5 Ways Content can help grow your business

You’ve heard so many times that you should be blogging, doing videos, using social media, and be all over the web.

But you may be asking yourself how exactly all this hard work will help your business?

The truth is that high quality content should be an integral part of your business marketing strategy and here's why.  

 

1-     Drive traffic to your website

First and foremost, high quality content, published regularly and with targeted key words will help you rank higher on search engines like Google.

It’s no news that Google loves ever changing websites with quality content.

Make sure you target one key word per blog post only, but don’t overuse it. The idea that you need to use any particular key word a gazillion times is outdated, and it makes for an awkward read. The only thing you will achieve is to annoy your audience, which misses the point completely.

Content published on third party publications will also drive traffic to your website.

Start searching for publications that have the same target audience and accept submissions. Maybe your audience is still small, but  you can tap into someone else's audience which may be much larger than yours.

Don't know what kind of content to create? Grab my Ultimate Content Planner here, and never be caught without something interesting to share.

2-      Make up your emails and newsletters.

I’m a big advocate of email marketing.

As I’ve written before, email marketing helps you build an ongoing relationship with your audience, improving your “know, like and trust” factor.

To be able to email your audience regularly, you need to have something useful, interesting or inspiring to share.  

No one likes to receive offers day in and day out. Your content will help educate your audience about what you do, how you can help, and why you are the best person to help them solve a problem or fulfill a desire.

Always consider your audience needs and wants when creating and sharing content.

3-      Connect through social media.

Your social media also needs content to continuously engage with your audience and showcase your products and services in a non-salesy way.

Blog posts, videos, graphics, podcasts, free downloads, and the like should make up most of your social media posts. It’s essential to have something helpful, inspiring or entertaining to share regularly.

All content can be re-purposed. After sharing a blog post, you can re-use some of your paragraphs, sentences or sub-heading to create graphics and republish on your social media.

One good piece of content can generate several pieces for social media.

Videos can be transcribed and become blog posts. A series of blog posts can become an e-book. A series of videos can become a short e-course.

The possibilities are endless. Think outside the box and be creative. You will find many ways to use the same content several times.

You can also use funny content to entertain your audience. Yes, why not? People love to be entertained and read articles or watch videos that are funny and make them laugh.

Be authentic and mix it up a little. Then pay attention and see what your audience prefers and what makes them come back for more.

Make sure to create a two way conversation, ask questions, give space for your audience to reply, comment and engage with you.

Is content doing your head in? Grab my Content Planner to help you create content for your business.

4-      Increase your visibility and credibility

Out of sight out of mind. The opposite is also true. When people see you regularly, they remember you, and it might just be logical for them to buy from you and refer you to others.

Quality content helps you increase your visibility, as people will consume your content and possibly share it with their friends.

If you publish content on other people’s publications, it will increase your visibility even more.

Your content will not only help you become more visible, but also more credible. People will start seeing you as an expert in your field, which helps create trust.

Need help thinking, planning and creating content? Download the Ultimate Content Planner here.

5-      Create opportunities

It won’t happen overnight. But with time, dedication and consistency, content will attract new business opportunities.

Great content answers questions that your audience have in mind when searching for your services or products.

The purpose of your content is to provide the answers and help your prospects understand what you can do for them, so you don’t have to do any hard sale. 

When people contact you, they already know you, what you do and that you can help them.

In a similar way, other businesses will start looking at you as a possible collaborator for their projects.

Whether people reach out to you, or the other way around, your credibility will attract opportunities to partner and collaborate.

Think about the possibilities for a moment.

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I hope I’ve answered some of your questions about content, and how it can help you grow your business.

Is your content working for you? Feel free to leave a comment or questions here or email me at [email protected]

Oh, and if you haven't yet, Download my fab Content Planner here. You will love this planner, guaranteed! 

PS. Keep an eye out, next week I will share how to create a content strategy for your business.