You might not think it, but you are missing something vital in your content strategy.
Over the years you’ve found it increasingly difficult to come up with fresh content for your blog. Even though you’ve invested in a professional copywriter to create the content, your ideas have started to dry up.
That’s when you made your big mistake.
You cast your net wider and instructed your writer to create posts on topics that, at best, were loosely related to your core message.
Your idea was that it would bring in a whole new readership, but it hasn’t.
What you have done is dilute your brand, negatively impacted your SEO and confused the hell out of your readers.
This is something I touched on briefly in an earlier post about blogging off piste, but it’s an important one so I’m going to go over it again.
Focus is the key to successful content
OK, sure, the quality of the writing is also important, but if it’s not focused on your core message it’s going to do all sorts of damage to your brand.
The idea behind content marketing is to attract the right kind of people. They are the ones that share your values and want to learn about your brand message.
Take me as an example.
I’ve been running my copywriting business since 2007.
My core topic is copywriting (no surprise there) so that is what everything else focuses on. Over the years I’ve widened my remit to cover aspects of marketing, content, SEO, social media and even running a freelance business (a copywriting one of course),
Each of these topics attracts the type of audience I want – people who want to learn about content, marketing and copywriting and those who need a great writer.
If I suddenly decided to start writing about the music I listen to while writing, for example “Music driven content: the power of Jake Morley”, regular readers might enjoy it, but new visitors would be confused.
The keywords (“music”, “Jake Morley”) suggest I am suddenly in the music industry and will end up attracting Jake Morley fans and people looking for new information about the music industry.
You could argue that it’s good to bring in a new audience, but that’s only true if that audience is looking for a copywriter.
You see you can only increase your conversion rate by either getting more visitors to take action, or by bringing in fewer unqualified visitors.
That’s why focus in your content strategy is so important.
Finding your focus
So how do you find your focus?
For me it’s easy. I’m a copywriter and therefore my focus is all things copywriting and marketing.
If yours isn’t quite so clear-cut try this.
- Start with products – what is the one over arching topic that covers everything you do?
- Supporting topics – write a list of topics you talk about when delivering your core message (e.g. what’s your USP? How do you do what you do? Whom do you do it for etc.)
- Refine your list – pick the 5 topics that are most closely aligned to your core message
Then start writing.
Once you’ve found your focus stick to it.
Don’t be tempted to go completely off piste just because you have a deadline and can’t think of anything to write.
Maintaining a clear focus will drive highly targeted and relevant content that will attract quality visitors to your website opening the door for higher conversions.
Give it a try and see how you get on.