Have you ever seen business websites that have a blog section and a great deal of written articles that are pertaining to their trade? Why are these brands spending so much resources to create these articles? Surely they have other better things to do?

Give it a thought. You’re not here today by chance. Rather, you’re reading this very article either through our successful distribution on social media platforms or you’ve found it via your favourite search engine. Whichever the channel, this is the reward of content marketing. We’ve well reached you by creating content that you’re interested in. Delve deeper. We’ve got more to share.

1. What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the action or business of promoting and selling products or services which involves the creation and sharing of information in order to obtain and retain customers. Information can be conveyed to customers in numerous ways which includes news, photos, videos, infographics, how-to guides, best-of articles, etc. Content marketing should never seen as something separate. Rather, it is part of the marketing process. Content marketing is an integral in any form of marketing because quality content is needed in all forms of marketing.

2. What is Search Engine Optimisation?

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of increasing the visibility of a website or even a single web page in the Search Engine Ranked Page (SERP) results. From a business entity’s perspective, an increase in the website’s visibility correlates to an increase in traffic. Every time the audience enter your website, your brand is extended to them. As they navigate and read the information on your website, it presents a brand experience. This brand experience forms an impression on your audience that influences their response to your call-to-action.

3. The Different Types of Website Content and Their SEO Value

There are many different types of website content that can be utilised for SEO. Each content creates different SEO impact and the effectiveness of these contents depends greatly on how you’ve creatively used them to market your business.

a. Images

Images or photos are great visual content for websites. An image is worth a thousand words. Images attract the necessary attention and encourages the audience to read on. If you are in a trade where you need more than text to exhibit your products or services, images are your best bet. Google processes over 40,000 search queries every second on average. Image search makes up part of this enormous number. Websites that do not optimise their images for SEO will never have them visible on search engine results. Good images highlights your professionalism, projects a good brand image and improves your credibility. Good images builds your backlink profile if you allow them to be shared.

b. Videos

Videos provide greater entertainment value compared to photos. If an image is worth a thousand words, then a video, which is made up of many single static images, is definitely worth more. Videos portray motion and if you’re in a trade that requires movement to exhibit your products or services, it’ll be a choice medium for you. Videos are usually housed in social media platforms like YouTube and Vimeo because these platforms offer better visibility and distribution. Good videos (that are hosted on external platforms) are capable of stirring interest, which increases the chances of the audience visiting your website for the entire brand experience. Videos (that are hosted on your website) are great time sinks which increase the amount of time users spend on your website. Google Analytics measures the amount of time users spend on your website and it could be one of the ranking factors for SERP results!

c. Infographics

Infographics are images that contain informative content for your audience. Information graphics are graphic visual representations of information, data or knowledge intended to present information in a quick and concise manner. These graphics provide ease of reading and simplifies lengthy information. When used effectively and timely, infographics can become viral on social media platforms. Good infographics are essential for building backlinks to your website if you’ve permitted its sharing.

d. Articles

Written articles or blog posts are great mediums to provide content to your audience. It’s the most widely used medium type because of its cost-effectiveness. Anyone who can write a blog post can harness the power of words to create valuable content for their audience. Articles are great for SEO at two levels. At the macro level, they tell the search engines what your website is all about. It increases the relevancy of your website to your trade (that is if you’ve chosen to write about matters that are relevant to your niche). At the micro level, every single article is a piece of content that is capable of reaching and satisfying your target audience. People make search queries that are specific and this usually requires long-tail keyword searches. Long-tail keywords are less competitive and this literally means your article page will have a higher visibility if you’ve optimised it for keyword search. Good articles create backlinks for your websites. If people like what they are reading, they’ll share it.

4. The Benefits of Content Marketing

Besides providing SEO values, content marketing benefits a business in various aspects. Just like most forms of online marketing, content marketing has an indefinite influence. The marketing influence is present for as long as your video or blog post is made available in the online world. Smart marketeers employ content marketing as part of their marketing strategy because they do not want to rely solely on paid advertisements whose influence is limited by the depths of their pockets.

Content marketing seeks willing prospects. If a prospect is not at all interested in your content’s topic, they would never have searched for it and arrived at your website. Obtaining a keen prospect is half the battle won. The final victory would depend on your ability to convince them to respond to your call-to-action.

When done right, consistent content marketing can become autonomous. Once a piece of content starts to have adequate authority or visibility, marketeers can cease distribution effort on that piece of content. It becomes an independent piece that is capable of bringing traffic and leads for your business.

Spend some time to create worthwhile content for your audience. Go for quality rather than quantity. Serve your audience first. Fulfil their online goals and the rest of the rewards will be given to you!

On average, there are about 50,432 searches made on Google every second. Anybody who stumbles upon your website is a potential customer. If opportunity knocks but once, that makes first impressions everything. Making your prospects happy is the key to bettering the conversion rate of your website. Other than having the right product, price, promotion, packaging and positioning, which are often taken care of in marketing strategies, how do we go about making prospects happy through their online experience with your brand?

