- MORE VALUE, LESS SEO
Yeah, you need no introduction and you read that right! That is one of the 4 things you must do to succeed in 2022. Now before you try to come at me in the comment section or try to brush my point aside, let me save you the pain and let you know up front that I’m a believer in implementing SEO in your content strategy. We’re cool now, right?
However, I should also add that I’m a believer in using the optimization strategy if and I repeat, only if you can do it without sacrificing the value of your content and brand message. Over the past few years, we’ve heard folks stress more on the importance of SEO to rank higher, get more leads and eventually, more sales. But here’s one secret we at DeCritic, – a three-time winner of the best copywriting agency award in Middle East Africa – will let you in on; SEO IS NOT AND CAN NEVER BE MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE VALUE YOU DELIVER OR YOUR BRAND MESSAGE!
In fact, if your content is filled with so much value, that’s enough SEO in my opinion. Adding ‘sperific’ (specific) keywords and optimization are secondary. And this is truer than ever today because the web algorithms change constantly and are getting smarter in recognizing valuable content, which means it’s much harder to trick or hack the search engine bots in your favour. Google is prioritizing valuable and authoritative content above everything else and has changed its search algorithm from 2021.
So instead of brainstorming on the perfect keywords that’ll rank you on Google’s first page, or trying to trick the algorithm, put your effort on the main thing instead; your customers. Ensure the quality of content you’re dishing out to them is focused on what they need.
Come to think of it, even if you have well-optimized web pages with a high ranking but your content is shitty, wouldn’t that put you in the ‘negative’ light? So that is one of the 4 things you must do to succeed in 2022.
2. INFLUENCER/ CONTENT MARKETING.
This space has been existent over the years but I’m stressing on it this year ‘cos it’s growing on an astronomical level. Since the pandemic, Influencer/content marketing has seen a whopping 46% rise compared to traditional marketing which saw a 20% decline according to the Institute of Practitioners & Advertising (IPA).
From 2017 to 2021, content marketing rose from approximately $1.7 billion to an insane $10.24 Billion by the end of 2021 (You think you can’t make money online? Well, think again. And this massive growth didn’t happen ‘cos Covid shut down the whole world for a year but is majorly attributed to one thing; TRUST!
People trust people way more than they trust adverts by big brands. Seeing an influencer like Wendy Williams or Sydneytalker, or even your customer using a product and recommending it by saying positive things is one of the best ways of showing social proof by any brand (that this thing really works) today. And you should take full advantage of this in every possible way because it is the second of the 4 things you must do to succeed in 2022.
Taking screenshots is one way, video testimonials of your consumers/influencers actually ‘testifying’ has also proven to be more effective. Just make sure they are purely LEGIT…NOT FRAUDULENT SWINDLERS.
3. VIDEO CONTENT
I’m pretty sure some of you were eagerly looking for this point, right? If so, it shows you’re on the right track to achieving something this year. Online Video events like webinars, masterclasses & even random live videos are one of the ways your followers can connect with your brand/businesses and this cannot be overemphasized. This has been on the rise since…yeah you guessed it; the pandemic, and it’s not fading out anytime soon so you better get comfortable with looking into the camera more often with the composure and charisma to engage your viewers and effectively communicate your message to them.
– More than 95% of customers consumed video content
– In a recent poll, 90% of viewers voted in favour of seeing more video content from businesses
– In 2022, statistics show that the average smartphone owner will spend 100 mins DAILY watching videos…!!!
This is a visual age and people will prefer to connect more using visual means. The earlier you realize this, the better.
4. EMAIL MARKETING
This guy has come again. Social Media has replaced email, please.
The above words are the reactions of people whenever they hear ‘email marketing’ and I just shake my head whenever I see such comments. But here’s something to refresh your memory…and drive home this point:
In October 2021, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp servers all went down for a day. So, if you had 10 million followers on FB, 5 million on IG and a ton of WhatsApp consumers, for close to 24hrs, you literally had NOTHING and could have lost it all if, for some reason, these servers couldn’t get back up. That’s a friendly reminder that you DO NOT own your social audiences.
Email marketing is and will always be one of the best ways to market your business, increase your revenue and make sales (which is the lifeblood of any business). Stats show its way better than SEO, paid ads and even social media. Here are the facts:
– There are more than 3 billion ACTIVE email users and this could go WAYYY UP this period
– Email marketing has been proven to bring in more profits than any other channels
– Stats also show some people prefer email marketing for consumer-brand communication
– Finally, your email list, IS YOUR LIST! No server crash can take them away from you, unlike social media.
So that’s it for now. Take note of them all and decide which one you want to go all-in on. In a sense, they’re all connected so you might end up needing to do all of them.
For example, if you want to use email, you would need valuable content (No. 1) to go with it. You could also implement occasional invitations to live meetings (No. 3) and showcase testimonials (No. 2) to your list. So, you see, it’s kind of a cycle that will see you hit and exceed your goals by the end of the year. So there you go, brand owners, those are the 4 things you must do to succeed in 2022.
If you need assistance on how to go about this or advice on how to build your brand, feel free to contact DeCritic and we’ll be happy to give you directives or set it all up for you. Till next time.
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