A strong content marketing strategy can help you grow a business no matter what kind of business it is. Solid content marketing strategies that will successfully grow a business include four main elements: search engine optimization, a website or blog, social media, and an emailed newsletter.
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If you haven't already checked out our guide to growing a business, you may wish to do so here.
Why a content marketing strategy is needed to grow a business
Before we dive into how you can use each element of a content marketing strategy to grow a business, let's talk about why you need to have such a strategy. It might not seem like a content marketing strategy will help some businesses grow, but it truly doesn't matter what kind of business it is. A content marketing strategy will improve your chances of success.
A successful content marketing strategy will help grow a business because it gets the word out about that business. It also brings the company front of mind before customers, reminding them of its products or services.
Further, it provides opportunities to gather contact information for prospective customers, also known as lead generation. Content marketing also sets you or your company up as an expert in your field so customers are likely to seek you out and recommend you to others.
A content marketing strategy draws in new customers and helps retain previous ones. It also educates customers about the company's products or services and provides a service that increases the value of what the company provides, making customers feel as if they are getting more for their money.
SEO in content marketing to grow a business
The hallmark of any content marketing strategy is search engine optimization (SEO). You should target keywords pertaining to your business that are commonly searched for. You then use those keywords on your website, blog and social media posts. By targeting keywords, you can move your website up in the search rankings, making it easier for people to find it.
Before you do anything, you must know what keywords to target, and there are many tools to help with this. One free tool is Ubersuggest, which not only gives you a list of keywords to target but also shows whether there is any seasonality in those keywords.
Many keyword tools focus on Google because that is many people's search engine of choice, but Google isn't the only place you might want to rank highly. KeywordTool.io helps you rank across a wide array of websites like Amazon and YouTube, which can be extremely helpful if you have a YouTube channel or sell products on Amazon. Some other popular keyword research tools include Google Keyword Planner, Google Trends, and the AdWords and SEO Permutation Generator.
After you know what keywords you should be targeting and have implemented an SEO strategy on your website, you should check to see how you're doing by using an analysis tool like Google Search Console. The tool reveals your website's average ranking for each page on your website in each country. Ubersuggest can also analyze your website's SEO implementation. Other tools that are useful for this include Market Muse and SEMrush. Market Muse is especially helpful because it also tells you what to do to improve your website's search ranking.
Grow a business through content marketing on a website or blog
Every business, no matter what kind of business it is, should have a website, preferably with a blog attached. A website provides you with an online presence and gives you the opportunity to educate customers and generate leads. You should definitely be implementing an SEO strategy on your website and blog.
The benefit of a blog is that it requires you to update your website on a regular basis. Google prefers websites that are updated regularly, and blog posts provide an additional way to target specific keywords that other pages on your site do not target.
It may be difficult for you to constantly come up with content to write for your blog, but one way to get some help with this while also improving your SEO ranking is to use the tool Answer the Public. All you have to do is enter one of the keywords you are targeting into the tool, and it will generate questions people commonly ask about that topic.
By answering those questions, you will boost your website's ranking in the search results while also setting up your company as an expert on the topic and generating meaningful content.
Social media
Finally, you should have social media accounts to attract even more eyes to your company and its website. Social media accounts allow you to share links to your content while also capturing attention from people who might not be searching for anything on search engines.
Facebook and Twitter are the go-to social networks for most people, but don't forget about LinkedIn, Instagram and Snapchat. You can also share links and content on those networks. You may want to consider setting up accounts for both you and your business, although for LinkedIn, you will just be able to set up an account for yourself.
Social media posts not only inform prospective customers about your product or service but also enable you to set yourself or your company up as an expert on certain topics. You should also use your keywords in your social media posts to draw in people who are interested in your product or service.
Link building
Once you have established a content marketing strategy and have all the other elements in place, you should start looking for ways to get other websites to link your site. One common strategy is to write guest posts for other websites that focus on the industry your company operates in. Having links on other websites will improve your website ranking in the search results.
When it comes to growing a business, your content marketing strategy is extremely important. Virtually everyone uses the internet now, so having a digital strategy to attract eyeballs will draw in is an essential part of growth. It could be argued that having a digital strategy is even more important than advertising on radio or TV, at least for some businesses.
The post Why and how to grow a business through content marketing appeared first on ValueWalk.
