Content Marketing & Content Strategy

Q: What kind of content should a local business develop?

A: The kind that converts!

Okay, you could have hit on that answer yourself, but as this post aims to demonstrate:

There are almost as many user paths to conversion as there are customers in your city, and Your long-term goal is to become the authority in your industry and geography that consumers and search engines turn to.

Google’s widely publicized concept of micro-moments has been questioned by some local SEOs for its possible oversimplification of consumer behavior. Nevertheless, I think it serves as a good, basic model for understanding how a variety of human needs (I want to do, know, buy something, or go somewhere) leads people onto the web....

The average consumer has stopped paying much attention to traditional marketing and advertising after decades of disruptive intrusions that are too often calculatingly misleading. Content marketing takes a different approach to reach and engage customers, one that’s less intrusive and treats them with more respect. Great content marketing offers something valuable to an audience, with no obligation to repay that offering. It is entertaining, insightful, relevant, and useful writing, graphics, video and/or audio. It seeks to establish a relationship with a relevant audience built on trust, so that when it comes to business time, prospects choose you over a competitor. 

The Content Marketing Institute’s research found 88 percent of companies are now using content marketing.

Accordingly, companies are stepping up their investment in content marketing staffing, technology, and strategy. According to Curata research, this year 75 percent of respondents are “increasing” or “significantly increasing” their investment in content marketing, because it’s a sophisticated marketing method that works.

Companies Can’t Keep up With Their Content NeedsCompanies continue to struggle to produce enough high-quality content to feed the beast. Which may be why 70 percent plan to produce even more content this year....

This ultimate guide covers the three crucial steps of content SEO: keyword research, site structure and awesome copywriting. Learn how to tackle all three!

I’ve written plenty of content in this vein, including posts (and infographics) to help you generate video marketing ideas, infographics, and lead magnets, such as eBooks.

In this post, rather than GIVE you content marketing ideas, I’m going to tell you how (or where) to GET them.

Mostly, you “steal” them. But as I hope you know, I don’t mean you plagiarize the content other brands publish. That’ll get you nowhere. What I mean is marketing ideas are inspired by a myriad of resources—online and off.

The long list that follows explains exactly what I mean. I rely on these resources and you should too.

The biggest pain point of all to come out of the State of Content Marketing survey?

"Producing engaging content, consistently."

I had been reading all the results with mild interest until those words stopped me dead in my tracks. You may think the source of that concern stemmed from the fact that such a thing should be easy to manage, but it goes deeper than that.

Success with content is predicated entirely on your ability to consistently produce content that engages, resonates and adds value to your audience’s lives. And if producing that is the single biggest barrier then we have a problem!

You see, investment in content is a waste of money if you don’t have a well-designed plan to deliver constant content....