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Last Updated on December 28, 2020 by Work In My Pajamas
“In this ever-changing society, the most powerful and enduring brands are built from the heart. They are real and sustainable. Their foundations are stronger because they are built with the strength of the human spirit… The companies that are lasting are those that are authentic.” – Howard Schultz
What is purpose-driven content, and does a well-written article increase your brand’s exposure to your chosen audience? If properly structured content plays a significant role in driving traffic to your website, where do you find excellent content writers, or do you write the content yourself?
Introduction to content marketing and the Information Age
By way of introduction, we live in the Information Age, and while we have unlimited access to loads of content, it is very easy for content to get lost in the large volumes of content that is published on many websites daily. The latest statistics show that about 50% of the world’s population has access to the internet via at least one mobile device.
Therefore, I believe that the question that begs is not how to write an article that has marketing value, rather it is how to ensure that your voice is heard above the general noise of all of the content available for consumption on the internet.
Purpose-driven content marketing and Google
Before we look at how to write content that will improve your brand’s exposure, let’s look at what purpose-driven quality content marketing is.
Purpose-driven content marketing
According to the BusinessDictionary.com, content is the “text… [or] glue that makes a website ‘sticky’ makes visitors return and keeps them from leaving… Content is both information and communication: the sum total of the freshness, readability, relevance, and usefulness of the information presented, and the manner in which it is presented.”
Furthermore, Jeanette McMurtry opines that “today’s consumer seeks purpose outside of the traditional methods of religion, volunteerism, and random acts of kindness toward friends and strangers; [ergo] consumers are not just expecting big business to define a social purpose for the brand, they are demanding it by how they are making purchasing and loyalty choices.”
Therefore, we can conclude that purpose-driven content marketing is a “way for a business or brand to bond with a target audience based on their shared needs and interests – including interest in supporting a worthy cause.”
Google is the most popular search engine on the Internet today. Statistics from 2014 show that 68.75% of all Internet searches were conducted via the Google Search Engine. Therefore, they take it upon themselves to determine how websites are ranked on the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Furthermore, Google finally confirmed in May 2015 that there were changes to its “core ranking algorithm in terms of how it processes quality signals.“
In other words, Google will rank a website higher on the SERP if they feel that the website consists of informative, high-quality content. As usual, Google never provides details on how they have changed their ranking algorithms; therefore, all we can do is to continue to create a better user-experience and write more informational content that is free from syntax, spelling, and factual errors.
Increasing your brand’s exposure by driving traffic to your website
We have established that, to engage your brand’s audience and drive them to visit your website, you need to develop and execute a solid, well-structured content marketing strategy. In practical terms, this includes highly-skilled content strategists and creative writers.
In my experience, it is advisable to employ an outside consultancy such as Firecrab Digital Marketing, who can review your current content marketing strategy, suggest ways of improving your strategy to achieve your desired aims. Part of a content strategist’s job is to do a fair bit of the pre-production research as well as writing brand and style guidelines for your content writers.
Once the content strategist has finished with the core content strategy, the writers can be called upon to write suitable content. The advantages of dealing with a single agency are that your content strategist will be able to keep a finger on the pulse, making sure that relevant content is delivered on time.
Final thoughts
I believe that living and working in the Information Age provides great opportunities for brands to engage with their consumers for the greater good of all. Finally, the answer to the question of how to get your brand’s message across to your target audience in spite of all of the general internet noise is to develop a viable content strategy and to implement it, continually striving to deliver a better user experience to your target audience.
