Content Marketing and SEO Strategies for the Future: Engage and Satisfy Your Customers Better

The content marketing landscape continues to shift and change along with the emergence of new search engine optimization (SEO) best practices. WebriQ Goes Mad can help you weather these changes and, more importantly, make sure your business discovers opportunities from these changes.

Change Is Inevitable - The New SEO

To fuel your content marketing to the next level, understanding the new face of SEO is a must. We need to accept change. There used to be a time when website owners could treat search engine optimization and content marketing separately. But that is not the case now. Today, SEO and content marketing are deeply interrelated and must be developed hand-in-hand.

This major change is brought on by the fact that your audience is now bombarded with all kinds of articles, videos, and ads on a daily basis. If we do not marry our approach to content marketing with SEO and vice-versa, then any content produced will just die a quiet death. No matter how good you may think it is, if it is not optimized, then its engagement metrics will tank.

One reason why we must accept all of the changes happening is the fact that content marketing is a constantly growing industry. It is estimated to be worth above $400 billion by 2021. With this growth spurt comes evolution. Resisting the changes and being unable to go with the flow will mean failing to overcome roadblocks.

Trends to Watch Out for in 2019 and the Coming Years

To prepare you for what’s to come, here are content marketing trends to watch out for in the next few years:

Content Marketing Will Become a Major Part of Marketing

As we know, there are different forms of marketing. Content marketing used to be just a small part of the big picture. But now and in the years to come, it will become integral to the whole marketing process.

Businesses can no longer keep a one-sided conversation with their target customers as they did during the heyday of television and billboards. Now, in order for companies to be successful, they must engage with their target market on a more personal level. This is done by providing content that your audience can interact with, comment on, and share with their friends.

More Departments in Your Organization Should Be Involved

According to a survey done by Search Engine Watch, 49% of the respondents affirmed that their organizations now measure return on investment for content marketing. This number is sure to grow in the foreseeable future.

The factors that marketers are looking into include: the audience’s awareness of the content being marketed, is the audience being educated, is the content marketing effort building the business’ credibility, is it generating demand, and is it nurturing more subscribers?

It makes sense then that more departments in your business should be involved in the content marketing process. For example, your product development department can provide information that will educate whoever is viewing your content. Your marketing department, meanwhile, can work on audience reach and awareness. Your executives or team leaders can also pitch in to build up credibility.

Through this integrative approach, goals are set better and your ROI is monitored and measured more effectively.

Customer Success Will Become a Driving Force

Customer success refers to the ability of businesses to help their clients get the most out of their products and services. Companies can no longer afford to employ blanket marketing methods in this age of personalization. Because of this, marketing funnels are sure to change into something that is more targeted and more customer-centric.

This means that content marketing will become all about providing content that will thoroughly educate customers on how they can obtain the best value from the products and services put in front of them. You, as a business, must dive even deeper into customer satisfaction.

Strategies to Keep Up with Content Marketing Changes

Strong winds of change are upon us and you can just stand there and be knocked off course. Or, you can prepare yourself and your business to ride the changes towards content marketing success. Here are strategies that will help you do just that.

Master the Basics - Now More than Ever!

A strong SEO foundation is needed for successful content marketing in 2019 and beyond.

• Tighten your grasp on keyword research and make sure these keywords are populated within any content you produce. Avoid overstuffing, however.
• Learn more about content cannibalization and how to avoid it.
• Take full advantage of reliable keyword tools, such as the Google Search Console and Keyword Planner to help you with your content strategy.
• Have a content calendar for better content creation and marketing management.

Narrow Down Your Target Audience

As mentioned above, today is the age of personalization. Therefore, do not produce content that is too general. Instead, narrow down your audience and you can even create sub-audiences. Go for local audiences as well.

For example, instead of just marketing to “homeowners”, how about creating content for “couples looking for a home”, “Colorado homeowners”, “homeowners with a small/large family”, “military veteran homeowners”, “homeowners with pets”, and so on.

By going down this route, you will be able to create content that will resonate more effectively with your target audience. You will be able to speak with them and establish a deeper connection. This will also encourage more engagement and sharing on social media.

Quality Over Quantity

If you can produce quality content more frequently, then that’s awesome. But, for sure, you have other things to manage in your business. So, when it comes to content marketing, Quality wins over Quantity.

Quality content means articles that are easy to read and understand, highly relevant to your target audience, keyword optimized (but not overoptimized), timely, and full of value. No fluff, no going around the bush, no patronizing or offending your readers. (All of these apply to videos, images, and social media content by the way.)

Guarantee a Satisfying User Experience

This is another part where SEO and content marketing becomes intertwined. Make sure that your on-page search engine optimization and content optimization are doing well together. Your website pages should load quickly. The images on the articles shouldn’t lag either. Take care as well that proper content formatting is observed.

Aside from that, do not skip the metadata (page titles and meta descriptions). Yes, these are not super important in the eyes of search engines today, but they are still crucial in online marketing. They help grow your organic reach because, after all, they are the snippets that people will first see once they do a search on Google.

Distribution Is Key

Spread your content as far and wide as possible. It’ll be useless if nobody sees it. Always strategize about content distribution when doing content marketing.

Distribute your content to social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and more. If you are a B2B company, marketing your content on platforms like LinkedIn is an excellent idea. And don’t just share an article, image, or video once. Reshare them down the road. It’s also good to encourage your employees or loyal customers to spread your content around.

Work with the Right People for Your Content Marketing

For sure you have so many things to take care of for your business. So, when it comes to content marketing, it is imperative to find the right people to help.

When it comes to hiring a content marketing service provider, here are some things to look for:

• Inside-out approach to content creation and SEO. Work with professionals who will help you communicate your key competencies, vision, and mission better. Note down your clients’ frequently asked questions and forward this to your content marketer so they can develop a content strategy based on those FAQs.
• Keyword research and optimization. Partner with a provider who has all of the necessary tools to figure out and monitor the necessary keywords for your content. Let them take out the guesswork and the hassle from the equation.
• Trust building and thought leadership. Find a content team who will create informative articles for your audience. These will inform and educate them. As a result, your credibility in their eyes will improve.
• Seamless content calendar management. Work with people who can manage your content calendar without much fuss. The content should be published on schedule to ensure that your business maintains constant communication with your target customers.

Aside from all of that, if you can find a service provider that can ensure that the user experience on your website is on-point, that would be great. Look into chatbots and email automation as well to further improve your communications with your potential clients and existing customers.

Leverage all of the benefits of content marketing. Make your business and your website have a positive impact on your customers.