Content Marketing: Quality over Quantity

Over the past few years, the popularity of content marketing has grown so much that websites and blogs uploading huge volumes of low quality content have become commonplace. Google has taken measures to limit the effect of this content on SEO performance, and some say the effect of content marketing is diminishing. But is it really? The truth is that content marketing is alive and well – it just comes down to the quality of what you are putting out.

The days of pumping out endless amounts of low quality content, jammed with multiple keywords are over. It is time to shift your focus to exclusively producing engaging, high quality content that offers real value to your readership. If your content offers true value, you can build trust with your customers and enhance your reputation as a company. Google will also reward your genuine content with better rankings in the SERPS.

Although frequent and active engagement with your customers through content marketing is important, digital marketing budgets and resources always have a limit. This makes it even more important to devise a clear strategy for creating content that meets your customer’s needs.

A 2014 report from CMI showed that 93% of business-to-business marketers plan to use content marketing within the year; however, only 44% of those have a documented content strategy.

A Quality Content Marketing Strategy

Developing the right strategy can be a challenging endeavour, focus on some of these elements to get a head start:

• Know Your Customer – Successful content marketing is all about meeting your customers’ needs for information. To do this effectively, you must obtain an in-depth understanding of what your target customers are looking for, how your products and services can meet their specific needs and which channels provide the best option for delivering the message to them.
• Add Value – Many content marketing strategies focused on quantity fail to add any value to the customer. Product sales pitches and boring technical information may not be the right way to go. Give your customers detail and actionable information.
• Be Creative – “Content” is a very generic term that often fails to describe the goals of this specific marketing element. Use your creativity to grab the attention of your customers and keep them around long enough to consume the detailed information they need.
• Consider Outsourcing – Although it is true that your in-house employees are the true product experts, outsourcing your content marketing copywriting can be a great option. Outside writers can more easily view the products and services from the consumer’s point of view and won’t be biased towards one area or product.

The Balance

Quality content is essential to an effective digital marketing or SEM strategy; however, regularly posting content is also important to keep your audience engaged and in the process of buying your products or services. Balancing quality and quantity within your content marketing strategy will lead to the best results.

Through the help of an outsourced content writer or adviser, you can accomplish the quantity you need without sacrificing quality. There are many ways to come up with new ideas for content and there is often very little need for long posts.

Typically, consumers do not want to take the time to read a long windy article. Think about it. If you have a choice between two blog entries or articles, one with 1000 words and no paragraph headers and one with 400 words, paragraph headers, organised points and simple formatting, which one would you read?

Although massive amounts of content might give you a short-term SEO boost, you will not be adding any real value to your customers without great quality. That means that, in the long-term, a quantity-focused content strategy will fail as an SEO strategy due to higher bounce rates.