On the web, there’s nothing more valuable than organic traffic. If your site is getting a lot of organic traffic, the search engines see it as a sign that it’s a credible site. That will help you rank higher in the search results.
This works well for sites that have already become popular. Unfortunately, it works against sites that are new and have little traffic. If your site isn’t getting much traffic, it’s bound to rank lower in search engine results. So it’s something of a catch-22 situation.
Related: Internet Marketing… A must have advertising weapon for all businesses.
In this post, we’ll look at how content marketing can help you build your organic traffic naturally, and why it should be your primary strategy.
What is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is about providing value to your target market. It’s not about directly selling a product. So instead of writing a piece about how wonderful your scarves are, you’re going to create something that is more useful to the reader.
This could be in the form of a blog post, an infographic, a podcast, and so on. The type of content is not important here – it’s the fact that the content is not pushing a sale.
Related: 5 Secrets for Effective SEO Strategy for Startups.
Why Content Marketing?
Content marketing, on the other hand, can bring in more targeted traffic over a longer period. Your blog post, for example, should get hits for many years to come. Also, by targeting the correct keywords and phrases, you can more accurately match your prospects’ original search requests.
What About PPC Marketing or Social Media Marketing?
There’s no question that PPC marketing can boost the amount of traffic that you get. But with up to 80% of web users ignoring sponsored results, it’s not the best strategy in the long-term. Content marketing is far more reliable and cost-effective.
But Surely Social Media Marketing is a Better Option?
Social media marketing does help you reach out to your target audience. It can boost traffic. The problem is that it won’t always drive targeted leads and the campaigns are short-lived.
Let’s say you’re a fashion retailer, and you create a post titled “Ten Ways to Tie a Scarf.” You could promote it on social media, and you’ll probably get a fair amount of interest. But are those people ready to buy one of the scarves? Probably not. Also, the post will start losing traction after a couple of days.
Related: How to Start and Grow Business with Google Adwords or PPC?
How Does Content Marketing Benefit us?
In today’s society, we’re constantly subjected to adverts. This constant deluge can be intrusive. It’s no wonder that very few of us are interested in reading marketing information any more.
Think about this in your own life – do you open all the emails you receive? Or are there some that just get deleted immediately because they’re sales-related? Most of us have had more than enough advertising.
That said, people are always looking for information. They might need some light relief, or they might be trying to solve a problem that they’re experiencing. This is where content marketing comes into its own.
By providing content that is valuable to the client and not pressurizing them to buy, you’re improving their experience on your site, blog, and so on. They’re more likely to see you as a valuable ally than a marketing machine.
That works in your favor because they’re more likely to want to share the information. They’re also more likely to seek out other content that you’ve created.
What’s more, there’s no real expiry date on content. So more and more people are bound to find it as time passes.
How Do I Get Started?
The first thing is to understand what your target market wants and needs. Ask yourself a simple question – “How can I improve their lives today?” If all your content is created with this strategy in mind, you’ve already got the edge.
The next thing to do is to find a way to reach that audience more easily. Look out for bloggers with a similar target audience to yours. They shouldn’t be direct competitors for obvious reasons, but people within a complimentary niche instead.
Find out whether or not they’ll allow guest posting. Speak to them about creating a killer blog post for them. If they agree, you’ll be able to post on their blog. You’ll get a traffic boost from them, and some high-quality backlinks to boot.
Over time, these links are going to continue to bring in traffic for you. Isn’t that far better than paying for endless PPC campaigns?
Related: The Ultimate Guide to Feature your Product on Google.
Have a look at this infographic. I hope you will surely have an idea of how the search engine gives preference to content marketing…
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