If there is one thing I have learned from watching the Walking Dead is that zombies should be killed quickly and you can never have too many precautions in place to protect yourself. Once they invade, they infect others and pretty soon, the whole place is filled with lifeless, stumbling beings looking to make you their next meal.
This same process happens when you reuse old or self-serving content to reach out to new leads. Don't see the connection? Grab your machete and stay with me.
What is the first thing people do when faced with a zombie. They run away. What will people do when they come to your website and realize the content they are presented with is useless or "dead" at helping them with their needs? They will do the internet equivalent and bounce.
So, how do you prevent dead content from invading your website and infecting your visitors with self-serving, boring information? These simple actions can breath new life into your web marketing, creating a strategy that spurs results:
Analyze Your Current Content:
Your current site is a good place to start. Look at what pages people are going to the most or what keywords they are searching for within your site. How helpful is your content at addressing audience needs? Does your content have opportunities for leads to convert? Start writing content that tackles the topics your audience wants to learn about.
Blog:
Educational, valuable information for your website visitors is like brains to zombies. And, the fresher, the better. People want to know what you know before deciding to engage directly with your company. Blogs have become one of the most visited pages on company sites, in fact, our own blog is the second most visited on our site behind the homepage. Blogs drive traffic to websites because they are viewed as "free" resource material the company is giving away to help their audience tackle pain points.
Social Media:
With the BILLIONS of users on various social media networks, there is a good probability your prospects are using them too. While you may not think your target audience is interested in connecting with you on these sites, the truth is, they are consumers of information on topics which interest them, professionally and personally. Think about your audience and how they might be consuming and sharing this data. Then match that information to the audiences using specific social networks and start experimenting with messages crafted to attract their attention and provide some benefit for engaging with you.
Video:
Help your audience put faces to the company name. Show them there are actual living, breathing human beings behind your brand who have valuable information to share. With all the video capturing tools available and sharing platforms, you can shoot a quick how-to video on your smart phone and push it out to various channels to be easily shared. It doesn't have to be high-production value, just interesting to your user.
Email:
Breathe some life into your client database with email newsletters that tackle topics your customers care about. Make sure to establish a good balance between the promotional and education content of your emails. Focus on sending relevant, timely and useful information to your subscribers and include a call to action item that you want your recipients to do.
Unified Team:
Combating zombie content is a team effort. Everyone must be involved. Share the goals of your content strategy with the entire company so everyone understands and can incorporate those messages in their day-to-day tasks and communications. Utilize the personnel at your company for content ideas. Each member of your team has a unique insight on your company, product or service that can be used to create different messaging angles for your content pieces.
Unsure on how to start serving good content to your audience? Outside agencies like Aztek can help you develop an engaging and profitable content strategy your audience will devour.