How to Do Relevant Content Marketing in 2023-2024?

If you didn’t hear you need to write content to promote your business in 2023-2024, you probably didn’t talk to anyone in the field of marketing 🙂 Nobody argues with the statement anymore – you need more articles, product pages, videos, emails – everything that can help to attract, keep, convert and retain customers. And you know yourself – you’d buy an email marketing software from that brand whose content you read and liked (if it has all needed features of course). 

Nowadays, the content is overflowing and distributed in huge quantities. Every 60 seconds, hundreds of thousands of posts are shared on Twitter. With such an abundance of options, users tend to stay on one content source for a shorter time, and you have to make a real effort to engage them.

5 Irrefutable Arguments for Writing Relevant Content

What about relevant content? If you define Ideal Customer Profiles for your business, their pains and needs, you can write and speak specifically to every group of these customers. Before delving into the importance of relevant content for business, we need to understand what it actually is. Relevant content:

• Hits your target audience (or each group) talking about their particular daily issues, solutions for them, cases or trends;
• Speaks their language and uses typical terminology, avoiding obvious conclusions;
• Has all the pertinent keywords that help users find your content;
• Is helpful and engaging for readers.

Despite the fact that producing relevant content is complex, there are five facts in its favor. 

1. Average Session Duration Increase

The average time a user stays on the web resource is around 50 seconds. You need to engage them in the first 10 seconds to keep their attention and make them want to learn more. If you learn how to create relevant content, the session duration will increase, meaning the users are more likely to be interested in your products and services.

2. Bounce Rate Decrease

People go online not only for fun but for study, work, etc. They want to feel that the time they spend on the Internet is useful – and satisfies their intent. If you create a content environment where the user receives information related to their area of interest, they will be thrilled to see more content from you. Therefore, when you develop and implement a content strategy that answers your customers’ key queries and intents, your bounce rate will decrease.

3. More Visibility and Social Shares

The right content increases brand awareness — your company’s visibility on the Internet. If you manage to create content that the reader will want to share with their friends, you will greatly improve your online presence. In addition to increasing your reach, you can also boost your credibility, because people share only the information they trust the most. Even if new visitors don’t buy your products at first, they will remember your offer and get back to you once they need similar products or services.

4. The Possibility of Getting Valuable Backlinks

The information you post should be helpful and up-to-date, with some statistics or data if relevant. People and web resources tend to share posts and links they find important and trustworthy. If they mention the link to your website/post somewhere on their website, it will be called a backlink. By citing you and sharing links to your page, various resources can bring more users to check out your brand.

5. Organic Audience and Active Community

And last but not least, relevant content allows you to grow an organic audience and create an active community. If your content helps to solve people’s pains and problems, they will be genuinely interested in following you and purchasing your services. You’ll have your brand advocates, an endless source of topics to write on (quizzes and feedback forms will help you collect valuable info and help decide on the next topics to write about), and loyal customers that will recommend you to their friends.

The Components of Relevant Content

High-quality, relevant content that drives results must: 

1.  Be liked by the search engines (like Google and other SERPs); 
2.  Be liked by users (followers).

Each point includes a few components that will help to achieve it.

For Google Algorithms

Search engines love relevant and original content. They can determine if your content meets their requirements by evaluating the following things:

1. Meta tags. These are HTML elements that contain various meta-components, the basic ones being title and description. They can “tell” the search engine robots what your page is about and help them evaluate its relevance to the user’s search query.
2. Search queries are the phrases people type in the search bar when looking for something on the Internet. Each time the query coincides with your content, the page shows the web results. That’s why using the right keywords and keyword clusters is so important.
3. Exact keywords are the other thing that helps search engines see what your content is about and match it to the users’ search queries. They are specific and meant to increase the visibility of your content/page.
4. Keyword clusters include groups of related keywords (with similar meanings and intent); they help cover a wider range of user search queries.
5. Backlinks are the links to your website posted on other resources. It’s a true recognition that your content is either trendy or helpful.
6. Visuals must represent your text content. This helps engines to understand that you have a solid and consistent content line. Moreover, people prefer visual content over text and are more likely to share it (especially if you have infographics, charts, images, graphs, etc.)
7. Regularly updated info or evergreen content stays useful no matter when you post it. At the same time, it may not depend on news and trends but provides helpful materials, how-to, dos and don’ts, guides, etc.

For Users

To be liked by users, the content-making process should include the following:

1. Trending topics — very specific news or topics, maybe even hype ones that attract users’ attention at a given moment in time — like ChatGPT.
2. Professionalism/expert insights — useful articles from experts in the niche or collected from research and studies, including business content creation guidelines.
3. Actionable advice — simple tips dedicated to the overall yout niche, like meditation practices and anti-stress exercises.
4. Problem-solving — advice that can specifically resolve users’ issues or relieve their pains, such as giving wellness or tax tips.
5. Personalization — the followers must feel like your company is talking to them directly and care about their needs.
6. Custom visuals — using stock pictures and videos are outdated; your content branding should represent your social media identity.
7. The tone of voice — a component that embodies the company’s characteristics that shape the brand in the eyes of the customer. Depending on the brand’s content strategy, the tone can vary from officially restrained to casual and entertaining. 
8. Feedback options — posting content without interaction with followers won’t do any good. Users have to know that their feedback is valued.

