Quality Content: Why It's Valuable to Your Brand

Many times branding and strategy are discussed at the beginning of an initiative and how the content will be created is a functional afterthought. Savvy marketers are paying close attention to content marketing http://www.junta42.com/resources/what-is-content-marketing.aspx and how it directly correlates brands and messaging to the consumer or client base.

As a company builds its brand identity and develops strategy, content will come into play. The discussion about content should happen simultaneously as the strategy is being developed.
A strong strategy will determine the types of content that might be used and will clarify some of the following:

· Who is your target audience?
· What types of content will you need to create?
· How will your content be delivered?
· What are the metrics to determine success in reaching the audiences?

The importance of answering these questions enables re-use of collateral, which saves time and reduces costs by creating multiple pieces of content (video, articles and a social media campaign). This approach allows a content group or marketing department to save time on researching and creating content on similar topics with a different spin.

Content marketing encompasses all of the marketing initiatives that involve creative content generation. It is important to understand when writing for the Web vs. writing for print or ad campaigns that there will be different content needs and different outcomes. http://s2eo.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html

If writing for the Web, make sure you have someone who understands how to build a taxonomy (utilizing keywords and meta-data from your Web gurus), how to create strong quality content to match brands and then test the theory. Put the content out there and see what the response is. The measuring and tweaking takes time but allows for the content to mature along with the brand.

Not sure if content marketing is a MUST for your brand? http://s2eo.blogspot.com/2010/03/content-marketing-why-content-matters.html When determining strategy, most marketers want to direct traffic to the company site, convert a visit to a sale or a lead and engage visitors so they begin to trust and stay on the site for a longer time period. If a site has a high abandon rate, isn’t bringing in the sales or having much lead generation, then content marketing and building a site with quality content is a must.

If your site is looking merely for quantity, you can utilize free online articles or very inexpensive content to fill your site. An increasingly-savvy audience will get the message--your company is not dedicated to quality. In social conversations you can figure out how individuals feel about messaging and content. They will quickly reveal who has it right and who doesn’t. Of course, their buying decisions will be a tangible sign and ultimately, sales will reflect this as well.