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Seven Keystones of Content Marketing

The role that content plays in modern-day business cannot be underestimated, and the degree to which you embrace this fact will go a large way to determining your company’s success. Today, brands are expected to engage on a far more personal level with their public, and the most effective way to build that relationship is through your content.


Creating quality content requires an investment of time, thought and money; neglecting to do this - or doing it poorly - is bad for business. That’s the bottom line. Today you will be judged as much on your content as on the efficacy of your product. Get it right, and the impact content has on your business will be both recognisable and quantifiable.
So here are our seven keystones of why content is an indispensable marketing tool - and how to do it.

Seven Keystones of Content Marketing

1. Give Freely

If your content is to be of value to you, it must first be of value to someone else. Whether informative, educational or entertaining, your content must have genuine appeal to the audience you’re targeting.

One of the most well-used and powerful means of engagement is to give away free information. Publishing content that is relevant to your products - and therefore of interest to your target audience - is an invaluable opportunity to connect with the right consumers, and to help amplify your standing in the market. Sharing expertise not only helps build awareness of your brand, but also supports you position as an authority - or even a thought-leader - in your given field. This creates a favourable perception of your brand and builds trust.

2. Rank High

Just as shops and cafés on the most prominent streets in a city enjoy the highest footfall, the same is so in the digital realm. Page 1 of Google is the online equivalent of Main Street, and it is the battle ground on which online businesses will triumph or fail.
Ranking on the first pages of a major search engine in today’s crowded online markets is crucial. The chief method used to achieve this is SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) in all its various shapes and forms. As with bricks and mortar, big companies and deep pockets buy up the prime real estate, be it a department store on Oxford Street or that coveted Page 1 on Google rankings.

3. Grow Organically

Visibility is key - but so is reputation - and in the online sphere a good reputation makes you more visible. Content that is both carefully tailored and fully optimised will help build your reputation, steadily propelling your site up the rankings without having to pay Google a fortune for the privilege.
Rankings can be bought, yes, but they’re much more powerful and enduring when they’re earned; organic results achieved with quality content has much more substance and reach than paid advertising as far as developing brand perception and user engagement.

4. Keep Quality High

The degree to which an SEO campaign is effective or not depends enormously on the quality of the content. By quality we mean original (non-plagiarised), digestible (worth reading), fresh (the more recently published it is the better). Then, of course, it needs to be primed with industry-specific keywords and phrases, while avoiding overstuffing.
Consistently producing on-point, well-produced content is the most effective way to get into Google’s good books - and stay there.

5. Lure Them In

SEO forms part of a wider inbound marketing campaign, which is underpinned by content.
Your content is distributed across multiple platforms, including social media, blogs, your website and newsletters; see it as the hook by which you catch the ever-wandering minds of online users. Whether it is useful, interesting, or simply entertaining, the hook’s objective is to qualify and attract motivated users, and direct them to the relevant web page.
Create content that has value and people will arrive on your website with an incentivised attitude; they’re already warmed up and now you are a significant step closer to turning a visitor into a customer.
This in inbound marketing.

6. Define Your Brand

Content plays a vital role in helping to define your brand; from the creative material itself and tone of voice, to the way your audience reacts to and uses it. This is a unique opportunity to imbue your brand with the very best qualities while highlighting the value your products or services bring to the consumer.
Both explicitly and implicitly, your content characterises your brand - so make sure it resonates accurately with the right people.

7. Seduce and Convert

Get it right and your content will acquire that much sought-after but elusive quality: shareability. When content resonates with the right people, they will do much of the work for you, sharing articles and links across multiple platforms with their friends, followers, and audiences.

Endorsement of your product or your content by a third party helps validate your claims and build credibility. There is magic power in this, and the key to unlocking it is content.

Self draws on creative flair, technical expertise and a network of influencers to help your business harness the power of content marketing.