Content is the way to differentiate
Everywhere I go, people are talking about content. Whether that be for social media, blogs or for website use. Content could be video, articles, pictures or info used for tweets. There are increasing numbers of content providers that claim to be able to provide tailored articles for content to help with SEO. I have no doubt that this is a worthwhile strategy. Content is king. And, it will only become more so. GSA can already provide content through our partners and push out this content through newswire distribution hopefully to be picked up by the media. Likewise, we can place advertorials in target media through those partnerships.
So, what’s the story on content
Content helps with search engines, drives visitors to your site, keeps them engaged and interested and longer on your site. It encourages them to recommend you to others and influences people to be more trusting of you and thus more likely to purchase. Content is therefore a crucial factor in social media success and increasingly a lead generation tool and strategy.
There are a variety of different content types that are required to ensure engagement and influence through social media and on your website. A sample of different types of content a company might produce is below. This is not exhaustive.
Technical / Product or service Information – This isn’t particularly exciting unless you’re a geek.
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- Core Benefits (relevant to each different consumer target group as they have different needs / motivations) – The key is to embellish the benefits as something of value to the reader or a list of your benefits will leave them cold and they will click away.
- Challenges (for each different consumer – what concerns them? e.g. destruction of the planet, rising fuel costs) – It’s important not just to outline the challenges but proffer knowledge, solutions and commentary about and around the challenges in your marketplace.
- FAQ’s – That can be used to answer questions and reduce strain on customer service
- Industry information (around each area of influence or your services – You can produce content or be a gateway for others’ content
- Current news items affecting each of the target customer profiles
- Content provided by influencers, bloggers, tweeters and so on that can be legitimately recycled (i.e. retweeted or by pointing others at the content)
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Content types should cover as many different media types as possible, to ensure we engage and inspire sharing among our followers and audience. For example, it is known that video and photo posts get the most comments and likes on Facebook as opposed to pure text. Equally, men respond more to video than women.
The key media types one might incorporate in the strategy are:
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- Text – Short updates and information/questions etc (tweets, answers, posts)
- Text – Blog Posts and articles, white papers, polls (created by you and others)
- Video – to support the above or to be video blogs in their own right
- Audio – as above
- Photo – as above
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Content is too long a subject for a simple blog. However, we believe that companies, including SME’s, need to have a content strategy for their target audiences. That means thinking about what they would be interested in, where they would find the info, who is going to provide the content and how often. Then it’s a case of putting it into practice.
Find out how GSA Business Development can help Generate Growth for your Business, by contacting us now on 0845 658 8192 or send us an email.
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