Why Content is The Cornerstone of Inbound Marketing Success

I've always had a thing for lists. Top 10s, Top 100s...create a list on a topic and there is a good chance that I will read it and debate the merit of things that made the list or were excluded.

When I saw a post on Business2Community the other day touting 50 ideas for using social media to generate website traffic, I almost couldn't help myself. It's a definitely a list worth reading, but what really struck me as I was going through it was the number of times content was mentioned:

• 3. Good Content
• 4. Writing Blog Content
• 19. Posting Useful Content
• 24. Benefit-oriented Content

There were several other tips - telling stories, offering advice and tips - on the list that had more to do with content than the tactics of using social media, but perhaps that is the greater point. You can have a great website and robust social media profiles and still not attract relevant prospects because you don't have content that interests them.

The phrase "Content Is King" may be trite and overused, but that doesn't make it any less true. Fancy designs and slick social media campaigns don't mean anything if you don't also have something to say that is of interest to your prospect. The prospect is not looking for a sales pitch, they are looking for information that addresses a need. If you don't have educational content that addresses that pain point, they will look for someone who does.

The search engines continue to adapt their algorithms to this behavior, with content playing a greater role in determining where your website appears in search returns. Google's recently introduced Knowledge Graph places a premium on quality content that attracts inbound links.

It's time to start thinking like a publisher, as our company president Greg Linnemanstons would tell you. And he's right.

And right about now is when you are saying "I have a business to run. When do I have time to think like a publisher?" (I know you might not say it that politely.) We've got some tips that can help you create and manage the content you need to improve your online marketing success:

1. 5 Templates For Creating & Managing Your Inbound Marketing Content
2. Make Your Content Marketing Better With An Editorial Calendar
3. 10 Questions to Turn Your Story Into Content Strategy
4. How to Create Content by Looking at Your Hard Drive
5. Developing a Content Strategy for Inbound Marketing Success

Of course, this is not an exhaustive list by any means, and if you don't see what you need here, you may find inspiration from one of our previous posts on the Whole Brain Marketing Blog.

To learn more about the importance of content for online marketing efforts, check out our FREE Step-by-Step Guide to Inbound Marketing.