At our design studio Breu, we love digital design but we can’t deny the warm feeling of beautiful content-rich websites. Talking with many of our clients made us realize that there is a lot of confusion when it comes to creating a good website that accommodates a lot of content.

Whether you decide to launch a new web page or optimize an existing one, you will see that many design concerns lead to content shortfalls and vice versa. Even the best designed and advertised website won’t generate more traffic if there’s nothing good to read or view once you get there.

To make your life a little bit easier, we decided to share some actionable advice on how to build an effective content strategy that will help you understand why it’s important to craft good content to get people returning to your website.

Why is content marketing important for your business?

One of the most frequently asked questions when we try to give recommendations for a content-first design approach is “Why do I have to bother to think on creating a content strategy for my web page?” To us, the answer is clear: having useful, well structured and reachable content is essential to improving the user experience of a website.

On a very basic level, content marketing is about consistently creating and distributing information that is valuable and relevant for your target audience; ultimately, the goal to entice a consumer to do business with your company. Content marketing can take on a host of different topics and formats, from emails and tweets to landing pages and product descriptions. It not only includes the words on the page but also the images and multimedia that are being used.

This versatility can lead many marketers fall into the trap of prioritizing volume over quality, producing content for content’s sake or being overly promotional. Conversely, if the content is tailored to your customers’ needs and interests and helps them find solutions to their problems, it has the capacity to resonate more powerfully with them.

Let’s look at what a smart content marketing strategy can do for your business:

1. Drives more traffic to your website:

Creating great content takes a lot of time and effort, but you’ll see how all this hard work will finally pay off. A smart content strategy will not only bring you more visits from direct and referral traffic, but will also strengthen important ranking signals like authority, content length or recency of content updates. On top of that, great content is more likely to be socially shared, resulting in more people interested in joining your community of fans and building influence for you.

2. Increases your brand awareness: 

Interesting and value-adding content impacts how people perceive your brand and gives them something to talk about. They can start passing recommendations or sharing links of your blog posts or mentions through social media. All this brand awareness is vitally important for your marketing efforts. However, you should keep in mind that content marketing is the place to reveal the personality of your company, so make sure you’re focusing on adding value, not just selling your products.

3. Improves your page rank in search results:

Despite their differences, SEO and content marketing are strongly related. SEO involves building quality links back to your website while content marketing is considered one of the most effective SEO tactics to attract inbound links from readers. By coming up with articles on specific topics you’ll start ranking better for more competitive search terms, meaning that Google will return your web page for more relevant queries, including long-tail keywords.

4. Builds stronger relationships with your audience: 

Providing compelling content about the things your target audience would be most interested in becomes a very powerful marketing tool for converting new customers and increasing loyalty. Once you’ve proven your intention to educate instead of just selling, your audience will be ready to connect with you in a more meaningful way. You are giving something back and people will be more likely to return the favor.

5. Generates higher conversions: 

After writing original, high-value content that managed to draw the interest of your readers, many good things will follow. If your goal is creating blog content that sells, you can start nurturing your leads with more engaging content and moving them into becoming ready buyers.  

Wrapping up

What matters most in building a strong brand through content marketing is having the mindset of a customer. Remember, it’s not about you, it’s about your clients and what they need.

When you provide knowledge instead of offering a sales pitch, the message and the brand is no longer an interruption, but a valuable information provider. Make sure to be authentic, try to build strong relationships with your target audience and they will reward you with their loyalty and trust.