In the fast-paced world of digital marketing, what you know is more important than who you know. The heavy-hitters in the digital realm are content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) — these strategies are a big deal and together can boost your bottom line. But in order to reap all of the benefits of these digital playmakers, it’s crucial to know how to use them to increase website traffic, grow brand awareness — and ultimately drive revenue.

At Communications Strategy Group (CSG®), we’re digital marketing pros who know the ins and outs of digital channels like the back of our hand. We work with our clients to dig into the details and create a digital marketing strategy that not only achieves key performance indicators (KPIs) but also gets noticed and stands out from the competition. Here’s CSG’s take on developing stellar content marketing and an SEO strategy.

What Are Content Marketing and SEO?

Before getting too far down the road, let’s take a step back to explain two of the key elements of a digital strategy. First, there’s content marketing — and it’s been all the buzz in the industry for the past few years. From blogs to eBooks to case studies to videos to social media — content marketing comes in many forms and is delivered via a variety of channels. The most important things to know about content marketing are quality and quantity. Content should always be well crafted and provide meaningful context into the subject discussed. Next, content should be posted on a regular cadence to stay relevant and ensure it pops up on search engines when and where prospects are looking.

The other piece of the digital marketing pie is SEO. This is how you bring visitors to your website and get them to engage. By embedding keywords into content, search engines will recognize the page and recommend it to people searching the web for that type of information. Identifying the right keywords will make or break your SEO strategy — so take the time to find the top words and phrases that will attract your intended audience.

Understanding the Relationship Between SEO and Content Marketing

Now that we know some of the elements of a digital campaign, let’s discuss the relationship between SEO and content marketing. The two work together to generate traffic to a website — they are completely complementary to each other and when used together amazing results can be achieved. However, it takes planning and a strategic approach to truly take advantage of both. That’s because content marketing is dependent on informed SEO keywords to gain attention from search engines. And, on the other hand, SEO requires well-written content to grab readers’ attention and keep them on the page. When the two strategies work together, a campaign is set up for success from the get-go and results can be achieved for marketers and clients alike.

The Benefits of an SEO and Content Marketing Strategy

Like most things in marketing, the key to a successful campaign is building a strategy. With the right plan in place and a little extra effort up-front, you’ll have what you need to put the marketing wheels in motion.

The first step is to identify the top keywords that you should be targeting. Here are a few tips on how to get this process started:

  1. Determine topics that are important to your business. These are usually subjects that are discussed with clients/customers on a regular basis or with internal teams. Also, put yourself in your target audiences’ shoes — think about general topics they might enter into a search engine.
  2. Hone in on keywords that are relevant to the topics identified. Now that you have a few general areas of consideration, think about words related to each topic. Consider words that may be used on a search engine to find your website or a specific page.
  3. Research the keywords selected to ensure they achieve the intended results. To do this, enter your keywords into a search engine and analyze what comes up. If you found what you were looking for, you’re probably on the right track. However, if the results are not in line with what you’re expecting or seem confusing, you may need to add a descriptor or dig a little deeper into your keyword vault.
  4. Use a keyword research tool like SEMrush to help generate keywords. In just a few clicks, you can find relevant keywords to any search, and who knows, you may discover a few that you never even considered.

Now that you know the topics you want to cover and have identified a list of the top SEO keywords, you’re ready to get to the fun part — content creation. This usually involves researching around the subject matter, organizing the flow of the piece (and maybe even creating an outline) and writing a draft that will be the bones for the finished piece. Every writer has their own process and as they say, there’s more than one way to skin a cat. But please be mindful of how you’re using keywords. Don’t force search terms into your writing for the sake of getting them in there. Be purposeful, concise and avoid sounding like a robot from 2005 — this will help your content pop and keep readers interested until the end. And one last thing to remember, always include a call to action so the audience has somewhere to go to follow up or get in touch.

Examples of How SEO and Content Marketing Can Drive Revenue Growth

So you’ve done your SEO keyword homework, drafted content based on the findings and released a new blog on your site — now, how do you know if it’s working? That’s a fair question and one that you should keep coming back to throughout the life of the campaign. The answer is twofold: If you’re seeing an increase in organic and relevant website traffic — it’s probably working. If you’re converting inquiries into paying customers — it’s definitely working. Of course, there may be more to the story and that’s why it’s crucial to always keep your finger on the pulse of digital marketing campaigns and continually optimize based on the results you’re seeing.

Work with Content Marketing and SEO Experts

There are many facets of creating a successful digital marketing campaign that takes advantage of content marketing and SEO strategies. CSG has the digital know-how and expertise to help clients incorporate a content marketing strategy that reaches the intended audience and delivers results. We’re all about leveraging content marketing and SEO to drive revenue growth for our clients. Get in touch with our team to learn more about our approach.