Content marketing is type of marketing strategy that involves the creation and sharing of online material (such as videos, blogs, articles, and social media posts) that does not explicitly promote a brand but is intended to stimulate interest in its products or services, providing a value, solving a problem.
Whether you sell a product or a service, whether your business is conducted exclusively online or only partially over the internet, content marketing is essential. After all, just because you can reach millions of people online doesn’t mean that you will.
After all, how many businesses similar to yours exist online? Without content marketing, how will you set your business apart from your competition?
The simple answer is that you won’t. Therefore, it’s important to understand the ways in which marketing a business online is different from marketing a brick and mortar store in the center of town.
In order to market your business online, you need to understand the importance of content marketing, with quality content. Quality content – in the form of website pages, blogs and articles that you use to market your site 
– will be what sets you apart.
When your website is created, it’s important to use unique, keyword rich, relevant language. In some cases, your web designer may provide this service, however, if content creation is not a part of their package it may benefit you to hire a content writer to create the text of your website.
Keyword rich, relevant text will help search engine spiders to rank your site. However, it’s important in terms of search engine marketing to regularly update your site – to keep it relevant. A blog is an effective tool for keeping the content on your website fresh.
Think about this for a moment: a blog – short for weblog – is unique, keyword rich and relevant content that is updated daily. Offering great content on your site initially improves your search engine ranking, so wouldn’t it benefit you to have content that updates daily?
That content, however, should not exist solely for the search engine spiders; it should also provide information with your current customers as well as to prospective customers. A blog does just that: it opens a dialog, enabling your business to reach out to your customers and clients providing them with the information that they’re looking for.
Electronic newsletters work in a similar way: with them, you can reach out to those who are interested in learning more about the products or services that your business offers. You can use a newsletter to provide information about upcoming product releases, to offer tips and tools that will save readers time or money, or even to offer discounts and incentives to your subscribers.
Of course, just as you can create keyword rich, relevant content that reach out to your newsletter subscribers, you can use content marketing to draw in a wider customer base. By creating content that focus on keywords and phrases associated with your product or services and publishing those articles or posts in directories online, you will be able to establish your knowledge, experience and expertise in the marketplace.
Those prospective customers who are seeking products and services similar to yours will find you credible and follow links back to your website. They will feel confident that you understand what they are looking for and that your product or service will benefit them.
The important thing to focus on, however, is that your content must be relevant to what current and prospective customers are looking for. Your content must contain the information that these individuals are looking for – and, in order for them to find it, it must be written in a way that draws on your keywords and key phrases.
For many, this seems daunting. Creating fresh, keyword rich, relevant content is not something that everyone is good at – especially when it means creating that content on a regular basis, weekly or daily.
What constitute good content?
1. Your content answers a need or solves a problem that your target readers have. Specifically, your article or post contains keywords that readers search for. For instance, if you are targeting readers with hair loss, then hair loss is a keyword phrase that you can use in your article or post . However, a better keyword phrase is likely hair loss remedy as your article content can be on remedy solutions for hair loss, thus addressing the needs of your reader.
2. Your article or post contains useful resources. Using the same example for hair loss, you can write about where your reader can find the remedy solutions.
3. Your content contains practical tips that your readers can easily apply. A step-by-step guide on preparing a remedy right out from ones kitchen is interesting and unusual.
4. If you are writing a discussion topic, you present alternative views and a healthy discussion on each view.
5. Your content is personalized. You write from your own experiences.
6. You have an opinion on a discussion topic and your ideas are well supported. Support can be in the form of testimonials from experts or references to scientific and proven research. It is okay to write an article based on general information but winning content are those that have supporting reasons for your opinion.
7. Your article or post is up-to-date with the latest information on trends. No one likes to read outdated ideas. This is especially if you are writing on an area that is fast moving like IT or even fashion.
I hope this post helps you understand the importance of writing good content and connects with you audience. Putting your readers first as you create your content makes all the difference in the world.
To your success…
Also see…http://firstratemarketing.com/write-attention-grabbing-email-subject-lines/
