At the heart of marketing is content, as Bill Gates once said, "Content is King" back in January, 1996, it still holds true today.
"Content is where I expect much of the real money will be made on the Internet, just as it was in broadcasting.", Bill Gates.
Today, content has never been more important, and more than 20 years later, content still remains the king. In fact, every digital marketing strategy needs a content creation plan.
Content is Still King
So why is content still King after so many decades? Surely there's something else more important than content right?
The truth is, without content, how are you going to connect and engage with your target audience? Almost everything we consume daily is some form of content, it is even more so on the internet. Your favorite videos, songs, blog posts, educational article, these are all content in different forms and formats.
The current state of the internet requires even more content, and not just any content, it has to be great content that is relevant to your audience and abides by Google's EAT (a bit more about that below).
So if you wish to be successful in marketing your products and services, then don't even think about skimping on creating great content.
Advancements to search engines like Google also calls for the rise in awareness of the importance of content marketing amongst digital marketers. Content marketing is so important today because it is about the customer instead of the company, and this is exactly what Google wants.
Great content not only attracts the attention of people, it also gains the favor of search engine crawlers. If you do your content marketing right, you would be killing multiple birds with one stone, namely creating a pull marketing environment that drives traffic and relevant audiences to your website as well as ranking your website high in SERPs (Search Engine Results Page).
We will deep dive into the question "why is content still the King?" in a moment to show you how critical content is in today's market.
According to 74% of companies surveyed, content marketing has increased their marketing leads, both in quantity and quality. (Curata)
Why Content is Still King?
Since the beginning of time, content has reigned supreme. Even the first caveman pounding his chest proclaiming "Me King!" knew that content was the key to spreading his decrees to the people.
Today, content is at the heart of all successful marketing campaigns, and that value is only growing as the internet becomes more crowded.
Companies are starting to realize that in order to capture people's attention on social media or drive visitors to their websites, they need to have something of value to say.
Below we discuss some of the key reasons why content remains the King till this day and age, surviving all forms of evolution and revolution.
Build Relationships
Phew! The buzzword "content" is everywhere today when it comes to digital marketing. Content should be more than just blocks of text on a page. Instead, it should engage your target audience and arouse real responses.
The fact is that people are not interested in being sold to – they’re interested in being informed, entertained, and inspired.
The best marketers use content to connect with their customers and prospects. If you do this well, you will greatly improve your brand's relationship with its customers.
Creating, and sharing the right content at the right time, on the right channel helps to build brand reputation and trust and could potentially lead to more conversions.
To build a successful business, you need to not only bring in new customers, but also nurture existing customers.
Happy customers are repeat customers and oftentimes, repeat customers are the driving force of companies. They are also great for boosting brand loyalty and sharing positive reviews.
All of this sounds really good, but as with most things in life, it is often easier said than done. So how can we achieve all that with just content? Here are some suggestions on the types of content you can produce for your target audience:
- Step-by-step guides
- How-to guides
- Informational content
- Comparison guides
- Entertaining yet educational content
Try creating this type of content, and over time you will see just why content is king.
The right content drives people to make purchase decisions. It also keeps them coming back for more awesome content.
About 68% of people are interested to read about brands they use and support on the internet.
So give your audience what they want - relevant and useful content that makes them glued to your website and warrants return visits.
Approximately 80% of people find information about brands through their content.
So find your USP (unique selling point) and show off everything that your brand has to offer via carefully selected topics that will interest your target audience. Remember to focus on their pain points, interests and provide them with solutions to solve the challenges they are facing.
Make your audience feel that you understand them, and they will reciprocate by supporting you.
Improve Brand Recognition
In addition to building relationships with your customers with content, you will also be building EAT (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) for your brand.
With every useful piece of content you put out, you will not only be viewed by people as an expert, even Google will recognize your expertise in your domain.
Gaining more audience for your content also establishes you as an authority in your field of business.
Creating more good content will lead to your brand being recognized as a trustworthy source of information to go to for your specific niche. Over time, your audience will respect and rely on your brand as a go-to source of information.
Once the word gets out, it will be easy for people to share your content on social media, chat groups and even word of mouth. People will start to talk about your brand as it becomes more recognizable and remembered by more people.
So you see, by providing relevant and useful content, you are building up to a chain effect that sees increase in brand recognition, improved search engine rankings and of course the overall EAT of your website and brand.
As with before, how can you achieve this? The simple answer is consistency. This means putting out good quality content on a consistent basis.
Daily, weekly or monthly publication of content would be good intervals to explore and weave into your business operations.
But, what are the types of good content you can put out to build your brand recognition?
A suggestion is to create content that shows and tells your audience why your brand is awesome and trustworthy.
You can do this by putting out content that responds to questions people could have about your products, services and brand. Educate them, inform them, but do it in an entertaining way.
