Lots of people new to Content Marketing get discouraged by their initial results.  Not that these are insignificant, but they are not what they see the leaders in their market getting, and the differential is daunting.  Seemingly insurmountable.

Initial Content Marketing victories may seem small, but they begin instantly and build cumulatively over time.

Initial Content Marketing Results

As you start to market with content for the long term, you will be getting increased exposure mostly from two sources.  They both get eyes on your website, and pages instantly, and those will be the right eyes.  Yes, we are talking about targeted web visitors. 

The first source is referrals from social media posts.  These will be commensurate with your social reach.  If that is not all that extensive, don’t worry as increasing social reach is one of the primary purposes of Content Marketing.  These are targeted visitors as they actively clicked through knowing what you were posting about.  Many enterprises have build substantial increases to revenues based solely on this traffic.   

The second source is SEO traffic from longtail keywords.  These are based on the titles you give your content.  They are called longtail keywords, or alternately buyers keywords and are four to ten word, keyword rich phrases that you can get ranked first on Google instantly upon publishing. 

Crafting a good title is obviously important to the success of this aspect your content.  We write our titles directing on Google.  That way we can see several things. 

We can see who is writing on the subject, and gauge relative competitiveness.  It is also nice to see ads on the results page, as then you know people are willing to spend money to get the traffic from the searches. 

Create good subtitles the same way.  These can also get good SEO rankings, and therefore targeted traffic from Google.  Remember to make them keyword rich and from four to ten words.

Ranking for these types of keywords doesn’t bring massive traffic, but the traffic it does bring is quite high quality.  Using our methods as outlined in previous Content Marketing articles, the rankings on these will hold for quite some time.  That means that as you build a portfolio of articles the traffic will build steadily. 

That is not all that will happen over time though.  Both the social media based traffic and the SEO results undergo cumulative increases too. 

These are significant in the extreme.

The Cumulative Effect of Content Marketing

On Social Media Reach

Consistently high quality content shared on social media is the best way to increase your social reach.  This is a relative measurement of how much exposure you get through each of your social media accounts.   

Content accomplishes this in two primary ways.  The first is simply because good content gets shared, and this creates followers.  You can encourage this through use of relevant hashtags, and unique descriptions when you post.   

Next is contained in the content itself.  Using CTAs (calls to action) asking readers to follow you is very effective.  This must be done consistently to get acceptable results. 

You can do this for several of your social media properties in each piece of content. 

Three social media properties per piece of content is a good rule of thumb.  More than that and visitors will more likely just pass the opportunity by than click through and follow you.  

The Cumulative Effect of Content Marketing

On SEO Results

Those initial SEO results spoken of earlier build over time to be a significant source of targeted website traffic, and increased sales revenue.  The titles written should be using the primary keywords for your website. 

These are keywords or phrases that are from one to three words long.  If you are uncertain what the primary keywords are for your website, click below for a no cost consultation and we can assist you with some basic keyword research. 

As time goes by and your library of content ranking for longtail keywords containing your primary keywords grow, the tipping point will be reached and you will start ranking for the primary keywords as well. 

 At first these rankings will be on the second or perhaps even third page of Google’s search results.  Keep posting quality content and you will continue your climb in the rankings.  Get into the top few spots for the right few keywords, and the traffic is huge, and of a very high quality. 

When you think about high quality content, think about providing solutions common to your market niche. 

This should be simple if your products and services address the needs of the marketplace.  Do not worry about giving away too much information. 

The job of your content is not just to generate sales, but to build your reputation as a knowledgeable leader within your niche. 

Many make the mistake of thinking that Google doesn’t care about this, but they have ways to measure this. 

Do visitors stay on your site more or less than thirty seconds?  Do they click through to additional pages?  Google’s algorithm measures these and much more.

Social Traffic Vs SEO Traffic

From Content Marketing

The targeted traffic you get from social media and from SEO will both grow steadily over time, and then exponentially once critical mass is reached as described above. 

We get asked all the time which is more important.  Google is the largest source of website traffic online, and no doubt will be for some time to come.  The second largest search engine online is YouTube, which technically isn’t a search engine but a video sharing site with significant social features. 

Another social site provides more traffic than any source other than Google.  Pinterest is that platform.  It is an image publishing website that again has strong social features to it. 

In the United States it leans towards female users, but even the lower number of males make it an important website for them too.  In European countries it is reversed with men using the website for more as their it is used heavily to follow sports teams. 

There are newer platforms like Instagram (owned by Facebook) and older ones like Slideshare (owned by LinkedIn) that are hugs traffic sources when used strategically as well.  The point is that neither SEO nor social media traffic should be ruled out. 

Google is and will remain the overwhelmingly largest targeted traffic provider, but taken together you can get an equal amount of traffic from your social platforms. 

The important thing for this discussion is to use Content Marketing effectively and consistently over time so that you can get cumulative results and not just the day in and day out traffic achieved at the start.  Even those results will improve over time with experience as skills build. 

Content Marketing as an integral part of your Brand Strategy will be the biggest source of growth for your business with consistent application, and diligent analysis.

More SEO Snips