Today’s internet users are well informed and increasingly fickle, you really only have a moment in time to attract and retain their attention.

The largest businesses have understood for a number of years that in an increasingly competitive market great, unique and fresh content is necessary to succeed.

Why? Content marketing is the backbone of any business’ search engine optimisation (SEO) plan. Companies that produce original and fresh content to keep their readers engaged are rewarded by Google and other search engines with higher SEO rankings.

The reality is that Google wants the content on their site to be great, and most importantly updated, so they punish those that don’t follow the rules and make it easier for those that do to be found by their customers. It really is that simple, but content is not just important for SEO it can also translate into real
business results.

By planning, designing and creating unique and valuable content, that is relevant to a specific target audience and engages with them can ultimately drive a desired action and retain customers.

So, what is great content?

Content can take on many forms including:

• Blogs and opinion articles
• Webinars and podcasts
• Product updates and surveys
• Videos and infographics
• Industry news and frequently asked questions
• ‘How To’ guides and articles
• Interviews with experts
• Case studies, reviews and testimonials
• Newsletters
• Surveys and quizzes

So, how do you start to develop great content?

The key is to know what your end goal is as this is very different for every business and to remember that your content needs to be individual and personalised to your business and your customers.

A business should start by asking themselves what they want to achieve, is it:

• to build brand awareness, recall and loyalty
• to inform about and sell a specific product or service
• to build leads
• to grow your loyal subscribers
• to have your content shared on social media
• to drive traffic and leads to a website
• to support a PPC campaign by driving the right call to action
• to developing brand advocates through customer evangelism