Content Marketing Build Trust & Authority

 

Content marketing generally tends to refer to the process of publishing content on your own website so that you create ways to people to find your brand/business through Google for example, and so that you can build trust and authority.

Most affiliates have a blog and or website where they promote their affiliate products and it is here content marketing comes in. Content marketing not always have to be the content you are writing on your blog/website. Content marketing can also be guest posting, or in fact a video. Video has a number of advantages over written content. Sure, it is less SEO-friendly and it does require a greater commitment from the viewer. But at the same time, video allows you to portray your personality, principles and expertise much more efficiently and quickly.

But, first of all, if you want to get more from your content marketing, then you need to stop thinking of your content as ‘stuff you use to fill your website’. Instead, you need to start thinking of content as though it were a product. This is a product that is just as exciting as anything you might sell and as such, it deserves all the same buzz, marketing and attention.

You need to adorn your content with the right images and the right layout to make it look beautiful. This makes a huge difference to the tone and impact of what you write: so make sure that you get it right.

 

How To Create Awesome Video Content

A video inherently more engaging readers and a great way to show your professionalism.
If your video has high production values, then this suggests a certain level of authority for you to have been to create that video in the first place.

With that in mind, just how do you go about adding great video content to your site?

The Quality

To start with, you need to make sure you have the right equipment. It is possible to film with a smartphone but this will often have difficulties with autofocus. Better is to choose a DSLR or a mirrorless camera and ideally one with a flip screen so that you can see yourself talking and check you are in shot.

Just as important as the camera is the brightness. Make sure that your image is bright and clear and consider investing in studio lightning equipment such as a softbox. Positioning yourself by a window can also work well.

This will make your footage much clearer which is crucial to ensure that your audience doesn’t need to squint and lean in too close to the screen!

Also important is sound quality. If your sound is muffled, then this will seriously hurt the professionalism of your videos. Solve this issue by speaking into a lapel mic or maybe a free-standing microphone such as the Blue Yeti Snowball.

Think as well about the other hallmarks of a high quality production. For instance, you should make sure to speak slowly and clearly yourself and to be well-presented. You should also think about your backdrop. If you are in front of your chest of drawers with your boxes hanging out then that won’t look good.

Editing

Once you have done this, you can then synchronize your video and your audio in a piece of editing software like Adobe Premiere. You should then try introducing a few cuts and edits to keep the flow going and to keep the audience entertaining. Try switching to still images and footage from other things when you can in order to prevent the video from being unstimulated.

This is also where you can add a subtle backing track and importantly a logo in the top or bottom corner. You can also add an introduction (look for someone who can make you one on Fiverr) and maybe ‘bottom thirds’ to introduce people and concepts as they appear on the screen.

These small touches can all add up to creating something that is very professional looking and that should really get the right reaction!

 

You Need A Great Brand For Your Content Marketing To Work

Want to use content marketing in order to build trust and authority while also gaining more exposure for your website?
Then you need to ensure that you first have a great brand in place, but one does not work without the other.

The Objective Of Content Marketing

To understand why your brand is so important, it can be useful to first consider the role of content marketing. The aim with any content marketing campaign is not only to gain more exposure by climbing the ranks of Google and by providing content that can be shared on social media. It is also to try and help you build authority and trust with your audience.

The hope is that after stumbling on your content a few times and being blown away, your audience will then start to seek out your site because they see it as an authority. Eventually they might bookmark it and begin to check it daily, at which point your high quality information and entertainment has done its job.

But in order for this to happen, your audience first needs to recognize that the posts they enjoyed were from the same creator and that they are going to continue being as high quality and as well geared for their particular hobbies and interests.

How does this happen? Usually it happens because those visitors notice the background or the logo at the top of the page and realize it is the same site they enjoyed last time.
At the same time, your logo also needs to convey a certain purpose, mission statement and style. People are only going to follow your blog if they think that this is a place where they will continue to get information and entertainment they enjoy and find useful.

Your logo is going to play a big part in establishing that fact. Your logo should be strong enough that when a visitor looks at it, they have a good idea of the kind of thing your site is all about. If this appears to be in accord with the post they just read, then they might start to explore further.

Your Brand Is What Ties It All Together

A brand is not just a logo and a site design though, is is an ethos and a promise. You buy Apple products because you know what to expect. From your previous experience with Apple, you know that their hardware will be well-made and their software will be slick and easy to use.
When you return to a site yo like, you do so for the same reason. You are here because you know what the site is all about and in your experience, it delivers the kind of thing ou are interested in reading about.

If your blog is going to be successful, then it needs to have its own tone, its own style and its own particular subject area. All this should be encapsulated and symbolized by your branding.

 

How To Create Stunning Long-Form Content

There are many different approaches to content marketing but one of the best ways to create content that will get shares and that will get read, is to attempt to build long form blog posts and articles. This is any content that is longer than 1000 words and that will usually include lots of images and links. It is also perhaps the most powerful type of content there is for growing your site and demonstrating value.

Why Long-Form Content Works

Google has undergone many changes over the years but almost all of these have had a single purpose: to provide its users with better results. Google want to show its users the most relevant, entertaining and useful search results and as such, it wants to remove as much spam as it can from its results pages.

To do this, Google looks for indicators of a site’s quality. One such indicator is lengths, and if a blog post or article appears to be longer, then this suggests that it is providing more value to the reader. There is only so much information you can convey in 500 words, whereas a long post is something that will be able to gi in depth and explore many different angles of a subject.

This is why Google has actually gone on record to say that the optimum length for a blog post is 1800 words. If your content is that long, then it will look like it has real value to the reader. You can enhance this by also adding lots of headers, lots of images and lots of links to high quality external resources.

Another good sign that Google likes long-from content is the fact that longer posts are most likely to get featured as resources in the SERPs.

How To Device Long-Form Content

To make long-form content that works, you need to choose a topic that you can really go in-depth on. This means thinking of every single way that you can offer more value and useful information to the reader, whether that means including links to resources throughout the post, or at the end,whether it means providing different options on the same subject or whether it means just being the most-in-depth guide to the subject currently on the web.

What it absolutely must not mean however is that you stuff your site with words and build it up as much as possible. Do not waffle or you will lose the audience that matters.

Another tip is to make sure that your content doesn’t look too dense. If your site is just one massive block of text, then it is going to be highly off-putting for the reader and require too much of an investment of time in order to read.

Good long-form content should be space out with lots of headings and perhaps even a table of contents. This way, te reader can skim through to find the parts they are most interested in or they can opt to sit down with a cup of tea and dig in!

 

Conclusion

If you have an affiliate marketing business and promote your products through a blog/website, content marketing is very important. It is not just to fill your site with a lot of rubbish content, it must be high quality content.

When you talk about a product you promote, in text or in a video, the quality should always be high quality. If you always deliver high quality content you will build trust and authority to your readers, and potential buyers. Your readers will come back and see what you will write about in the future. They will trust you, and in the long term this means that you will earn more affiliate income.

Hope you can see both the potential and importance of content marketing for an affiliate marketer.

 

 

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