Establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry can be difficult. One way to increase both your positioning and your audience is to utilise content. Content marketing can help you gain credibility in your industry, increase visits to your website, and improve conversations.
What is Content Marketing?
Content is anything online that can be read, watched, or otherwise consumed by an audience. Blog posts, videos, guides, and reports are all examples of content your target audience will find helpful and interesting. It’s anything you create that attracts potential customers, and keeps them engaged with you as a brand. As long as what you’re writing about is related to your industry, it can be a topic for your content.
What Makes Content Good For Business?
Content gives your audience something of value, making them more likely to return to you, or recommend you to a friend. That value can be information, advice, or entertainment, but by the end of their experience your audience should come away with something they didn’t have before.
It can be used to grow your audience, engage with them, and become a thought leader in your industry. All of this helps to separate you from your competitors, and will increase your credibility with your target audience.
Content also helps you in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Google scans the content on your website, and any content linking to you, and uses that information to determine how likely your site is to answer users’ questions. Well-written content can improve how high you rank for certain questions, and can get your business shared on social media. This means potential customers will be more likely to see you, engage with you, and ultimately do business with you. This is shown in the data: 72% of marketers say content increases engagement and leads.
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What Makes Good Content?
Most people search for things online because they have a problem they need solving or a question they need answering. Your content should provide that answer. The content you’re providing should be helpful, interesting, and accurate. This establishes you as a good source of information that your customers will want to return to.
Content marketing works because it’s not disruptive or aggressive, you’re giving someone something they want without trying to get them to buy anything. This helps you establish trust in an organic way.
It should also be engaging, presented in an easily digestible way, in a place that your audience will see it. If your audience is young, consider creating video content, and posting it on social media. If they’re professionals, longer form written content on LinkedIn or a business blog might be the best way to get in front of them.
There is a lot of content out there, and more is being created every single day. Having a focus on quality rather than quantity will help you in the long run.
How To Create Good Content
With any content, one of the most important things to keep in mind is who it should be targeting. Remember who you’re writing for: who’s reading this, what are they hoping to get out of it? How is your tone, style, and language reflecting that? Keep your style and tone consistent, with the same level of detail and information.
Do you find what you’re writing about interesting? Is there a way to make it interesting? If you aren’t excited by what you’re writing about, your readers probably won’t be either. Your tone and style can help here, even if you’re writing about something very technical you can still make it relevant and interesting for your readers. Finding an interesting take, or a new angle can go a long way to making an old topic more interesting.
Always remember you’re writing to help someone with something. Is what you’re offering useful or insightful? Almost all content must answer a question that you’ve set up. If you aren’t sure if you’re content is good, check that everything is leading towards the answer you promised your reader at the beginning. You have to deliver what you promised, misleading content will send your viewers running.
Once your post is done, it’s important to check it for typos, spelling errors, and grammatical mistakes. If a reader spots any mistakes, it immediately undermines your credibility and will send them elsewhere for answers, maybe to one of your competitors.
Include a brief call to action at the end of your content, directing them to a website, social media, or active campaign you’re running.
How are you planning on using content marketing to increase your credibility in your industry?
Jack Terry
About the author
Jack Terry is a Content Writer at VHR, an international technical recruitment company that uses content to help their global audience of candidates.
