You’re a small business owner and you hear people throwing terms around like SEO, PPC, display advertisements, and digital marketing, and you’re wondering to yourself, “What does it all mean?”
Back in the day, traditional marketing was the only option. You marketed your business through directories, television, radio, and billboards.
In today’s world, people use Google to find local business listings instead of flipping through the Yellowpages. They watch shows on their laptop instead of their TV. Pandora is less costly and more customizable than purchasing CDs. People don’t drive to work anymore; they telecommute.
How are you supposed to reach these potential customers effectively in such a different world?
Cater to your Audience through Digital Marketing
Going digital isn’t as simple as one…two…three. The same question always pops up: “What do you need in order to succeed digitally?” The answer is CONTENT. According to Search Engine Watch, content is king, and I agree.
Content can be anything you want it to be. It can mean optimizing the different pages of your website to make sure they each have a specific keyword and purpose. Your content could be a business blog, giving your brand a voice. Images more appealing to your audience? Isn’t the saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words?” Well, a thousand is a lot but I’m confident you can write 200 words about the picture instead!
Remember, content is the backbone of your digital strategy. Here’s why:
- Credibility
- SEO
- Engagement
- Online Visibility
Credibility
Consumers do research and make educated buying decisions these days. Some may want the lowest price, some may want the highest quality, some convenience, and so on. The more content and information you put out there for your audience the better, and honesty is always the best policy. That’s how you earn your customers trust.
Having dedicated landing pages on your website for each product or service is best practice. Incorporate a testimonials page on your website to show how other people liked your service. Offer case studies or ‘before and after’ pictures. Industry news is also a great way to gain respect if you want to be an industry leader.
Make sure key details are included. You wouldn’t hire a plumber without knowing if he or she had their license, would you? Provide people with the information they want!
SEO
Search engine optimization, or SEO, plays a major role in the success of your digital strategy. Content is the screwdriver in your SEO toolbox.
1.) Keyword Rankings: The more content you have on your website, the more opportunity to incorporate valuable keywords you care about. Building up keyword density on your website will influence your keyword rankings on search engines, gaining you more visibility and site traffic. The more often you have a keyword on your website, the more likely Google will associate that as an important term for your business and audience (but be careful not to overdo it).
2.) Freshness: Updating your website on a regular basis is extremely important for search engine results. I highly recommend date and time stamping content where you can, as this will allow the search engines to easily identify when you last updated your website.
Google provides consumers with what it believes are the most quality, relevant and up-to-date results. If you do a Google search for Dancing with the Stars, Google will assume you are looking for information on this season and will drive news from past seasons to lower results.
3.) Quality Links: The more content out there about your business — either on your website, through press releases, a blog, or another tactic — will drive quality links back to your website. Give people something important to link back to!
Engagement
These days, the arena you want to be in is social media. Not only is your audience spending most of their day on social media platforms, but now Google+ and social engagement are having an influence on keyword rankings. Creating a conversation is difficult without content! A business blog is great way for your brand to have a voice and to have fresh, relevant content to push on social media.
Online Visibility
Without a doubt, the more content you have means the more opportunity to gain visibility throughout the web. What do I mean by that? More landing pages on your website means more pages that can come up as a search engine result on Google. The more content you have to share, the more posts you can make on Facebook and Twitter. The more blog pieces on a certain subject, the more credibility you gain within your industry. It only takes one amazing piece of content to spread and become viral on the web.
Content is the foundation for any digital strategy no matter if you are focusing on SEO, PPC, social media, or a different type of campaign. First and foremost, think about the content that would interest your target audience. The social media shares, keyword rankings, traffic and positive results will come in time.
