For any business, its brand is key. A brand is a business’s top asset since it is the personification of that company. The way it sounds, acts, and looks directly affects how customers perceive it.
Numerous factors go into making a brand successful. However, arguably, the most valuable factor is the consistency of the content. From blogging and social media to replying to messages and responding to reviews, your content must be consistent. It must have the same style, tone, and voice.
Yet, simply maintaining uniformity of tone and voice is not the sole key element of consistent content. Its volume and publishing schedule are also integral to all wise marketing strategies.
As Buzzfeed’s Jonathan Perelman said, “Content is king, but distribution is queen. And she wears the pants!”
Content Is Not King – Content Consistency Is
You’ll no doubt have heard the famous Bill Gates saying, “Content is king.” Yet, this isn’t strictly true. Yes, quality content is important, but it is the consistency of that content that is just as vital. And that means having a publishing schedule.
Whether you choose to publish blogs daily, or weekly, choosing and sticking to that schedule is essential. Why is this so important?
If your content quantity, schedule, or quality is inconsistent, it will confuse your customers. Maintaining a regular publishing routine helps customers have a better experience. It also builds brand trust and credibility.
Consistency also has an impact on your business’s bottom line. Brands that are consistent are worth an impressive 20 percent more than brands with inconsistent messages.
How Often Should I Post?
If you only publish posts when you feel like it, it is easy to see how this will discourage readers. They read one article and love it and wait with bated breath for the next one. When that article fails to appear, they become bored and look elsewhere for information. By the time you get around to publishing the next blog, they will have found another brand to trust.
The chart above shows that publishing frequently correlates with strong results. Those who publish content daily see a much greater benefit. This is something to bear in mind when considering how often to publish. Yet, it is not the be-all and end-all. Rather, you need to get the volume of your posting right. Essentially, posting frequency is less important than its volume.
If you’ve ever searched Google for the ideal frequency of blog posting, you’ll have found a wealth of information. Usually, you’ll find that the advice is to post daily, with blogs of around 2,300 to 2,400 words.
This video explains that blogging is not an exact science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EihqZWH6aT4&feature=youtu.be
The fact is quantity does not replace quality. It’s the quality of your posts that keeps readers interested. Essentially, you can publish as often as you wish, as long as there is no sacrifice to the quality.
Your audience should largely determine your frequency of posting. What does it expect from you? Is your audience expecting brief, chatty, informal posts several times each day? Or does it want a well-researched, lengthy, and informative article once per week? The answer to this will depend on your niche and readership. However, it’s important to note that publishing more frequently to try to get more search engine hits may be counterproductive. Greater posting frequency does not necessarily equate to better SEO.
If you’re new to blogging, overwhelming yourself immediately with multiple daily posts is a bad idea. Starting small is the best solution. Finding a pace that is manageable but effective allows you to create your content plan with a regular schedule. Your primary purpose is to build up a rapport with your readers and do the groundwork to increase your readership. Once you have aligned your content with your readers’ needs, you can focus on reaching a frequency of posting to match.
The Consistency Focus
When you aren’t consistent with your content, you’re failing to take advantage of every opportunity to connect with customers. Creating sporadic content may help your audience to understand your subject better. But it can’t help you hit every touchpoint between your audience and your brand.
Failing to hit those touch points means you will not be building a strong relationship with your customers. That is something that you can only achieve with consistent content creation.
Unfortunately, it is not quite as simple as just delivering content regularly. It has to be the right content. It must meet the needs of your readers in such a way that it attracts an audience to your brand.
When your content is engaging and consistent, you will be hitting touchpoints along the online journey of your customers. You will be building up connections with them. Furthermore, you will have positioned your brand first in their minds when they think of trusted resources.
Learning from Customers
Sporadic postings may capture the attention of some customers. But, as we’ve already pointed out, it will not help in the development of meaningful customer relationships. Connecting fully with your audience requires a regular publishing schedule.
Why is this?
In simple terms, regular publishing gives you the chance to learn what your customers are looking for. Being part of your customers’ conversation makes it easier to create relevant content. You’ll be listening to what they want and need and be in a good place to give it to them.
To this end, regularly engaging with customers via social media is imperative. Reading their comments, taking notes of their most-liked posts, and tracking retweets give you powerful knowledge. Once you have that knowledge, it is possible to understand more easily which content drives engagement, and which does not.
What Are the Benefits of Consistent Content Marketing?
If you need help to convince yourself of the benefits of consistent content marketing, here are just a few:
- Increased audience retention. Quality content is one of your business’s most important assets. It can create positive user experiences and persuade them to return in the future. It captures the attention of the reader and reinforces a good brand impression continually.
