If you’ve dipped your toes into digital marketing at all, you’ve probably come across the term “content marketing” before. A technique which now forms the basis of most top performing online brands’ digital strategies, content marketing involves producing, sourcing, distributing, promoting and harnessing content (such as blogs, how to guides, infographics, videos etc.) in order to perform more powerfully online.
From increasing traffic to your website and building up buzz about your business via social media, to helping you get found for more search terms via Google and positioning yourself as an authority in your niche, there are many potential benefits which can be harvested via content marketing.
But can these “wins” be achieved by smaller businesses – like painters and decorators – which choose to explore the technique?
The short answer is “yes”.
A real benefit of content marketing is that it’s incredibly scalable. You may be a one person outfit, but committing to producing and publicizing just one blog per month could make a positive difference to your digital performance – especially over the long term.
The biggest digital brands at the top of the food chain may invest hefty resources building and running their content strategies, with big in house teams dedicated to masterminding, operating, measuring and perfecting them, but it’s perfectly possible to undertake content marketing at a more humble level and still reap some benefits.
That’s because good quality content is beneficial for a number of reasons:
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It makes your website “thicker” and more authoritative. The more quality, unique subject matter you have on your website which relates to your niche, the more “weight” Google is likely to give your site, helping you boost your ranking.
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It keeps your website fresh. Google also prioritizes websites with plenty of fresh, regularly updated content as this shows your site is relevant, active and up to date.
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It helps you target longtail keywords. The more words you write about your subject on your website, the more likely you are to start appearing for more terms relating to what you do. You can even increase your chances of this by researching the types of terms and questions searchers are looking for, then writing content to fill the gap.
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It gives you something to shout about on social media. If your social presence is getting a little tired, well planned content can help you capture the interest of your followers and drive more traffic to your website.
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It makes you look authoritative. If you want to impress visitors and turn them into customers, content which shows off exactly what you can do will help persuade them that you’re the right painter for the job.
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It’s great for capturing local search. Nobody wants to cover their main website pages with clunky terms like “painter decorator Norwich”. Creating content about jobs you’ve undertaking locally is the perfect organic and natural way to help your pages rank for local keywords, without looking or feeling spammy.
Getting started
Your approach to content will depend on how much time you have at your disposal. Some painters and decorators will be able to squeeze in one blog or case study a month, others may have time to create a “how to” guide, a decorating inspiration post, a local case study and an advice piece on a monthly basis. If you want to generate more content but don’t have the time or skills, contact a professional like Tess Wittler.
If you’re serious about getting strategic, investing time or resources in keyword research will help inform your content strategy and help you squeeze more from it. Don’t forget to check out what your competitors are up to, share all of your new content via social channels and set up analytics so you can see which pieces of content are having the best effect.
Excellent points. We recently took on the task of updating our site, and realized that creating content is tough! But, I’d totally agree that having great content is very important.
It’s all about the content for sure, great content rocks!!
Oh yes, I so agree. This has done wonders for my flooring business. My site gets well over 100,000 pageviews/month.