“Instead of one-way interruption, Web marketing is about delivering useful content at just the precise moment that a buyer needs it.”

- David Meerman Scott, Marketing Strategist

What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing, simply put, is the creation and sharing of content around the internet to drive leads and positive business outcomes.  This means creating and sharing content that your prospects search the internet for at times when they are seeking purchases or transactions. Content marketing delivers the right sort of content to the prospect that gives him or her the knowledge or incentive to buy.

Why is ‘content’ the path to success?

The job of a search engine (Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) is to scan and scan and scan and scan (you get it, they never stop) websites and web pages. These search engines use complex algorithms to determine the value of content and page rankings.  This ongoing process determines where content appears on SERPs (search engine results pages). How do these search “scanners”  rank better content?

• Fresh, Unique, Quality: The internet is full of information, some of it redundant, old, and less useful. Search engines are looking to return the most relevant pages according to the searcher’s specified keywords. If web pages include mediocre information, or your site has not been updated recently and regularly, or the syntax and spelling is less than excellent, the search engines know and rank accordingly in their SERPs. If you are creating content on a blog on your website that is consistent with the ways your prospects search and reliant on your unique business expertise or topical perspectives, you will be discovered more often.
• Consistency: Search engines algorithms are designed to deliver the “most important web pages” for any one user’s search criteria and keywords. Their challenge is making the search experience as efficient and reliable for every user session. A highly ranked web page not only delivers the highest quality and most relevant content to users, but also offer paths and links to content that those specific user will find useful. This requires a content creation system that regularly generates the content, links, shares, tags, headlines, sub heads, and images that search engines can reliably index and return.
• Keywords and Tags: Search engines aren’t magical; there’s a precise development discipline guiding the ways they scan and index pages. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) experts are trained to research and implement keywords that give your content the authority to help search engines get comfortable returning content to more of the appropriate prospects. Many years ago SEO was a hidden science that created content visible to search engines but invisible to the web visitor. With the advent of blogs and social tools for content sharing, creating regular content that includes authentic content is now a feasible and even more legitimate SEO path for small businesses.

How Does It Work?

Every business has its own unique content requirements for their content marketing campaign. What works for one business might not work for any other. A well-oiled content marketing campaign starts by researching and discovering the kind of content that is desirable to that business’s active prospects and then publishing it with the best web page construction and frequency. At DigitalSherpa, each client is assigned its own Account Manager and group of writers who learn about your business the same way your new employee might; familiarizing themselves with the goals and profile of the business, and publishing discoverable content on your web and social platforms more than once a week.

Download our Free Whitepaper: Does Your Awesome Blog Suck? 10 Content Strategy Tips For Bloggers!