definition doesn’t have an expiration date. Its topics will always be beneficial for your content strategy. Informational articles and tutorials are examples of evergreen content that can be re-shared over time.
Timely content is fresh, up-to-date information that is relevant at the moment you're sharing it. Timely content won't stay important for long, but it will position your company as a knowledgeable influencer in your industry. These pieces of content can be seasonal or relevant to current events or trends.
While evergreen content is extremely beneficial, timely content will help your business perform better in search engines because the content's nature focuses on trending topics and is relevant to what users are searching for at that particular point in time.
How do I distribute my content?
Once your content strategy is defined and created, you can then move forward to publishing and distributing your content. Strategy is also an important role in the distribution of content. You want to maximize your reach by publishing content on the right channels at the right time. Here’s everything you need to know about how to effectively distribute your content.
Not sure how to create content that your readers want to see?
We offer a full range of digital marketing lead generation and content development services for B2B companies - we work with companies from manufacturing to energy to logistics and telecommunications. To learn more about how we can help create and distribute content that converts, contact us today.