What is Content Marketing?
The term may be unfamiliar but the concept isn't. Content is anything you create to tell the story of your business and what you do for the people you help. Content is often written but it can also be video, audio, images or infographics.
Content Marketing is using content to reach your ideal client and influence his or her buying decision. This can be done overtly with your sales materials, it can also be done more subtly with things like articles, books, press releases, case studies, "how to" information, blog posts, best practices, white papers or any other content designed to educate and provide value.
Content has always been important, but in recent years, search engine updates to ranking algorithms have made it crucial. In the Wild West days of the internet, search engines delivered results based primarily on key words matching the search terms. As a result, "keyword stuffing" became a very popular way to trick search engines into showing a page at the top of the results even though it contained little or no value to the person searching. All the major search engines have since "wised up" and now rank a page based on how "valuable" the content appears to be. Actual ranking criteria are never revealed, but even Google itself has said that user satisfaction is its primary goal. That means everything you publish now needs to provide value to your readers or you've wasted your time in creating it.
Another important benefit of creating great content is the authority positioning and credibility it can provide. At the most fundamental level, people buy from people, not from "businesses". Almost every buying decision is made based on a prospect's ability to know, like and trust you. Having great content all around the internet for people to find when they research you will go a long way toward building trust and letting them get to know a little about you. Go to our Position Yourself With Content page to read more about how certain kinds of content can position you as an expert.
Content Marketing is using content to reach your ideal client and influence his or her buying decision. This can be done overtly with your sales materials, it can also be done more subtly with things like articles, books, press releases, case studies, "how to" information, blog posts, best practices, white papers or any other content designed to educate and provide value.
Content has always been important, but in recent years, search engine updates to ranking algorithms have made it crucial. In the Wild West days of the internet, search engines delivered results based primarily on key words matching the search terms. As a result, "keyword stuffing" became a very popular way to trick search engines into showing a page at the top of the results even though it contained little or no value to the person searching. All the major search engines have since "wised up" and now rank a page based on how "valuable" the content appears to be. Actual ranking criteria are never revealed, but even Google itself has said that user satisfaction is its primary goal. That means everything you publish now needs to provide value to your readers or you've wasted your time in creating it.
Another important benefit of creating great content is the authority positioning and credibility it can provide. At the most fundamental level, people buy from people, not from "businesses". Almost every buying decision is made based on a prospect's ability to know, like and trust you. Having great content all around the internet for people to find when they research you will go a long way toward building trust and letting them get to know a little about you. Go to our Position Yourself With Content page to read more about how certain kinds of content can position you as an expert.