Every marketer has heard the mantra, “Content is king.”
As a content writer, there’s no way I’ll dispute that claim. But I will amend it.
I believe that content is king but relevancy rules.
Every website is defined by content. No argument there. But only sites with truly relevant content capture attention and generate engagement. And only relevant content helps drive transactions and strengthens your lead generation efforts.
Those may seem like strong assertions, but at Jacobs & Clevenger we put those beliefs to the test.
Two of our agency’s core strengths are content marketing services and content creation services. And this year, we used that expertise to redesign our website using content marketing as the vehicle to drive traffic.
Our inbound marketing strategy called for the new site content to be more relevant, meaningful and reflective of the information users wanted. As a result, the agency increased inbound visits to our website by more than 900%. We also generated 50 times more inbound leads and increased the number of inbound links 25-fold in only 120 days.
In short, relevancy rules.
Now, let’s talk about how you can increase the relevancy of your content to generate more visitors, leads and transactions.
Here are three pivotal questions that can help guide content marketing efforts.
What is your most important goal for content marketing?
Admittedly, this is a challenging place to start, because determining the answer requires a singular focus. But that will actually prove to be a positive going forward. If you have a clearly defined primary goal for content marketing, you’ll also have a sharper focus to strengthen your inbound marketing efforts.
When J&C works with clients to shape their website content development, here are some potential content marketing goals we consider:
For all of these goals, it’s important to remember that effective content marketing reaches the right people with the right information at precisely the right time. That’s why it’s vital to begin with a defined primary goal to focus your content.
What are your prospects interested in?
To answer this question, you’ll need to accurately gauge which keywords should be prioritized in your content. At J&C, we use a keyword analytics tool to pinpoint the terms and topics that prospects are searching for most frequently.
This requires a little analytical heavy lifting, but it’s always worth the effort. Some factors we rely on to set a content strategy include:
This is also the time when you have to take a hard look at your current web content. The content may seem engaging, but if the most relevant keywords aren’t anchoring the content, the right prospects simply won’t find you.
Once the optimal keywords are determined, my favorite facet of content creation services begins. This is the stage where you develop relevant, meaningful content around those specific words.
For a writer, this requires verbal gymnastics. In addition to the website, content may be needed for blog articles, videos, polls, landing pages, infographics, ebooks and white papers. You need the flexibility to think beyond website content development and bring every component in the content marketing strategy to life.
Will your content marketing support social media efforts?
Many content marketing agencies view social media marketing and content marketing as combative siblings. They’re fine when they’re separated, but put them together and chaos will ensue. J&C has a very different perspective. We believe that content marketing can greatly enhance your social media efforts. In fact, utilizing content marketing in social media efforts can transform these activities into lead generation techniques.
Another important shift takes place when you leverage content marketing in social media. Your social efforts change their focus. Instead of company-centric marketing you have customer-centric communications that are much more meaningful to your target.
Once again, it’s all about that magic word “relevancy.”
Hopefully, those questions have sparked some thoughts for optimizing your content marketing. But remember, these are just preliminary considerations to help increase the relevancy of your content and generate more visitors, leads and transactions.
To learn more about how to evolve your content marketing, download our Optimizing all roads to your website through Content Marketing ebook.
Topics: Inbound Marketing