Do not miss the opportunity to convince your audience to become your fans. Inform and educate them on the reasons why you are unique and even better than your competition, and eventually you will notice your brand recognition grow.
Boost Brand Authority
In the long run, content can help you boost your brand authority. But, to be an authority you need time to build it up.
Which is why influencer marketing has become a popular marketing strategy in recent years. Collaborating with the right influencers can greatly boost the authority of your brand in a short period of time and reach a bigger audience.
Influencers and even micro-influencers have a devoted and loyal following who trusts and looks up to them. They're almost like celebrities, but in their respective niches. So be sure to pick the right influencer for your unique niche.
Brands use influencers to increase sales as whatever the influencer introduces or promotes will immediately gain the trust of their followers.
Businesses have been using influencers for years, even way before the existence of social media. This was done via public figures and famous icons to promote products and services to boost sales.
Some businesses use mascots that are identifiable and relatable to their brand. Santa Claus is probably one of the oldest and most well-known influencer to be used by businesses throughout the years.
Every year, you would see this jolly old man on many ads. In fact, Santa Claus is proof that influencer marketing works and that great content has been king througout the ages.
If you are a new brand and would like to quickly introduce it to the masses, then you definitely should consider hiring an influencer to partner with your brand. However, be sure that the influencer is active in your niche and has a follower base that matches your unique target audience.
About 80% of marketers have found influencer marketing to be a successful endeavour, which is impressive. If approached and executed correctly, this marketing method really does show positive results. Social Planner - socialplanner.io
Keeping Your Content As King
Now that we have went through the reasons why content is king. But, how do you keep it that way?
Let's go through some strategies to make sure your content remains king for a long, long time.
Keep Your Content Interesting
We have made it clear that content is king, but even kings need to fight to keep his seat of power.
A king needs to keep his subjects satisfied and happy. Likewise, your content needs to be useful to your target audience. It needs to answer burning questions and solve problems.
However, these days, just doing the above is no longer sufficient as there are thousands of blogs for any niche and there are many others who can answer questions and solve user problems.
So in order for your content to keep it's royal status, it needs to also be interesting to your audience. This can be easier said than done, as it takes time for you to find out what your audience finds interesting.
Make good use of all the available analytics and audience data you can get your hands on and strive to create interesting content that keeps your audience coming back for more.
Make Your Customers Feel Like Royalty
Don't just make your content king, make your customers feel like royalty as well. Using content, you can make your customers feel important by getting personal with your content.
How so? Addressing your customers or visitors by name, sending them birthday greetings or promotions and if you're into e-Commerce, showing them relevant products based on their preferences can go a long way to making them feel special.
Personalization is the name of the game in today's market. You can take your content a step further by incorporating Live Chat into your online properties (website, social media etc.) to give them personal attention.
Good Looking Content
As they say, the clothes make the man. This saying holds true for content as well. If you want to garner the respect of your audience and be taken seriously then you need to look the part.
There are some ways you can make your content look presentable:
- Make sure it has good grammar and spelling.
- Punctuation needs to be well placed
- Make your content sound fun to read and avoid the use of too many jargons and fancy words that are hard to understand
- KISS - make sure your content is easy to read and understand, even by a primary school kids
- Use attractive visuals and colors
Consistency
As is whatever we do in life, consistency is key to many successes. An executive won't be holding his position for long if he does not perform his work at a consistent level of quality and frequency, nor will a student score good grades if she doesn't keep consistent with her classes and homework.
In digital marketing, consistency is equally if not more important. To create a sense of trust and reliability with your audience, you need to be consistent in the quality of content you put out as well as the frequency that you engage and reach out to your audience.
Having a consistent publishing schedule also helps your audience to look forward to your content, be it on a monthly, weekly or even a daily basis. Your fans will be expecting to see your latest content and if you miss that schedule consistently, you can be sure that they would have found some other source of content to follow.
Consistency in terms of publishing frequency and content quality is a delicate balance that needs to be kept to ensure your content stays king in your niche.
With that in mind, be sure to always do ample research and create a solid content calendar that you are able to keep.
So Why is Content Still King?
After reading thousands of words in this article, it is without a doubt that content remains at the top of the food chain in digital marketing. The algorithms may change, the platforms may change, but content still reigns supreme in terms of importance.
Content is the past, present and it most certainly is the future king in the digital marketing space. Businesses of all sizes worth their salt use content to achieve marketing success and increase sales revenue.
Your business is no different, use content to build your brand, forge meaningful relationships with your audience, give them a reason to support you while entertaining them with meaningful content throughout the journey.
Need advice on your content marketing strategy or digital marketing? Reach out to me and we can take it from there.
Meanwhile, I wish you all the best in your digital marketing journey! Till next time.
