“Content is King!” The infamous statement from a certain Mr. Bill Gates back in 1996 (when Grunge dominated the airwaves and ‘curtains’ were still a viable hairstyle) was about how the internet would make money and how information would be distributed. Now, nearly 30 years on (feeling old yet?) you still hear it regularly parroted by those working in the search and social sectors and it very much continues to hold true.
Most organisations understand that content is valuable in informing potential customers and clients, and developing a tone of voice (TOV) for their overall branding. However, it is also often underutilised in what it can achieve for a brand or organisation.
Content can (and should) form the crux of your search strategy as well as being the basis for the user experience on any of your sites or social media but all too often it is siloed or seen as a separate specialism to others. Realistically, to get the best out of your content, you should be taking a unified approach.
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and content go hand in hand when looking at optimising a website because the content is the very thing you are optimising for your search results (yes, Search pros, I know there is more to it than this). But it can also be employed across the board to really drive results.
Here at Honcho, we have a ‘collaborative content’ approach that sees us look at how we can create content that can be used by all Search, Social, Paid Media and Digital PR to expand its reach.
When I refer to ‘The Trident Approach’, I’m not talking about chewing gum or ruling the seven seas, but more a three-pronged outlook when developing content for a brand. These focusses are:
With a bit of forward thinking, these can all be tackled at once with high-quality content.
Writing content for Search is what you should be doing anyway, with informative content that always helps the user and aims to answer any questions they have. This is the basis of any good content anyway, but if you also make sure it contains relevant keywords whilst still adding value to the reader then you’re onto a winner straight away no matter what your niche. This can be anything from product descriptions, blogs, guides, FAQs and more and all should adopt the “They Ask, You Answer” principle of making sure you cover all bases of answering what a customer needs and
wants to know.
This can be combined with Paid output as product titles and the unique selling point (USP) should be within the first 150 characters of your Google Ads, where possible. This may be a little tricky but if you’re writing product descriptions with this in mind, then that content can be used on site and in ads with ease, minimising rewrites and making sure potential customers see the most important information about your product up-front.
Then there’s UX, where product descriptions must be simple to understand and highlight how they can improve the customer’s lifestyle. Now, if you have a super-handsome-talented-and-charismatic Content Writer like yours truly on the case, then this should be a doddle but many will struggle with condensing all the right information into an informative and entertaining piece of content.
The real talent though, is making sure you have content that combines all these areas so that it can soar beyond a handful of eyes (urgh, gross image – sorry) and get seen by, not only a larger audience but also the right people.
By working closely with our SEO, Honcho content writers develop tailored plans by:
Then we can start to build out a strategy that plays up your strengths and addresses your weaknesses. We develop a roadmap that tackles high-priority search terms first and then expands on this solid framework.
We also have open content plans that all teams can see, so everyone can become part of that content process. Particularly useful when applied to Social and Digital PR teams, they can have a say in the output they want to see so they can marry up what they’re doing with what’s going on-site. Users can then have added value from those channels too as they are directed from a social media post or news piece backlink that then expands on the information given to them via that.
Imagine a social post about seasonal products then linking to a blog post about how people can use these products or develop their own ideas using said products to further drive an interest in their product. Likewise, if you’ve had a Digital PR campaign targeting how your product can solve a specific problem, then driving traffic to how it can be further utilised will add an increased level of value and intrigue to the reader.
By pooling our collective knowledge with shared ideation, we double, or triple, our ideas and coordinate similar seasonal output, get valuable information in front of the right audience, and build trust for your brand as the go-to place for reliable information on products and troubleshooting.
All content plans should be living documents. By this, I don’t mean that they should be some kind of Frankenstein’s monster that knocks on your office window and reminds you to write a blog post, but rather that they should be adaptable to changes at the drop of a hat.
By having strong communication across teams, we can react appropriately to industry trends, news updates and more with a unified approach thus lessening the likelihood of any awkward fax pas or crossed wires when putting your content out there. This ensures messaging remains on-point whatever the channel.
Paid channels allow for analysis of customers such as age, gender, location etc. With a holistic content approach, we can tweak TOV accordingly to appeal to markets that are more likely to buy from said offering. With a consistent customer experience, we can them maximise
efficiencies and deliverables for great results.