This post seeks to explain what content marketing is, and how your business or brand can benefit from it, in order to grow and become more successful online.

We all need to market what we do and get leads, and this is one of the ways we can do so as a long-term strategy.

What is content marketing

Content marketing refers to creating and publishing online media such as blog posts, videos, audio and other types of digital content, to help answer questions that your audience may have, or to provide some form of value. This, in turn, helps them to solve a problem or achieve a goal. Because you provided this content, they see you as an authority figure in this area and trust you as a source for them to go deeper. This could mean that they buy what you have to offer, as a result

What type of online content to create

Content can be in different formats and styles. In some cases, one form of content may be more effective than another. The best way to approach it is to assess your audience’s needs to see what works best for them. Also, if you are better at creating one type of content, tht should be your focus as it makes it easier for you to create and 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                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

How to drive traffic to your website with content marketing 

The aim of your content should be to help your target audience and by doing so you can lead them back to your website to learn more about what you have to offer. 

An effective way to drive traffic to your website is to offer a lead magnet (or lead generator), which is a free item that a target user would come to the website to get. This usually would be a downloadable file that they would find useful. This presents you with an opportunity to capture their details and continue communicating with them.

How much content do you need to publish?

Having a good body of content that your audience can discover and consume, is a good think. How much content will depend on the strategy and the type of business or audience. However, generally speaking, I would suggest aming to have around 100 pieces of content as a baseline helps to show authority and helps with search engine discovery.

Content is an ongoing things, however, as you will need to adapt and update older content due to changes in the marketplace. The great thing is that the more you publish, the more beneficial it becomes.