Content Marketing
What Is Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable content on a consistent basis, to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience. Content marketing is part of a well-rounded digital marketing strategy and can include many different mediums, including blogging, email marketing, gifs, white-paper downloads, and more!
From a digital marketing perspective, content marketing ties all of your marketing initiatives together. This can be thanks to a tangible ROI or just word of mouth buzz! If you want to get to the next level with your digital marketing, content marketing is the way to do it.
Why Is Content Marketing Important?
If your practice is already executing a digital marketing strategy, you may be wondering why content marketing is important. After all, you’re getting more leads and you’re at the top of the search results for your most important keywords. How is content marketing really going to help?
If you’re looking for more visibility in front of leads and potential patients, content marketing just makes sense. Without an effective content marketing strategy, many of your digital marketing initiatives may just fall flat. If your practice is producing quality content on a regular basis but nobody reads it, does it really matter?
The answer is no. Without engagement and traffic, your quality content efforts will become forgotten. It will be as if you never wrote anything at all! Yes, Google notices when you’re producing content. Google also notices when you update your site on a regular basis. But if you’re producing content, like a blog, and nobody engages with it, your practice is not fulfilling its fullest potential.
Patients notice when you’re number 1. If you’re number 1 for your top LASIK keywords, number 1 for your paid search ads, and you show up in the map pack number 1 when they are doing research, they’ll notice. What they notice even more is if your content is also ranking.
If your content gets enough engagement, it’s possible this can happen, thanks to the power of content marketing. When you dominate all of the search results with pillar pages, content, the map pack, and ads, you’ve achieved top of mind visibility. If a lead is ready to move forward with LASIK, or cataract surgery, your practice is going to be the very first one that they think of! It doesn’t get more valuable than that.
What Are The Differences Between Content Marketing And Digital Marketing?
Here’s the big difference to remember: content marketing is part of digital marketing. Without a solid digital marketing strategy for SEO, paid search, and local search results, a content marketing program cannot be successful. When you have a good digital marketing strategy, content marketing will just continue to work off your other successes.
Content marketing is the perfect solution for your digital marketing if you’re looking to stand out from the crowd. Help your practice get the credibility and visibility that it’s missing. We can do this through a combination of social and content marketing.
Social media marketing can be one of the most powerful forms of digital marketing when it’s executed correctly. Combine this with quality content that your patients and leads want to engage with and you can increase your practice’s visibility. Success with content marketing cannot be achieved overnight, but when done right, you’ll notice the benefits.
Objectives Of Content Marketing
The primary, short-term objective of content marketing is to create engaging, valuable content to inform and educate your audience.
As an authority in your industry, it’s your job to provide prospective customers with solutions to their problems.
The secondary, long-term objective is to drive sales. When you publish quality content on a consistent basis, site visitors will gain trust in your brand. This results in a) return visitors and b) your content getting shared and engaged with.
Another important part of content marketing is driving traffic to your website. Content that lives on your website like a blog or a video will help drive more people to your website. More website visits can mean better SEO results and rankings. Content marketing is a key part of the big picture when it comes to digital marketing.