Strong Social | Cat Lyon's Reading Den ~ Where Readers & Authors Gather

“The importance of content marketing is something that all companies including authors need to recognize in today’s digitally dominated business environment.”

With well over half of the world’s population using the internet regularly, it makes very little sense for all types of companies not to be investing in content for your marketing efforts. Users want to read, engage, and share informative and valuable content regularly. Why would a brand not want to be a part of that?

Well, statistically speaking, most brands and authors? you have a literary brand and most are using some form of content marketing strategy, so that is not the problem.

Instead, the issue is that most of these brands don’t understand the concept of content marketing. And as a result, their strategy is to create and post content, hoping that potential customers will somehow be enticed and ready to buy their products.

Unfortunately, it’s not always that simple. Content marketing is a form of inbound marketing. The idea behind this digital marketing strategy is that instead of bombarding people with ads and promotions, you are providing your target audience with valuable content in exchange for their business.

Through this investment in content will cost you time, it will give you numerous benefits, which will increase your conversion rates and bottom line. What’s more, you will be able to circumvent the so-called ad fatigue that’s been plaguing advertising for some time now.

So, why will ignoring content marketing cost you sales?

Or to put it differently, how will content marketing help you increase your sales and conversion rates? What are the benefits of content marketing, and how can you utilize it to your advantage? Here are a few reasons why you should invest in content marketing.

Good Storytelling

Inbound marketers need to be able to tell a good story to help their organizations gain more followers. Humans are predisposed to good storytelling, and they will be more inclined to follow your brand if you are posting engaging custom content. It was Nirmal Gyanwali, a Sydney-based web design expert, that said “Content marketing, when done properly, is bound to generate more inbound traffic to your site for the reason that good content marketing focuses on what the people want to hear and not what the business wants to tell them. Stories are good bait. [Listeners will] always bite.”

As such, the stories you tell need to be in tune with what your target audience (readers) wants to hear. Take a friendly and accessible approach that’s able to captivate your audience with valuable insights and authentic stories. This type of custom content will be more likely to bring in sales. It will also help you develop meaningful relationships with customers, which will build trust in your brand’s authority.

Increased Website Traffic

Statistics show that successful content marketing campaigns generate up to 7.8 times more website traffic. It is a significant margin, considering that your website should be the central hub of all of your digital marketing initiatives. Basically, the more people that come to your site, the more sales you’ll be able to generate. Just ask your sales team about it.

Posting high-quality, consistent content on social media platforms, whether it’s in the form of blog posts, video content, images, infographics, etc.. should provide your target audience with a call to action redirecting them to a landing page on your site.

Better Website SEO

We all want our websites to rank high in Google’s search engine. If it’s on the first page and among the top three search results, even better. But for that to happen, you need excellent search engine optimization for your website. Luckily, creating content that your audience enjoys will help improve your search results rankings. Keep in mind that with Google’s somewhat recent algorithm updates, low-quality content will have a negative impact on your site’s searchability.

Marketing statistics show that long-form content, somewhere between 800 and 1,600 words, generates the best results. Not because of the word count, exactly, but because of the extra time and effort, you have to put into it. With longer content, you need to do more research, add more backlinks, and increase the chances of having your blog post backlinked, in return. Google’s algorithm update takes these things into consideration, and as a result, long-form content is currently the way to go to improve SEO.

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Superior Lead Generating

While content marketing is, on average, 62% cheaper than outbound forms of marketing such as paid advertising, it also can generate three times as many leads. The key to using content to generate qualified leads and customers is distribution. Getting your content in front of the right people can be somewhat challenging at first.

There are many options as far as places to post in hopes of bringing traffic back to your site. Among these, LinkedIn groups, Facebook groups, Medium, and other social networks are the best places to start.

When your marketing team is creating content for sharing on these busy networks, they should prioritize the following:

Aesthetics (appealing background)

An attention-grabbing headline

Strong bullet points (based on benefits)

Social proofs & call-to-action (testimonials, media mentions, and opt-in forms)
Visual appeal (a personal photo, if appropriate)
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Stronger Customer Relationships

By keeping your customers engaged with interesting content in their social media feeds, you are sure to build stronger and longer-lasting relationships with them. Fail to develop meaningful content that provides answers to the questions your customers are asking, and you will see many of them turn to the competition.