- Improved traction on social media. Creating trending content helps your company to gain more traction on platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook.
- Establishing more trust. A consistent content strategy helps to build a strong relationship with readers. Interacting with customers and answering their questions creates value with no need to take anything in return. This makes readers more trusting of your recommendations and advice. The more high-quality content your readers see, the better your brand’s reputation becomes.
- Generating leads. When readers view your content, they’ll have a greater interest in buying from your company in the future. When you add calls-to-action in the content, you can generate new leads.
- Improving conversions. Your content influences your conversions. Once customers read your quality content, they’re more likely to buy from your business. You’re informing them and helping them to connect with your brand simultaneously.
- Enhancing SEO efforts. If you produce more high-quality, consistent content, your SEO effort will get a boost. Your company will be more visible online. You will also build greater authority and trust with your readers. This, in turn, makes you rank more highly in the search engine listings.
- Building authority. Regular high-quality content builds up your brand’s authority online. When your business becomes established as a highly credible place to obtain information, your search engine ranking increases.
Making Distribution Your Priority
Creating content on a regular basis is important. However, that is not the end of the story. If you do not distribute that content strategically and consistently, you can’t succeed with content marketing. The answer to this is to make distribution a priority rather than an afterthought.
Don’t wait until you’ve published a post before thinking about how to build a stronger relationship with readers. Your plan for content distribution must have equal priority as your plan for content development. After all, content you distribute passively or allow to sit around and not work for you will not accomplish anything.
How to Create A Consistent Content Strategy
A shocking 63 percent of businesses have no documented or consistent content strategy. Businesses that fail to prepare are planning to fail. The chart below shows that a surprising number of organizations are not ready to succeed when it comes to content.
Breaking down content writing needs into easily actionable steps is vital. What do you need to achieve? How can you achieve it? Setting goals, working out audience personas, and determining which types of content work best lays a strong foundation. This allows you to be more consistent in your approach.
Here are some top tips to help you create more consistent content:
- Begin a blog if you do not have one already. In-depth articles that feature infographics, interviews, and high-value information generate plenty of online traction.
- Write e-mail newsletters. Well-crafted e-mail newsletters are an excellent platform on which to showcase up-to-date content.
- Take an active role in social media. Sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, are highly active. Leverage those platforms to showcase your quality content and get shares.
- Gather data. Online businesses have plenty of analytical tools they can use. Leverage those tools to learn as much as possible about your customers. This will allow you to create content targeted specifically at their needs and interests.
- Do testing. Never assume you know what your customers want to see and read. Test every aspect of your content then go with the strategies that have generated the best results.
- Create a clear strategy. If your plan is to just publish posts whenever you feel like it, you are sure to fail. Take a serious and strategic approach to your content marketing. Make a detailed plan about when and what you’ll publish. Then, dedicate sufficient resources and time to making sure you stick to that plan.
- Don’t fear change. Online marketing is a sector that is constantly changing and adapting. If you’re afraid of change, your strategy will be sure to fail. The most important thing is to make sure your strategy has a strong focus. However, you can change that focus as and when necessary.
Follow these tips, and you will be well-positioned to maximize the consistency of your content marketing strategy.
Could I Delegate My Content Needs?
Content marketing can be a time-consuming business. Creating content can be a chore. However, when that content must always be high-quality, maintain a consistent brand voice, and produced regularly, it’s even harder. This is why delegation is often a popular choice.
If you lack time to ensure your company’s online presence is consistent, outsourcing to professionals can help. You’ll be able to work on other business-critical tasks. Meanwhile, you can be confident your content will remain consistent in terms of quality and consistency.
Creating Your Effective and Consistent Content Marketing Strategy
Now that we’ve covered how important consistency is for your content marketing strategy, the next step is to implement a plan. Drawing up your plan for content creation is the first step. Next, you must create high-quality content that informs and engages your audience. Finally, you must publish it on a regular schedule. When these things work in tandem, your readers will know what to expect and when to expect it. Without that information, you cannot engage fully with your customers, and you cannot leverage your content to the max. This is where it may help to delegate your strategy to a team of specialists.
If you need help with your consistent content marketing strategy, Varci Media can help. Our team of highly experienced content marketing professionals is on hand to assist. Our skilled writers can create valuable, engaging content that your readers will love.
We can also advise you about how frequently you should be publishing so that you can optimize your strategy. We look forward to helping you take your content marketing to a whole new level of success.
You can contact us right here.