Having good content on your website is very important, both in terms of attracting visitors and converting them into customers. But what content should you put up on your site?
Gee Ranasinha talks about building a content strategy in a recent post at his blog, Business Value Matters. Here is part of what he says:
In order to maintain their relevance and develop a valuable online experience for their customers, any organization developing an online marketing presence (or arguably any marketing presence) needs to have what is called a content strategy. Key to developing your brand’s online reputation lies in the ability for your company to produce relevant and valuable content. Without interesting content, why should your target audience keep coming back for more?
Read the full article – Strategizing Content
It is no longer enough to put a few pages on a website and hope that it will sell itself. Every business, especially small businesses, should add a content strategy into their marketing plan. The reason is simple. Good content attracts people in to your website. It is akin to maintaining a constant awareness amongst your market segment. Keep people interested for the long term, and when it is time for them to buy, they will automatically turn to you.
What should your content strategy look like? In simple terms, you need a schedule of when to post new content on your website. The more regularly you can do it, the better. At the same time, you need to develop a plan for what type of content you will post. This will depend on your customer base, but it could include news, case studies, advice articles, how to videos, or any number of things. What you need to focus in on is what the customer wants and needs. Put that on your website and you will start to develop loyalty with your customers.
The better you can connect what you are saying on your website with what customers want to hear, the better. So get out there and find out what needs and desires your customers have. Find out their passions. Study their search behavior. And make every effort to turn your website into a valuable resource for them.
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photo credit: derekGavey
Bradford Shimp is the President of Broad River Creative, a blogger and blog designer. He designs blogs and websites for small businesses, and teaches small business owners how to use the web to grow their business.