Content marketing is the big thing in digital marketing and SEO right now. Hundreds of companies now offer content marketing services to businesses in just about every industry. With so much competition though, everyone is looking for an edge. That causes some to turn what should be a simple marketing exercise into an unnecessarily complicated mess.
I’ve been doing this a long time and I know from experience that content marketing doesn’t have to be complicated. In fact, it shouldn’t be. Keeping it simple makes for better results by preventing the distractions that come from complicating matters.
The Basic Premise Is Simple
Content marketing’s basic premise is simple enough to understand. Salt Lake City’s Webtek Digital Marketing explains that content creators do what they do from a marketing standpoint. In other words, they create content designed to reach a targeted audience with a defined message. They create content that contributes to the goal of selling things. That is about as simple as it gets.
Another way to say it is that content marketing is a way to use website content to reach your audience with your message. But wait. Haven’t we been doing that all along? No, we haven’t. Ever since Google came on to the scene, most of what has gone into SEO and digital marketing has been about satisfying the search engine. Content has been written to take advantage of how search engine algorithms rank pages.
For the record, Google has come out numerous times with statements and explanations designed to encourage creators to get away from that mindset. One of their latest efforts to that end has been a lengthy discussion of their Helpful Content update.
Create for Consumers First
Google acknowledges the fact that content creators always need to keep in mind how search engine algorithms do what they do. It is unavoidable. But at the same time, Google also wants content creators to create for consumers first. Google’s logic makes perfect sense.
Google is happy when its users are happy. Its users are happy when Google returns the best possible results for their organic searches. Google wants creators to focus on consumers so that they produce the kind of content consumers actually want to consume – which takes us back to simplicity.
Complicated Is Not Better
Somewhere along the way, the movers and shakers in the marketing sector decided that web users are impressed by complexity. Maybe the decision wasn’t made overtly or even purposely. But it was made, nonetheless. It led to a trend that saw content creators trying to impress rather than communicate.
Even today, the tendency is alive and well. I have run across tons of articles intended to explain SEO and digital marketing principles to small business owners, in hopes of convincing them to sign up for web development, SEO, or content marketing services. But the content is so complex that a small business owner without any applicable knowledge hasn’t got a clue about what they are reading.
People Are the Target
It is a given that content marketing services need to account for the technical aspects of digital marketing. Analytics must play a role in determining the direction a marketing campaign takes. There’s even room for strategic planning. But when all is said and done, people are the target. Moreover, people prefer simplicity over complexity.
Keep your content marketing simple and you’ll be on the right track. Make it too complex and you run the risk of driving away the very consumers you’re trying to reach. Remember that content marketing services don’t have to be complicated. They shouldn’t be.
