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Content marketing has become one of the most powerful tools used by digital marketers worldwide. But to really impact your audience, it’s not enough to fill social media channels or send emails regularly. Your company’s content must hit audience pain points and provide value.
What is high quality content?
The Content Marketing Institute’s definition of content marketing summarizes quality content. The organization believes that content should be “valuable, relevant and consistent.“Think of these three attributes as the pillars of quality content.
Bring value: After reading or viewing your content, the user knows something they didn’t know before. Alternatively, your content may have helped them solve a problem. Be relevant: Your content should relate to your audience’s life situation. Maybe it helps them in their career, solves a relationship problem, or serves to entertain them during a break. All three scenarios are perfect examples of content that is relevant to the person consuming it. Be consistent: Publishing an award-winning blog post once and never again does not constitute high-quality content marketing. Consistency requires regular content of similar quality.
While these three pillars can help businesses develop their content strategy, users or potential customers will be the final judge of content quality. This is one of the most important aspects of content marketing to keep at the center of your strategy. Content marketing isn’t about writing or recording videos for you, it’s about your audience.
Related: How your business can maximize your content strategy and get more results
Produce high quality content
Several household brands have excelled at producing high-quality content and using it strategically to build stronger bonds with their audiences.
Example 1: LinkedIn
Of all the social media platforms, LinkedIn retains perhaps the narrowest focus on providing content that helps users advance their careers. The platform may be a social network, but unlike some of its competitors, its focus is on networking rather than socializing.
This focus is reflected in LinkedIn blog content, where writers produce highly targeted pieces that resonate with readers. The goal is not to create the profile of the writer or the platform, but only to solve the problems of the users. In addition, the platform has mastered the art of repurposing content. White papers become blog posts and eBooks find a wider audience when excerpts are shared.
As a result, users understand that LinkedIn provides high-value content relevant to their professional development and stay current.
Example 2: Shopify
Shopify has become synonymous with successful e-commerce, and content marketing has been one of the company’s key growth strategies.
Like LinkedIn, Shopify refrained from pushing its brand. Instead, the team helped users and other businesses interested in e-commerce better understand the field by launching an e-commerce encyclopedia. This online shopping encyclopedia proved a valuable tool for others and established the Shopify team as experts.
By creating content that helped users and customers, Shopify built its brand reputation and built trust. In addition, the encyclopedia drove traffic to the Shopify platform. Individual entries are kept short to suit the audience. Shopify knew users weren’t looking for in-depth explanations, but preferred a quick read at this stage.
Example 3: TED Talks
Even if you’re not an avid follower of TED talks, it’s impossible not to have heard of the brand. TED Talks are featured free video lectures that are shared on YouTube or the brand’s podcasts. This is an excellent example of video (and audio) content marketing.
TED talks cover any topic and all have one thing in common: they want to share thought-provoking ideas. Global experts feature many, some of which have celebrity status, while others cover a specific niche.
How did TED build an audience of over 20 million YouTube subscribers? The answer is simple: whether it’s the global conference, by invitation only, or a channel derived from the TED universe, quality always comes first. The speakers are engaging and have equally exciting thoughts to share. This focus on quality has helped attract some of the biggest names on the global speaking circuit and continues to grow the TED brand.
Related: How to Know If You’re Producing Quality Content
How can your business produce quality content?
As the examples show, high-quality content comes in many forms. It can provide value in a series of short Instagram or Twitter posts. Longer explainer videos can serve your brand just as well.
Before choosing a delivery format, start by considering your audience. Successful content adds value. Any brand considering content marketing must ask how the business can deliver value to existing customers and capture the attention of others. You can better meet your customers’ needs by understanding what your customers want from your business.
Updating existing content should be part of your content marketing strategy if your business has already started content marketing. This is especially important if you operate in a field like technology, where things are changing rapidly. Additionally, updating your existing content will benefit other aspects of your digital marketing strategy, including search engine optimization (SEO).
Speaking of SEO, do you know what your potential customers are looking for when they search for businesses like yours? SEO specialists call this search intent. Understanding how your audience searches for your products or services helps you personalize your content.
Keep your content engaging and easy to understand. If your content strategy includes longer blog posts, white papers, or ebooks, they need to be well laid out and easy to read. Content that is difficult to digest because it is difficult to understand rarely goes viral. Short sentences almost always beat long explanations. If you offer video content, think about your presentation style and the technology used to record your content.
Content marketing is a great way to connect with existing audiences and reach new ones. As with any form of digital marketing, a strategic approach is most likely to be successful. Content marketing means being consistent, relevant to your audience, and above all, providing value.
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