Content marketing is becoming increasingly important. After a well-optimized website, content is the third most important factor in Google rankings.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a central component of corporate communications, aiming to build a brand, acquire customers, and retain them. Content should be interesting, helpful, and solution-oriented. Good content informs and entertains. It enables direct contact with customers and also influences user and purchasing behavior.
The content can look like this:
- Articles (such as blog posts)
- Scientific papers (studies, e-books, …)
- Informative graphics and fonts (infographics)
- Functional page additions (search and filter functions)
- Interactions (games, competitions, etc.)
- and much more.
Ideally, different contents are combined for a central topic and create a significantly increased relevance for this topic.
For the customer, this creates added value, increased usability, and for Google, valuable content and thus a significantly improved position in the search results.
Overall visibility can increase by up to 600% or more! The visibility of money keywords also increases significantly.
What other benefits does content marketing offer?
In addition to better visibility, content marketing offers many other advantages in the areas of image, interaction, and ranking :
- Company awareness increases
- satisfied prospective customers
- more degrees
- recurring customers
- more traffic
- Higher social media awareness
How does successful content marketing work?
Strategically, these 6 points form a repeating sequence in content marketing:
- Define target group/change or expand target group
- Analysis of your own content and that of your competitors
- Generate and distribute new content
- Influencer Marketing (= influencer)
- Success test: Was or is the content successful?
- Were the expectations met?
Define the target group
Google Analytics makes it relatively easy to define your target audience. It reveals users’ interests and the topics they’re interested in or engaged with.
Furthermore, it’s important to consider which competitors and which content resonate with the same target audience—from the customer’s perspective.
Analysis of your own content and that of your competitors
Optimized content isn’t necessarily the focus here, but rather relevant content that interests users. Here, too, Google Analytics can be used to determine which pages are clicked on and how long users stay on them. And whether they continue to click through the content, for example, if it’s linked to other pages.
It is easy to research current topics among competitors or to find topics that you are not even familiar with.
Various platforms, such as Ubbersugest, can be used to help you find topics. Entering a keyword displays additional keywords users are currently searching for, along with search volume, CPC, and competition. This helps you structure your content and ensure you don’t miss anything important.
Generate and distribute new content
In order to prepare the content correctly, it must be determined whether it is an editorial text (i.e., topics, stories, interviews, how-to instructions,…) or an infographic (figures and facts).
Every piece of content deserves appropriate images. There are numerous free images on platforms that are freely available for commercial use.
At best, there is a balanced image-text ratio that appeals to the user.
A quick tip: Create your content in a way that appeals to you and is easy to read.
The content can then be shared on all possible social media platforms (Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, etc.) to achieve greater reach. Guest posting is also a great way to spread your content. Note! Of course, you have to produce something new/original.
Influencer Marketing
To further spread the content and increase its popularity, we collaborate with influencers. These can be YouTubers, Snapchat stars, or Instagram celebrities, for example. They are provided with products (usually free of charge) within a certain framework and advertise them on public platforms. Their goal is to win their followers/fans for the product.
For example, Ellie Goulding promotes the water brand Core. She regularly posts on Instagram (which has 14.1 million followers). Whether it’s a picture or a boomerang, the main thing is that the water bottle is visible. Add a nice description and a link to the manufacturer. That’s it.
Success test: Was or is the content successful?
Once everything is in place and running smoothly, the results achieved by the contributions must be analyzed.
The following questions arise:
- How many people read the article?
- How long did users spend on the site?
- Did you find the article interesting? Or did you abandon it after just a short while?
- Did they go from one article to the other and click through?
Content marketing and the importance of added value for the user
A successful content marketing approach in 2024 relies on a clear focus on the user and their needs. Content should not only inform but also offer real added value while building a positive connection with the brand. The goal is to convey knowledge, build trust, and strengthen user loyalty.
- An important aspect here is interactive content that engages users more deeply. Surveys, quizzes, and personalized recommendations are good ways to actively engage users and increase their time spent on the website. Video content and webinars are also gaining importance, as they can offer deeper insights and explain complex topics clearly.
- Regularly optimizing existing content is equally crucial. Content that is already performing well shouldn’t be left behind. Instead, it should be regularly updated to maintain and further increase its relevance. This can be done by incorporating new data, current statistics, or adding additional sections.
- A multimedia approach is key to capturing user interest and keeping them on the website. A good mix of infographics, blog articles, interactive tools, and links provides variety and enhances the user experience. This combination helps present complex content in a simple and accessible way.
Ultimately, it’s crucial to focus on user loyalty. Authentic and solution-oriented content that takes users seriously fosters trust and loyalty to the brand. Regular interactions via social media or other channels, as well as clear and easy navigation, help users feel well-cared for and happy to return.
With a well-thought-out mix of high-quality, up-to-date, and interactive content, coupled with continuous optimization, companies can significantly increase their relevance in search engines and with users. Satisfied users thus become valuable brand advocates.
Were the expectations met?
Following the review of the objectives, it must be clarified whether the expectations were met.
On the one hand, the campaign (content…) may have been successful, yet expectations were not met (e.g., fewer contacts, traffic,… than expected). Alternatively, content that failed to achieve its target verification exceeded expectations (e.g., traffic significantly below expectations, but very high conversion (e.g., 60% response rate (order, contact form, calls,…) with little traffic).
Based on this information, a new direction for future content emerges. Possible options include refining the target audience, creating new or improved content, revisiting existing content, etc.
The first cycle closes and begins again with refinement.
Conclusion
Content marketing is about increasing the relevance of your topics.
The more comprehensively the topics are covered, the better Google ranks them. Google also views it positively when interested users are sufficiently informed so that they don’t feel like they’re lacking information on the topic.
It is clear that this process of adjustments and success checks is repeated and thus serves to continuously improve the relevance of the website.
This is what we mean by successful content marketing.