Having thought-out content, appealing images, and a relative-sized audience on social media feeds is no longer an option – but an absolute MUST for good branding. Developing a well-loved brand requires consistent effort. Content marketing not only opens up your brand to new prospects but also keeps it fresh, helpful and current, subsequently gathering new supporters and maintaining relationships with existing customers.

So, just what is content marketing you might ask, and how do we do it? Content marketing is about designing and creating valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain customers. Content is specifically designed to reach a target audience, encouraging growth and trust in the brand, and is disseminated in multiple ways like social media feeds, emails and blogs.

Social media is an excellent mechanism to deliver your content and as stats would suggest, it is THE growth area for digital marketing. In the early days, many businesses seemed to still do ok with mediocre, poorly maintained social feeds. This is no longer acceptable and social media has every right to have the same consideration as your website and Google ranks.

By using social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest to promote a brand, you can personalise the message and target a specific audience. By keeping content relevant and appealing, the great results in sales, brand awareness and website traffic are undeniably advantageous.

Often I see a great website design that is spoiled by a lack of consideration for content and social media.

“Content and social media are the layers of digital marketing that give breadth and depth to a brand.” Shannon Hadley

All businesses (well basically all) have a good-looking website, so, why do so many fall over on the content and social media components?

The fact is you can not just flick a switch and turn great blog content and social media on, it takes time, planning and consistency. Building a good looking website with great UX is a hard job, and it is a job with a start and an end for most businesses. However, when it comes to website content and social media content, there needs to be a consistent effort to create, consolidate and grow. Social media fosters growth and generates constant leads for a brand. There is no end in making relevant content marketing, which also means there are no limits.

The reason that brands are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on content marketing is because the payoffs are worth it. The main payoffs being:

• It Creates Trust – Content creates loyal prospects. These committed folk will consider the layers of social media, blog and email marketing as confirmation of the trustworthiness and assessment of the size of an organisation.
• Develops Loyalty – Marketing your brand in the right way, to the right people at exactly the right time provides knowledge and information to clients that they didn’t even know they needed. Become the brand that your audience comes to rely upon and love. A brand with loyalty is a brand to be watched.
• Improves traffic and website rankings – Killer content backed with phenomenal SEO will create a brand that is a force to be reckoned with. Generating consistent high-quality content which is traced back to your website means every word of content produced helps strengthen your website traffic, rankings and conversions.

Consistent and exciting content marketing is the backbone of keeping a brand up to date, subsequently influencing its success and growth. Content marketing streamed strategically through social media is the winning combination that none of us can afford to ignore.