You’ve probably heard the term “content is king” by now and have felt the pressure to incorporate content marketing into your overall strategy. As you’re putting your plan together, it’s important to keep in mind that simply creating content isn’t enough. As the battle for eyeballs grows more intense with new content being added to the web every second, you need to make your content stand out to draw an audience and ultimately cultivate brand awareness. By focusing on what kind of content you’re creating and the strategies for distributing it, you can extend the lifespan of a blog post or news article before it is buried by the next story. Read on to learn how to enhance your content discovery and make the most of your invested time, money and efforts.
Quality Trumps Quantity
Though it may be tempting to churn out post after post, the reality is that one piece of quality content is much more valuable to your client than a dozen half-baked stories. Over the past few years, Google has made significant efforts and updates to their algorithms to weed out spammy content created for the purposes of SEO. The online world today credits quality content that provides informative, educational or entertaining value to the reader. In many cases, thoughtful, forward-thinking content that is relevant to industry trends is more likely to position a company as a leader, while giving them a voice and personality. Take the time to make great content, and you and your client will be rewarded.
Elevate Your Voice
You can increase the credibility of a company or brand’s blog by having the CEO or senior level-executives contribute posts. Here, they can share news about the company or opine on industry issues. This way, you’ll not only be drawing new audiences to the blog but also elevate their profile as a leader in the industry. You can also invite thought leaders to contribute posts. Varying the voices on a company blog helps avoid the self-serving trap that many blogs fall into, and helps widen the reach of your content.
Amplify What You Have
With the ultimate goal of building an audience and maximizing the shelf life of a piece of content, your amplification strategy is one of the most important steps. While sharing it on Facebook and Twitter is important, do not stop at social channels as you’ll be limiting your reach. To get your content discovered by a larger audience, using a content discovery platform is imperative. Tools like Outbrain Amplify will put your content alongside links to articles on premium publisher sites like CNN.com and Slate, thus allowing people to see your content who may not come across it organically.
When it comes to putting together a content strategy, writing is less than half the battle. Ensuring that you are producing the highest quality writing you can, and getting it distributed widely is the best way to get a company noticed and have their voice heard throughout the web by consumers and industry insiders alike.