Launching a digital marketing strategy without having high-quality content is like trying to drive a car without any wheels on — no matter how good of a driver you are, it simply won’t get you anywhere. All your efforts will be fruitless without the vital piece of the complex digital marketing puzzle – content.
So, if you’ve wondered if content creation is important for your business, the shortest answer is a resounding “Yes!” But where exactly does content stand in the greater scheme of things? And, just how important is content in a digital marketing strategy?
Keep on reading because today, we shed some light on why content is rightfully crowned the “King” of digital marketing and why it’s essential to give it the recognition and attention it deserves if you want to make it in the crowded and ever-changing digital landscape.
What Is Content In Digital Marketing?
Hang around the web long enough, and you’ll hear digital marketers and SEO experts from all around raving about content. But what is it, exactly? Content or digital content is a general term used to describe any kind of textual, graphic, video, or interactive element on the web. It can be delivered on websites, social media platforms, or apps. It’s what gives value to a website and users a reason to visit it and stick around in the first place.
In the realm of digital marketing, content, more specifically, is the delicate mix of science and art of creating (and sharing) valuable, relevant material online with the goal of not only promoting a brand, product, or service but attracting, engaging, and retaining your target audience and/or prospective buyers to drive profitable interactions with your brand.
How Important Is Content In a Digital Marketing Strategy?
Simply saying that content is important when creating a successful digital marketing strategy would be an understatement of the century. Even though content marketing plays the second fiddle to digital marketing, there would be no digital marketing without content marketing. Or at least, it wouldn’t be so great. So, it’s safe to say that content is the bread and butter, the lifeblood, and the heart and soul of your digital marketing efforts.
What’s the difference between a blog post that goes viral and gets shared on social media and one that ends up ignored? Great content. What’s the difference between a copy or a blog post that grabs readers’ attention, making them want to keep coming back for more, and one that has them looking for the back button instead? Great content.
Support your digital marketing strategy with top-notch content, and you’ll have traffic, subscribers, revenue, and authority – everything you need to be a digital success right at your fingertips. Miss the memo, and you’ll be forever struggling to figure out where your digital marketing strategy failed to hit the mark with your target market.
Why Content Is Key to a Successful Digital Marketing Strategy
So, by now, you probably get the idea that content is not only a crucial part of your website but also the pillar and the powerhouse of any digital marketing endeavor. We keep hearing that it is king, but why is content so important for creating an effective digital marketing strategy? What’s all the buzz about?
Well, digital marketing is all about creating a bullet-proof strategy across multiple digital channels to attract and connect with your target audience, engage them and eventually move them down the sales funnel. How can you do that successfully? By leveraging the power of compelling and relevant content to generate and achieve your business objectives.
If you want clout in search, you have to earn it. You’ll need fresh, original, search engine optimized, and most of all, engaging online content to become the talk of the town and the top result in SERPs because it really is the lifeblood of your digital marketing efforts. Here’s why:
1. It’s The Fuel that Drives Content Marketing Strategies
Content marketing is one of the most powerful online marketing methods today and a crucial part of any successful digital strategy. It generates more than three times as many leads as outbound marketing, making it an absolute necessity for brand survival in the digital era.
However, simply churning out poorly written, generic types of mediocre content for the sake of getting it out there won’t cut it – the content of a website, an ad, or a blog has the power to make or break a brand’s advertising efforts and success. To get the content marketing engine revving, you have to fuel it by “optimizing” your pieces of content to impress both Google and your readers for maximum effect.
If the content is SEO optimized, plus engaging, original, and relevant, the audience is more likely to click, stay on your website, make a move and even come back for more.
2. It Shapes Your Brand’s Image
Whatever your niche, there’s no end to the wonders high-quality content can do for your brand. Firstly, content gives you a voice – a unique chance to get your name out there, a blank canvas to paint a picture of your product/service and vision, showcase your expertise and establish your brand as an authority in your industry.
People want to work with brands that they know, like, and trust. Content helps you build consumer trust by giving you a chance to make your customers the hero of your story and connect with your audience on a more personal level, thus boosting your brand’s reputation and credibility.
Well-written, valuable content is a non-intrusive way to establish and nurture valuable relationships with your customer base and gain customer loyalty. In a sea of mediocre, generic content, showing that you share their values and interests will make them want to be part of your brand’s story, feel passionate about your brand, and set you apart from your competitors down the road.
3. It’s the bedrock of SEO and Link Building
We’re willing to bet the majority of what you, your customers, and your target audience use search engines for is to find content. To take advantage of the over 5 billion daily searches on Google – you need content that can drive keyword/algorithm-based traffic.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the key to getting all eyes on you – it directly affects your visibility, search results placement, and traffic, making it a vital element of your digital marketing strategy. And content is a crucial element of SEO. Creating optimized pieces of content with high-quality and authoritative outbound and inbound links (also known as external and internal links) is how you get noticed, rank high, and become the talk of the digital realm.
After all, having a website that will never be found is pointless, and content with SEO gives you a chance to reach out in a way that traditional media can’t, earns links from reputable sites, and present yourself to the world.
4. It Can Boost Your Sales
They say content is the best sales tool in the world, which couldn’t be more true. Why? At its core, a digital marketing strategy is a way to increase sales and revenue, and you have the power to craft content that sparks a conversation and transitions into sales down the road. Content is a powerful tool that allows you to create a delightful and natural buying experience – one that directly drives conversions and sales instead of scaring off potential customers by force-selling your products or services.
The ultimate goal of your digital marketing strategy is to earn more business. Creating content that sells itself is a cost-effective method for generating leads and charming potential customers into buyers. With great sales content, you’re not selling people your product or services – you’re selling them your vision, your perspective, your story, and the solution to their problems. And it directly influences the buying decision.
5. It’s Social Media Friendly
Social media marketing is one of the most important aspects of a digital marketing strategy which helps you reach millions of customers worldwide. Social media platforms are a cost-effective way to share high-quality, entertaining, and educational content your audience will value and help you build a following and an engaging social media presence.
Compelling, high-value content can help you build relationships with your followers, encourage them to interact with your posts, share them and thus, help drive traffic to your website or blog from social media platforms. Serving high-quality, entertaining, and informative content on social media leads to increased brand awareness and customer loyalty while boosting your leads and sales. It’s the go-to marketing technique of the 21st century.
Content Isn’t King – It’s the Digital Kingdom
The road to digital success is paved with great content. Content is the atomic particle of digital marketing, and in the end, top-notch content is what wins the digital race. High-quality content that will capture people’s attention and keep them coming back for more is a must in the overcrowded virtual world. It plays a key role in digital marketing campaigns and achieving business objectives such as brand recognition, audience engagement, lead generation, and cementing yourself as the go-to destination.
At its core level, creating superb pieces of content to support a winning digital marketing strategy is about changing the world of the people who consume it. It’s about understanding your niche from the inside out. About knowing your audience so well that you know which information and words will grab their attention, earn their trust, make them stick around and, ultimately, persuade them to buy your products or services in the future.
Impress Google and your target audience with engaging content that speaks volumes, market it on all the right channels, and the digital world is all yours. Need help in doing so? Contact us anytime – our savvy content writers and strategists we’ll be glad to help you claim your piece of the digital pie.