In this article I discuss the five main pillars of content marketing that each and every writer should adhere to – they are relevance, quality, credibility and visibility. Without all of these elements your content marketing efforts will come tumbling down.   

The scarcest resource in the knowledge economy is attention and the best way to get it is through relevance - Alan Hosking.

Being relevant is one of the most necessary elements of any article. People will only read what they are truly interested in and you should write about these things specifically (relating to your industry of course).

Conducting keyword research will show you exactly what your target market is searching for. It’s also crucial to listen to your clients or customers.

Your use of industry related terminology is extremely important when trying to stay relevant. Words and phrases change as rapidly as ever and using out-dated and dull terminology will throw you off the radar straightaway. Remember the term CBT (Computer Based Training)? This is the perfect example. No one uses it anymore and most people will probably not even know what you’re talking about when you throw CBT into a discussion.

Learn to speak the language of your target market, study trends to stay up to date and conduct necessary research.

Quality

Your content might be relevant, but is it of good quality? There’s a sea of content available online and very few people will tolerate (or waste their time) reading badly written and nonsensical articles.  

Your content should firstly be accurate, but it should also be in-depth and well written. Someone with vast knowledge about a subject will be able to explain the concept in the simplest of words. This is exactly what you should do. Explain difficult terms and concepts that you are knowledgeable about in novice terms. Your content should be to the point and easy to understand.

Your content should also be “new”. Bring a different perspective to the table by changing angles or spicing up already-written-about topics. Being a bit controversial won’t hurt and it will surely make you stand out from the crowd.  

Credibility

Your audience shouldn’t be sceptical when reading your content. Credibility can take years to build up and can, ultimately, be a life time effort.

Ways to build up your credibility can include an established industry related professional “sharing” you content or commenting on it. You’ll be highly regarded because “someone important” likes your work. You will gain trust by sharing quality content consistently and trust will lead to credibility – if you keep up the good work.

Read more about credibility HERE

Visibility

Readers should be able to find your content – easily. It’s one thing to have amazing content that’s worth gold, but if it’s hidden away you might as well throw in the towel.

Promote your content on every possible social media platform. Create as many profiles as possible and grow a following by sharing interesting content.

Results

All your content marketing efforts are useless if you don’t see results. The results should have marketing value that translates to leads that translate to sales. In the end you’re trying to sell a product or service – without being blatant about it. If you’re blatant about it you lose credibility and you look more and more like an advert, and we all know how much people hate adverts.

You Can’t Have One without the Other

The above elements all work in conjunction with each other. If one is out of balance or non-existent for that matter - all of them will fall flat. If you choose the wrong topics and your content is sloppy no one will want to read or believe what you’ve written. If the first three elements are in place but you don’t know how to market your content – it wouldn’t matter much would it?


Sound Idea Digital is a full service digital marketing agency that specialises in content marketing | www.soundidea.co.za | info@soundidea.co.za | @SoundIdeaDMA