A product-heavy digital marketing strategy is no longer viable for providing a positive brand experience and generating leads. After being constantly bombarded with ads and promotions, millions of people are turning to ad blockers for relief. Offering constant sales and promotions will not always help either. This is especially true if these offers don’t match with the consumer’s buyer’s journey stage. And if they don’t meet the customer where they’re at, these may even turn them away.

Always Be Testing

Successful business owners like our friends of ‘Lyon Media and Literary Services’ no longer ignore the importance of providing valuable content creation to enhance customer experience and engage with their target market. Catherine is always researching for the best possible places for content about her authors, their books, and brand to gain more results in sales, exposure, and more reviews as she helps to build their readership, media,, and website following.

Your customer-focused content marketing strategy should deliver consistent and meaningful content that resonates with your audience at every stage of their customer journey, building trust with them along the way. This is the best and most proven way for you to increase your sales in the digital age and develop meaningful relationships with your customers and your target market.

We sure hope you find this information within this post helpful. Please stop by our website and blog at ‘Strong Social’ today to see how we can help you!
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WHO WE ARE:

We are a team of Professional Digital Marketers since we started in 2013, we have had the privilege to work with over 600+ companies and have managed over 2000 social media profiles. We are proud to be recognized as one of the leading digital agencies by Clutch.co in 2019.

We help companies with digital marketing needs, from building a new Website, Social Media Management, SEO, Blog Writing, Advertising, and Lead Generation. Our strategies will help increase your online visibility, modernize your brand, make you stand out in your industry, and grow your business.

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“Cat Lyon’s Reading and Writing Den” Blog Home of ‘Lyon Media and Literary Services’

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How to Build a Brand Presence and Look Better Online.

BY: My Friends of Strong Social …

Building a better brand presence and looking better online overall is no easy task. In fact, is one of the first challenges everyone encounters when they start a new business. Sure, you create accounts on all the relevant social networks you can think of, but how do you take the next step?

How do you build a strong brand presence on social media and how can you make it look even better? With all the competition out there and all that “social media noise”, it’s not going to be an easy process, but here are a few tips that will help you achieve your goals.

1. Make sure you have a great website.

You can’t build a better social media brand presence without a plan in mind, and you can’t build an effective plan without taking into account the importance of having a great website. Sure, “great” may seem like a pretty vague and generic term, but there are actually quite a few must-have factors that make a website to be indeed great.

Make sure that your website has been designed based on all the latest trends, without neglecting UX & UI, and try to make it as SEO friendly as possible with the content that will be posted there. Remember, your website is the window to your business so don’t forget to keep it clean and to the point.

After implementing this initial step, you will be able to establish your brand voice and better communicate with your audience on your own platform (your website) and on social media, thus making you look better by being more connected with your current clients and future possible customers.

2. Make sure that you are on the big 3 social networks – Twitter, Facebook, Instagram.

If you want to reach a larger audience, it is imperative to build a social media presence. It helps you reach out to people that don’t know you, your business and your website. It’s also the best way to send out updates to your entire target audience.

Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are definite must-haves for any business that wants to survive in the digital age. This is already well too established as a general condition for getting your products and services known around the world with fractions of the costs of traditional advertisement. These three social networks will raise awareness about your brand and it will make people engage with your company faster and much more efficient.

However, using social media tools does not imply that you should not be present on your accounts as much as possible to engage with your audience in real time. Answering fast and honest is always better than answering late and impersonal through a generic website reply.

3. Create lots of blog content and use it effectively.

Write, write and then write some more. If you have reached this stage, this means that you already have a functional website online and you are present on all the important social networks: Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. So, what do you do next?

Simple. You start by sharing your content throughout your social media, thus making your brand known throughout your audience. Share content that is relevant to each target group in part and you will quickly see the engagement rate with your brand increasing. Just don’t forget to write good blog content which appeals to people interested in your area of expertise, in your industry and, last but not least, in your products, services, and your brand. A good series of blog content goes a long way.

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4. Engage with your followers with exceptional content

This step is probably the most important one if you want to build a strong brand presence and look better online. People want to be noticed and they want to relate to the brand they interact with.

A great website with good blog content and a strong social media following could become worthless if the brand does not interact with its fans and followers. People want to be noticed and they want to be heard. If they comment, engage with them. Answer their questions. Ask questions yourself. See what their needs are and try to get as much productive feedback as possible.

Listen to your audience and adapt your brand to answer as many of their needs as possible. Engage, engage and then engage some more!

Be sure to take into account all these tips if you want to build a stronger, more effective, and not to mention prettier brand on social media. If you’re interested in learning more, check out our website at Strong Social …

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