Content marketing is the latest hot phrase when it comes to search marketing, but it does play a crucial role within the overall digital marketing mix and one which is increasingly important.
Consider the backdrop to this. It’s reckoned that over 90% of B2B companies use content marketing in order to build their brand. The figures also show that for those companies which run a regularly and informative blog, they generate closer to 70% more leads. The reason for this is simple. Online research via search engines is by far the most popular way for an end-user to start off their process of finding a new supplier. Indeed, nearly 70% of potential customers use social media to check out of brand, or company before making a decision to buy.
Thus, content marketing is coming of age as it becomes increasingly blended with pure search engine optimisation. What’s more. it’s now been realised that content which is both quality in nature and long-form in format (not just content fillers at 150 words a go), stands a better chance of being better ranked by the search engines. This can then be used as a better bait for social media platforms, which in turn also helps ranking.
Which means that although keyword optimisation and other basics of the SEO strategy will remain important, what has to be the focus nowadays is high quality content which not only reflects the company providing it (the brand characteristics), but also reaches and engages the user.