Since the folks at Google have turned themselves into this century’s Yellow Pages, businesses have had to reinvent how customers find them. And more important, they are dealing with how to be best perceived in a split decision when the Internet gives customers dozens of answers at once when they search for a local plumber, jeweler or the best date night restaurant.
It’s no longer good enough for businesses to exist, and maybe try to cut to the front of the line by naming itself ABC Pest Service or All-A’s Roofing to show up at the beginning of alphabetical listings.
The key to being digital discovered in the 2020s involves using content marketing as part of your plan to build relevance and authority online. That’s why we recently spent some time talking with One Man Brand producer Chad Swiatecki about his career as a business writer and content marketer.
As a long-time journalist, Chad uses his experience interviewing and writing about companies to help them produce written content – most often in the form of blog posts – that answer customers’ common questions or give readers information about a topic where a client company wants to be known as an authority.
“The goal is to extract and convey information that will appeal to human beings as well as Google’s all-important algorithms,” he said.
Over the years Chad has handled content marketing work for some of my clients, working for The Brand Guys as a contract hire, or professional pirate, as he likes to say. And just like us, he stresses that content marketing is an “in it for the long haul” proposition that helps companies build brand long term instead of working as a means to juice short-term sales via rounds of A/B testing and ruthless efficiency.
His advice for the best approach to effective content marketing?
“Think about the problems customers need solved and what will make you stand out. Understand who your customer is and what their needs are.”