Before we get stuck in, let’s cover the basics. What is content marketing? It’s all about sparking interest. Through things like blog posts, social media, newsletters and videos, the goal is to harness interest in services or products without explicitly being about the brand behind them. By doing so, you can attract a wider audience to the brand, helping increase sales, traffic, and awareness.

Strong, rich and relevant content that proves the company’s knowledge and credibility is the way forward. As part of a solid SEO strategy, good content can help you reach the top of Google’s results pages.

Content marketing is an integral part of digital marketing, and its importance only continues to grow. In this post, we’ll talk about why content marketing can’t be understated and how it is pivotal in helping your business grow.

The March 2024 Google Core update

It’s important to understand how highly Google views well-written content.

Google released a core update in March along with some spam updates. The main takeaway is the integration of the helpful content updates into the core update. The helpful content updates were about making sure the content being created was informative, relevant, and good quality.

After this month-long update, Google aims to better understand which web pages feature weak content and a poor experience for the user, and those pages will no longer feature in SERPs. Google predicts that there will be a 40% reduction in unhelpful content appearing in search results, making way for great content created with the right intent.

Why should you use content marketing?

There are countless benefits to using content marketing in your digital marketing strategy. It’s sustainable and cost-effective and perfect for nurturing your audience, addressing their inquiries and creating trust.

For authority and credibility

To position your brand or business as an industry leader, you’ll need the content to back it up. By consistently posting high-quality content through blog posts and copy on relevant topics, Google and your audience will view you with authority.

If you provide well-thought-out content that provides solutions to pain points as well as industry insights, then you can garner trust and credibility from those visiting your site.

Fuelsource offers fuel management and supply fuel across the UK and maintains an up-to-date website by frequently updating their blog with industry topics and service information. Given the range of services they offer, they need to demonstrate their expertise and address user inquiries, establishing themselves as a trusted source for both Google and their customers. For instance, they have a blog specifically designed to answer frequently asked questions about one of their services, providing users with quick answers while also enhancing their SEO.

This is the same for plastic injection moulders, Bowles & Walker who create plastic parts for a wide range of industries. The injection moulding process is technically complex, but they aim to provide informative, easy-to-read content that simplifies it.

For brand awareness

Increasing the visibility of your brand will help you reach a wider audience. Through great content like blog posts, social media posts and videos, you can expand your business’ reach across channels. More people will be aware of you and then more people will begin to trust you once they interact with the helpful content you’re producing.

This is particularly important for ecommerce websites like Rhino Security who supply and install vehicle bollards and barriers. There are many different brands out there and through brand awareness, you can stand out to customers and encourage them to buy yours amongst a sea of other competitors.

Similarly Invoke, a supplier of signs and animated adverts, will have signs that they have supplied and installed out and about in Norfolk and beyond. They need to ensure that their adverts are eye-catching and attention grabbing to compete with other signs that are being promoted. So that people are more likely to choose them over a competitor. Once they have their name out their, the awareness will help to bring in more customers and retain existing ones.

For increased traffic

Reliable content tailored to your target audience will catch the attention of those you’re looking for. By capturing their curiosity while they’re searching for a solution, you’re in with a good chance of being that solution for them. This can increase the traffic to your website as well as foster trust with new audiences.

A great example of this is our client, Black Sheep Shepherd Huts, a Norfolk-based company that produces stunning hand-crafted shepherd huts for sale. We designed and built them a new website which launched in October 2023, and with a strong SEO strategy and a steady stream of relevant, well-written content, it has seen a significant increase in new user traffic and engaged sessions over the last five months.

For improving your search rankings

By utilising a strong SEO strategy, you can optimise your written content to bring in traffic through the SERPs for those looking for a solution to their search query. With consistent, well-optimised blogs on engaging topics and rich copy with keywords that target your audience, you’ll find your brand creeping (or shooting) up the search page results.

For example, Athena Games, a board games shop in Norwich, also excels at content creation. They engage and inform their audience with specific landing pages for certain types of games. For example, their Dungeons and Dragons landing page provides all the games, guides and kits that can be used as well as a brief overview of the game. By providing this valuable content, they can boost their search engine rankings.

East Anglian Site Engineering, a team of expert site engineers for projects in and around Norfolk, is a great example of the power of engaging, optimised content. With regular blog posts on industry-relevant topics, E.A.S.E has gone from not appearing in search page results to sitting in the top three spaces. In Norfolk, they appear in the top three spots on Google for seven keywords. In Essex, they’re in the top three spots for eight. Consistent blog posts with relevant keywords and well-written content have launched this business to the top.

With content marketing, you have the power to engage audiences, intrigue them, and earn their trust, turning them into customers.

Content marketing is the future (and the present)

If you want to engage meaningfully with your audience, attract new ones, and create loyal customers, then content marketing is the answer. When it comes to what audiences like, they prefer to be marketed to through valuable, interesting and relevant content. It has the power to teach, to delight, to inspire curiosity, all while raising your brand’s awareness and increasing traffic.

Content marketing is a pivotal part of SEO strategies and digital marketing and cannot be overlooked. Google is expecting good-quality content, and it’s time to create it. If you want to bring your brand or business to the top of Google and leave your competitors in the dust, then visit our website to learn more. We’ve got experts on hand ready to write the perfect content for you, along with SEO offerings and social media marketing plans to increase your reach.

Don’t wait to fall behind; get in touch with us and let’s find out what we can do for your digital marketing together.