A well-orchestrated Digital Marketing campaign will incorporate numerous elements that all work in harmony with each other. One of the cornerstone components of this is simply known as content.
Content is a straightforward concept. It is the text, graphical, or other elements of your website. A well-designed website will always include great content.
Why is content crucial in Digital Marketing?
Digital marketing employs a variety of techniques to get your brand or product noticed. Social Media, PPC Advertising, and Search Engine Optimisation are all critical aspects, but without great content to back them up, a digital marketing campaign can fall flat on its face.
In simple terms, great content performs two key functions:
Customer Engagement
Imagine a customer has two websites offering identical products. One website has a photo, a line of text, and a price. The other has a full item description, interactive photos, guides on how to get the best from the product, and FAQs that address common customer concerns – Which site would you buy from?
But it does more than just this. A website with great content will be full of other elements that build customer trust and position your brand as an authority in its field.
Blogs, product information, guides, FAQs, current news about the relevant niche or product, and video guides are just a few examples of where great content can boost visitor numbers and increase engagement.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)
One of the major parts of a digital marketing campaign is to boost website visitor numbers and increase brand visibility. Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is a critical component in that.
Search engines love content. It is how they identify what your site is about, the products you offer and the services you provide. The problem is that there are likely hundreds of websites offering similar products or services.
This is where great content comes in. The quality of the content is important; as stated above, too little content will drive customers to other sites with more information available.
However, quality is a key metric that is often overlooked. For content to work in boosting search engine rankings, it needs to be of high quality. Great content will be original, informative, well produced, and current.
What great content should include
We have briefly touched on the components that make up a website with an effective content strategy. In this section, we discuss some of the more common types of content in greater detail.
Product Descriptions
If you are selling a product or service, then the product description is your chance to inform your potential customer what it is about, why they need it and why they should buy it from you. It should also include many of the kws you want that page to rank for in Search Engines like Google and Bing.
Think of this as being your salesperson. This is where the pitch is made that will convert customer visits to sales conversions.
Guides, How-tos, and FAQs
Potential customers will want to know that the company they buy from cares about the customer experience. A series of product guides and walkthroughs that address common concerns lets visitors know that you care about the customer experience.
Of course, it also gives another opportunity to boost that all-important SEO rating. For example – How many times have you typed a question into Google? Chances are it is almost a daily occurrence. FAQs are the perfect opportunity to capture the attention of potential customers as they make enquiries in search engines.
Calls to Action (CTAs)
CTAs are an important part of any content strategy. This is where you can encourage your visitors to take the plunge and purchase your product or service. They are a component with a proven track record that, surprisingly, is omitted from many websites. Common successful CTAs include:
- Buy now
- Contact us today
- Add to cart
- Get started
- Sign up to our newsletter
Blog
Search engines love current, relevant, topical, and updated content. One great tool that can keep your content fresh and topical and boost your site’s authority in its niche is to blog regularly.
A blog is a great way to boost your site’s “authority rating” in search engine indexes. For instance, if you sell smart thermostats, then a series of blogs that cover how they work, what features they have, and how to install them would be a perfect way to boost your site’s rating.
Blogs can also be used to introduce relevant content to your site that can cover special events or seasonal offers. For example, a blog at Christmas explaining why your product is the perfect gift for kids, or a blog explaining why this summer everyone will be using the product you sell.
These are just a few examples of what constitutes great content. Some other ideas are:
- Video guides
- Interactive elements
- Landing pages
What great content shouldn’t include
With website content, quality is essential. Here are some of the big mistakes that should be avoided:
- Plagiarised content – You might see a blog post that you really like on a competitor’s website and decide to post it on your site. This is quite common but doesn’t work. Search engines have mechanisms that detect copied content, and this may negatively affect your rankings. If you are enthusiastic about the blog post, just write a similar one in your own style with some original flair!
- Grammatical errors and spelling mistakes – These are one sure way to send visitors scurrying from your page.
- Endless lines of text – Good content should be easy to read, with short paragraphs and plenty of headings and bullet points.
- Incorrect or misleading content – Hopefully, the reasons for avoiding this are obvious.
Conclusion
Great content is the foundation of a successful digital marketing campaign, yet it is still often overlooked. Hopefully, the few tips and hints in this guide will let you get the creative juices flowing and help you to produce killer content that gets your page to the top of the search engine rankings.
At SWOT Digital, we have decades of experience in creating successful Digital Marketing Campaigns that are based on fantastic content. Why not contact us today and find out how we can boost your visitor numbers and conversions with high-quality content that is tailored to your needs?
