Content does more than fill space on your website. It’s more than a link delivery system loaded with a certain percentage of keywords. Your content serves a purpose, and the more accurately you define that purpose, the more successful your content provider can be in giving you what you need. By giving your content direction or choosing a content team you can trust to provide that direction, you get more effective writing.
The Sales Pitch
When you think of business content, you might think first of sales-oriented writing that includes a list of benefits and a strong call to action for your readers. Newsletters, online catalog headers and circulars are good examples of places where you might want a stronger sell. However, your entire content output shouldn’t read like a heavy pitch. Article marketing, blog posts and static site pages should give readers more than just incentives to buy; they should be able to stand on their own merits.
The Useful Article
You have something others want, and it isn’t just your product line. Your expertise has value too, and you can showcase that through article marketing. By sharing some of your knowledge via your content team’s articles, you’re doing two things: reaching a wider audience of readers and giving those readers a reason to pay attention to what you’re saying. These articles contain no overt sales pitch, but because they make your experience an implicit benefit, every article published under your name gives readers a reason to seek you out.
The White Paper
White papers help establish you as a knowledgeable leader in your industry. Readers who see your site’s white papers as a source of valuable information will share that information with others and spread the word about you without your having to advertise overtly. Your good name becomes your best advertisement when you give visitors to your site a reason to stay. Consider offering authoritative white papers on topics in your industry to get visitors talking.
The Blog
If visitors are talking, then your blog is a great place for them to be heard. Your blog is an outstanding vehicle for improving your search engine ratings because it’s constantly being refreshed with new content, something search engines love. Your human readers also love fresh content, so a blog is an asset for them, too. Give readers a reason to come back regularly and make your site a frequent destination. Open it up for comments, and your blog does double duty as an informal kind of market research. You’ll learn what stimulates conversation and what elicits a big reaction by watching your blog’s comments section.
Your blog is also a great place to establish your identity in a more relatable way. While ad copy expects something from readers, blog posts are a good way to express something about your organization without any expectations. Let your clientele get to know you a little better through a well-written blog.
These are just a few of the kinds of business content you might need. Technical writing, landing page construction and press releases are key to certain industries; others rely on social media and video as part of their content marketing strategies. Pinpointing what you want your content to do will help your content team deliver it more efficiently, so give your content creation team some background on where the writing will go to get the most from it.
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