No longer merely a clichéd buzzword or future prediction, following Google’s Hummingbird, Penguin and Panda updates, we are now well and truly in the era of ‘content’.
Great content is today a central part of our SEO and digital marketing strategies, with most businesses now aware of the benefits of regularly posting high-quality, relevant onsite content for the purpose of driving traffic, growing brand awareness, and SEO.
Your company website provides the perfect platform for publishing your own branded content that will build both your business and online reputation. Realising the value that content marketing can bring, more and more businesses are effectively becoming online publishers, with brand journalism taking center stage as a valuable marketing technique for bringing in long-tail traffic and engaging both existing and potential customers.
As a former magazine journalist now working with our lifestyle clients on their onsite content strategies, it strikes me that there is a lot that brands can learn from traditional media outlets, in particular from the editors and journalists that have been bringing us content offline for many years, as they look to publish content of their own.
What these original content creators all know is that editorial content is only successful if your target market wants to read it, and creating content that your audience really wants to read and share requires a little strategy.
To make your content work for you, here are six simple tips that your business can gather from magazines:
1. Put your audience first
The most important lesson that brands can learn from traditional media is to put your audience first. Rather than thinking in terms of customers and sales, think about who your readers are, what they want to read and what they will gain from your content.
To do this, you need to know exactly who your audience is. Newspapers and magazines know their readers inside and out, and put them at the forefront of everything they do. They know their gender, age bracket, interests (e.g. fashion, travel, motoring, celebrity gossip), and even political standpoint and disposable income. Once you know to whom you are targeting your content, it becomes a whole lot easier to create content that readers will find engaging, interesting and useful.
By thinking of your audience in this way, rather than as a potential lead or conversion, your content will do the hard work for you. The more your content answers the questions your target audience is asking about your industry, the more your audience will grow, bringing with it a host of new fans, leads and customers.
2. Attract your audience with really great content
Magazines and newspapers survive on the quality of their content, because, quite simply, great content means more readers. Without a loyal audience, magazine sales would decrease or, in the instance of advertising-funded magazines, big-name advertisers would pull out and the magazine would falter.
Therefore, magazines produce content with the sole intention of engaging their readers and if companies want to attract more visitors to their websites, they need to do the same and publish really great content that will engage their customer-base time and time again.
Think about what your target audience wants to read and what information you can offer them. Good content marketing is not just about overtly selling your products or services. Consider how your audience is going to benefit from your content. What does your target market want to read about? What information is your audience looking for? What will inform, inspire and entertain them?
Align your content to your brand and use your expertise to become an authority in your industry. Rather than blatantly promoting your products or services, publish evergreen content that will educate and inform your target market year after year.
Don’t just think about making a sale or conversion. Remember, every new visitor that your content brings to your website is a potential new lead and customer.
3. Think like an editorial team
To produce high quality content that users will actually want to read and engage with, you need to start thinking like an editorial team.
Strategy is key. Magazine editors don’t just publish what they like, when they like. They carefully plan the content that goes into each issue, following a carefully thought-out editorial calendar. This helps to give each piece of content a clear angle and reason for existing, and a defined purpose. It also ensures that each issue is full of great content ideas that will engage the audience.
Brands should follow the same logic by creating and following a cohesive digital content marketing strategy.
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4. Look for news hooks & angles
Journalists frequently plan their magazine features and articles around national and international events, such as the Diamond Jubilee, Royal Wedding or London 2012, and the seasonal trends for that particular time of year, such as Christmas, Mother’s Day or summer.
Brands too should take these wider trends and occasions into account when planning onsite content in order to hit the right people with the right content, at the time when they are looking for and talking about it. Keep up-to-date with the news in your industry and look for events coming up that will affect your target market; plan your content around these to give it relevancy.
That said, the beauty of the digital world is that it allows site owners to be much more reactive and spontaneous than print publishers can be. If you see a last-minute opportunity to post content around the hot topic of the moment, seize it! A timely news angle will capture your audience’s attention when there is a peak in searches and social buzz around a particular subject.
5. Encourage loyalty
Publishers rely on retaining regular readers that will repeatedly pick up a copy of their publication and share it with their friends.
Therefore, magazines attempt to retain a loyal readership by keeping true to a clear house style and running regular features. Businesses should replicate this online by developing a distinct brand voice that your audience will come to recognise. You could also run regular features on your blog such as a ‘how to’ series or bring in expert opinions.
These techniques will encourage brand loyalty in the form of repeat customers and regular visitors to your site, along with brand ambassadors that spread the word about your products and services and share your content online.
6. Own your field, not just your product
Through the content you post you can really start to own your field and become an authority in the industry in which you operate, in the same way that Vogue magazine has become a fashion bible or New Scientist is the go-to magazine for scientific news.
Align your brand to a specific lifestyle choice and aim your content at a distinct target audience that wants to embrace this lifestyle. Make the most of the expertise you have within the business, and get your experts to regularly publish targeted, relevant and on-brand content. This will help you become an authority in your field and establish your website as the go-to place for information in your industry – or simply for people wanting to adopt that particular lifestyle.
Magazines aren’t afraid of mentioning other brands if they complement their brand image and lifestyle that they promote, and you shouldn’t be either. Partnering with other brands that complement your lifestyle is a great way of producing creative and insightful content that your audience will want to read.