11 Best Practices to Rely on in 2023-2024

Some content marketing practices are basic and consistent. They include posting relevant info and using several media channels for digital marketing. Others are more specific — they allow you to utilize all benefits of content marketing and take your communication with readers to the next level. So, let’s take a look at 11 best practices that should remain relevant this and the next year.

1. Let Your Users Ask You Questions or Comment on Posts

A huge part of online content marketing is communicating with users. Letting them ask questions and leave comments on the posts makes your content more viral, spreading it through social media and raising your brand awareness. Also, it’s a unique source of content ideas and a way to improve your services by getting real feedback.

2. Always Research News or Trends in the World

To create relevant content, you must stay updated on the last happenings in the world. This means you have to include the research of news and trends in your content creation steps. With this, you’ll be able to provide valuable info to your readers and use trends to attract new clients/leads. You can get a lot of info from field-specific resources or simply use Google Trends to see what is trendy at any given moment. Trendy topics often get more traffic if content is deep enough.

3. Learn the Language That Your Audience Speaks

Your audience is more likely to convert into your clients if you learn to speak their language (literally and figuratively). Using industry-specific terminology is important as it demonstrates your professionalism. However, you should read their comments and feedback to better understand who your visitors are and communicate with them in their preferred manner. If you target oriental countries, for example, you must understand their culture first, and only after that move to your content strategy. Language and culture go hand in hand; that’s why knowing them is a surefire way to increase trust and improve sales. 

However, you don’t have to learn (or know) everything. You can use tools like Google Wordstat or Serpstat to focus on what your viewers google the most and study the subject.   

4. Distinguish Between User Intents 

To do relevant content marketing, you should find a match between the products you sell and users’ intentions. There are three main types of user search intents:

1. Navigational — searching for a specific platform;
2. Transactional — looking for a specific service/product;
3. Informational — searching for relevant info.

As Google’s recent report says, search intentions are becoming more and more focused. This means your content has not only to meet users’ expectations but compete with other businesses for their attention by creating a thought-out strategy and choosing the most relevant keywords.

5. Learn from the Best but Do Not Copy

In a great yet short book called “Steal like an Artist,” the author suggests that every new piece of art was inspired (borrowed from) others. It’s almost impossible to create something completely new nowadays, but copying things without consideration is also bad. So, the best way out here is to learn from the top in your field and create your own content inspired by the things that move you (plagiarism checkers can help you here).

6. Define Your Customer Persona

Defining your customer persona is another step in the content strategy after determining your target audience. A customer persona is a make-believe representation of your average customer, including their age, sex, job, likes, and dislikes. It helps to personalize content and its presentation and improve your content marketing strategy. You could have a few personas too – just remember about them creating your content plan. 

7. Use SEO

SEO includes many techniques and solutions to improve your website’s rank in SERPs. It involves both technical and content requirements — on-site and offsite. Every time you publish some content, you have to ensure it’s SEO-optimized. It should have all the meta tags, keywords, relevant pictures, videos, and original text. With all this, Google (or any other search engine) will rank your website on the results page, and the success of your marketing efforts will be measured by the popularity of your site. 

8. Work on Your Website Blog

Many brands use social platforms like Facebook and Instagram but neglect website blogs because they underestimate their effectiveness. However, regular content series (weekly, monthly, etc.) make your readers accustomed to receiving periodic pieces of information from you. Regular blog posts and reminders periodic reminders help you share your intake on current events or advertise your services.

9. Give Quizzes and Surveys

Engaging customers using games and quizzes is another way to create business content. As we mentioned, blog surveys are useful for gathering feedback from your audience. They help with website traffic (by creating unique interactive experiences that encourage visitors to stay longer) and provide a pool of new content ideas.

Quizzes and surveys can help you:

• Learn more about your audience’s behavior through their answers;
• Choose the best products for sale;
• Increase your brand awareness;
• Anticipate and resolve customer service issues, etc.

Keep your quizzes short and offer different incentives for the participants — this can improve the response rates. 

10. Use Modern Tools and Technologies

The Internet has been buzzing with AI talks since the introduction of Midjourney (a design AI tool). Now ChatGPT, known for writing texts in a conversational manner, steals the thunder. It is claimed to create relevant content for every topic. And in some cases, it’s true. The tool can do rephrasing, generate titles, keywords, questions, and summaries. However, Google has already stated that all AI-altered content will be banned and will rank poorly in the SERP results. That’s why the generated content cannot be used in the original form, but it can certainly diversify and amplify your content.

11. Storytelling Is Key

A good story sells better. Content marketers have proven it worldwide, and now every brand should use it to its advantage. Storytelling is a set of techniques helping you to create and share your brand’s story for greater engagement. The story can be based on real-life events in the creation of the brand or contain imaginary elements. It improves your relations with your readers, builds a stronger community, and increases brand awareness. It also makes it easier for a visitor to consume your content.

Audit Your Website Content to Make Sure It’s Relevant

In summary, strong content marketing consists of two main components: search algorithm optimization and user experience optimization. On the one hand, you should use all available SEO tools to increase your web ranking position so that users can see you. On the other hand, you have to ensure the content you’re producing is valuable and relevant to the viewers so that they stay longer on your page and convert into clients and sales.

This is a complex task that requires a dedicated marketing team, and even more so, a team that employs a marketing + SEO approach. At HAKA Media, we provide premium content marketing services to our clients, ensuring that both search engines and users will be crazy about your content.