Featured article by Dan Radak, Independent Technology Author
Blog posts and other types of digital publications together make up content marketing. Seeing as how the web is all around us, and given the fact that Google processes more than 40,000 search queries every second on average, being active on the internet has become a pillar of business success, no matter if we’re talking about an eCommerce company or not. With almost every modern small business engaging heavily in content marketing, the demand for quality content and its intelligent utilization has been and is still growing. Here are some tips that will help you in your attempt to stand out from the competition.
Being up-to-date
In the age of internet and technological marvel, trends change quickly and frequently – the new, innovative tools and strategies dictate what’s popular and trending on the market, so keeping in touch with innovations is a no-brainer, really. This is especially true for content marketing – it deals with what is currently popular, and once the oversaturation with a particular subject occurs, it is time to move on. Knowing when to move on to another thing and provide content for it is based around carefully following news related to your field of work – following a lot of business-related things on social media, and opting for email subscriptions can give you countless ideas about topics you should cover.
Be adamant about your schedule
Running a blog is no joke – people of the internet are very picky when it comes to the stuff they read – with everyone so busy and focused on multitasking, hardly anyone has the time for mediocre content. You will probably need an entire team that will make sure that everything is high- quality.
Furthermore, you’re going to have to stick to a schedule – having an audience means that you’re going to need to post frequently.
Revisiting old content
Depending on how long you’ve been providing the internet with useful content, you probably usually have a feeling like you’ve already covered a particular subject before; this is because you probably have. Looking at old posts and writing about them again will provide you with easy-to-write content, and make your loyal followers relate to your older posts.
Of course, simply rewriting the old content is out of the question – revisit it, comment on it and report on changes; start with “a while back, we featured an article regarding the subject in question…”
Quality over quantity
As mentioned, almost every business engages in content marketing, and this is no longer enough to get your name out there. The common reader has already gotten used to spotting ridiculous grammar and spelling mistakes, even while skimming a text, so the obvious need for quality has, indeed, grown. The key here isn’t in realizing that quality is awesome and irreplaceable, but that pumping out more and more content, just for the sake of it will inevitably lead to brand failure. Providing your business with quality content marketing SEO can go a long way in making sure that people see you in the right light.
If you want to go with both quantity and quality, try digital publishing instead of uploading blog posts to your site – you are much more likely to focus on a single 3,000+-word piece, than on blog entries.
Digital publications
There are many benefits regarding digital publications in comparison with other types of posting. First of all, it isn’t any more expensive and complicated than posting blog posts – usually, the file extensions that you should focus on here are PDF, EPUB and MS Word.
Secondly, the audience tends to appreciate digital publications – they help build loyalty in your followers.
Next, 3,000+-word posts actually qualify as digital publications, and the audience finds published entrepreneurs authoritative. Even though there’s a whole lot to be learned about storytelling, writing styles and being original, having published something will only bring good things to the table.
Using platforms such as Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble and Apple iBooks, will allow you to distribute your digital publications easily and fairly cheap. Also, you can actually maintain a steady cash flow in this way, with little effort.
If you want to run a proper business these days, you need to understand that effective content marketing is the pillar of successful advertising; and everyone knows that a business can’t function without proper advertising. Your content, however, needs to be up-to-date, frequent, trending and of high quality; you should revisit old subjects and consider digital publishing.
Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is currently working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies. He is also a coauthor on several technology websites and regular contributor to Technivorz.