1. Have a Good Information Hierarchy

The solution to having good information hierarchy on your website is to have a functional sitemap. A website sitemap is a planning tool that helps you arrive at a logical presentation of content on your website. It is a list or diagram which represents the hierarchy structure of the pages in your website. A good sitemap helps you to visualise and structure user paths. It organises the presentation of content to assist your business in achieving its goals. In a nutshell, it enhances the user experience by making sure they can find what they need on your website. When a prospect gets to find the required information on your website with ease, it makes them happy. ^__^

2. Make Effective Communication

A website is an online presence, a communication platform for your business. Say it quick, say it well. This is the crux of effective communication in the modern day context. An overwhelming amount of text wears the prospect who reads your website. Having all images and no words would not explain things well. You need a good balance of these two building blocks in design. Communication design is the discipline that is concerned of how media intermission communicates with people. People ignore designs that ignore people. A prospect who understands and is clear of what he is reading on your website, is a happy person.  ^____^

3. Optimise the Speed of Your Website

You’ve paid thousands to make a cool-looking animation on your homepage; it takes about 10 seconds to complete the animation download; the prospect waited for 5 seconds; he got impatient and exited your website without having viewed any of your content. Yes, the online world is a harsh place. Everything happens in a fast pace. The attention span of a modern internet consumer is short. If you make people wait, they will most probably give up on you and hop over to your competitor’s website. On the other hand, if your website is optimised for speed, it will provide the user with an excellent and uninterrupted experience. A fast website makes a prospect happy. ^________^

4. Satisfy Your Prospect’s Goals

The final and most important point to making prospects happy is to satisfy their goals. Prospects enter your website with different goals in mind. They may want to know the price of your products or services; they may want to make easy online purchases; they may want to contact you to know more about what you are offering. The possibilities are endless. Understand your audience. Observe their behaviour flow and fulfil their needs. A satisfied prospect is a happy person. ^________________^

When you’ve managed to make your prospects grin from ear to ear, you’d most likely have convinced and converted them to happy customers who buy your service or product. Even if you did not make sales at the point of engagement, you’d have left them a very good first impression that works towards Top-Of-Mind Awareness! Getting smiles ain’t as hard as you think it is. Type &#9786 in HTML. There you go!

Not all cheap designs are bad. And not all expensive designs benefit your business. The sole discretion of which offer to take, lies on the hands of brand stewards. Many clients who do not understand marketing and communication design often go for the cheapest price quote rather than the higher ones that promise better quality. Are you someone who go for designs that are value for money or simply designs that are priced the lowest? Most importantly, have you ever considered what you are really paying for?

This Branding Agency Can Create a Brand Identity for $500.

Sure. Your business targets the high brow market. But the brand identity defined by the branding agency probably gets ignored by the target audience and only appeals to the low brow market. You’ve probably bought a brand identity that does not resonate with your target audience for a cheap price.

My Graphic Designer Can Design a Business Logo for $5.

Definitely! You’re likely to end up with just a logo in JPEG format. You give this logo to the vendor for your store signage to be made. The logo’s resolution is too low. They ask for a logo in EPS or AI format. You do not have it and the vendor impose additional charges to have your logo retraced. There are many other issues you may get yourself into if you do not have a professional logo designed. You’ve probably paid for a logo that cannot meet your business needs for a cheap price.

That Web Design Company Can Design a Website for $800.

Unquestionably! You’ll probably get a ten-page website with your own images and textual content. Your website is not search engine friendly and will never appear on the Search Engine Ranked Page (SERP) results. The images on your website are not optimised and cause a long loading time which present a poor online experience. The filenames, titles and alt texts are not set to help increase exposure for your business. The navigation on the website is confusing and causes a high bounce rate. The design of the website is lacklustre and does not encourage the reader to spend more time on it. You’ve probably bought a dysfunctional website for a cheap price.

This Graphic Design Company Can Design a Brochure for $100.

Certainly. More than often, when you get a low priced design quote, you’ll only receive desktop publishing level of skills to craft your brochure. Desktop publishing (DTP) is a process that designers or even non-designers use to turn their images and textual content into marketing collaterals. DTP does not require extensive digital imaging and a creative process. It is a process that only requires the skill-sets of bringing images and text together to showcase the information. Graphic design on the other hand, involves the creative process of coming up with concepts, ideas and graphical arrangements for communicating a specific message in the form of a visual. The main aim of graphic design is to make effective communication and bring a favourable impact to the businesses’s bottom line. Good design is geared to convince the audience to act to your call to action. You’ve paid $100 for the brochure design. You’ve also paid for a brochure that does not yield conversions for a cheap price.

Poor design forms negative brand sentiments and good design makes positive associations. It would have been better for you never to want a design made than to have a poor design that causes harm to your business. The next time you accept a design price offer, know what you are really getting.