Understanding How Content Marketing Life Cycle Works to Increase Website Traffic
Writing content for ‘content marketing’ can be the highest order of ‘meta’ that can be.
But what can we do, this is the ‘in’ thing!
New articles cropping up on the web everyday about the same are testament to the fact that there is a range of audience out there who want to know how to use it to increase engagement and conversions on their website.
Getting rid of advertisements and expensive sales-generating tactics, content marketing relies on publishing informative material which interests a niche group and then viral distribution of the same.
An ‘inbound marketing’ tactic, it stems from the belief that quality content will naturally attract a large amount of people, thereby increasing brand awareness and website traffic.
This leads to greater on-site conversions than the traditional marketing initiatives which require continuous and highly focused efforts.
So how do you get content marketing right?
Write great
First and foremost, get your content right. Coming up with a few poorly written blog posts just because everybody is and it seems to be the trend isn’t going to help and for the most part, will only waste your valuable time.
Make sure that your write-ups are a) well-written, informative, comprehensive and jargonless. b) appealing to your target audience.
A well-written content that doesn’t resonate with your audience is as useless as poorly-written content that resonates with your audience. The two factors aren’t mutually exclusive and to achieve viral success a combination of both is a must.
To uncover relevant ideas on which you may write about, seek advice from your community itself with the help of social media.
Share effectively
If a peacock danced in the woods, and no one saw it, did it really dance? Ok, now I myself am getting into jargons even though I advised you not to.
The point is- every good thing has to be made public to be acclaimed by people.
Once you have a polished and elegant content, you can’t just simply post it on your website and expect Google to bring in the traffic for you.
That privilege is held by the likes of Mashable and Buzzfeed and since you’re reading this article, chances are you aren’t Mashable or Buzzfeed.
The fastest and most effective way to circulate anything through the internet machine is social media. Put your content links on the social media handles to encourage person-to-person sharing and you can build your campaign some initial traction.
Needless to say, the success of your content marketing promotions is directly proportional to the size and the level of engagement of your social community.
And the social community isn’t just limited to Facebook and Twitter handles; search for forums that are related to your industry and position yourselves as a reliable authority by actively posting over a period of time, not just about your content but on discussions related to other topics too.
If you only pop up once in a while to drop your promotional material and disappear until next such piece is to be shared, people won’t take you seriously.
Lack of Proper Planning while doing Content Marketing
Plan precisely
Although this is a point I’m discussing last, this should be on the top of your list if you want an effective content marketing strategy.
Any marketing technique, inbound or outbound, has a gist- a final motive that it wishes to achieve, and content marketing is no different.
Your final target here can be anything- be it an increase in sales or simply an increase in social media followers to get your brand on the tongue of people and establishing its presence.
Because if your target is the first one, i.e. an increase in sales, there is no point of quality content, an engaged community, greater interaction and sharing unless all these translate into real-life business growth.
Wrapping things up
Content marketing is no silver bullet and hence doesn’t guarantee foolproof success, but if used correctly, it can yield significant traffic growth and brand recognition.
