To reach your target audience effectively, how can you develop a stellar marketing strategy? By embellishing your custom strategy with optimized content you can better appeal to your target audience. When done effectively, this is a huge game changer. So tap into your creative side, it’s time to talk about content marketing!

Content marketing describes a strategy that employs the use of blogs, videos, infographics, and other materials to promote a brand and drive traffic to a business. Content strategies should be designed in a way that not only helps in improving search engine rankings but also reaches your target market effectively. While there’s nothing wrong with creating general, evergreen output, you should strongly invest and create custom content.

The goal of these materials isn’t just to convert web users into customers (though that’s certainly a perk!). Custom content marketing helps a business build authority online, generate interest in the brand, and provide genuinely valuable information to its audience.

Let’s take a closer look at how creating content can provide value to your audience and grow the visibility of your practice online.

What is Custom Content?

Before anything else, we need to clarify what custom content means. Custom content refers to a content plan relevant to your business or service that retains the audience that is already following or engaging with your content. In a nutshell, it’s a content strategy that maximizes what you do best by focusing on what your target audience would be most interested in.

Let’s say that, for example, 10,000 people are following “Dr. X Chiropractor’s” blog. To keep the audience engaged with your brand, it is essential to create content that these people would like to read rather than only publishing content that people are searching for. Custom content means pivoting your marketing strategy into creating materials followers would most probably be interested in. Brainstorming ideas will do the trick.

Here’s another good example. Let’s say there’s a new research published related to chiropractic treatment. Now, those 10,000 people would benefit and love reading that research and update that you publish as not many people would be searching for this for quite some time unless it gets aired on television or in the newspaper and turns into the talk of the town. This helps you stay ahead of the competition and keep your existing audience engaged with your brand.

Custom Content vs Content Marketing? What iMatrix Recommends

Most people mistake custom content as the same as content marketing, but there are vital differences marketers should be aware of. Custom content involves tailoring your content to suit the target audience that you’ve already built.

Meanwhile, content marketing emphasizes promoting and distributing the created content to drive traffic and generate leads. Custom content focuses on informing and engaging your current audience with a unique brand voice.

That said, should your practice focus on creating custom content or content marketing? We at iMatrix recommend a good mix of both. Your marketing strategy shouldn’t just focus on creating materials for your existing customers; it should also try to capture new customers.

But let’s examine how custom content can add value to your audience and grow your practice’s visibility online. What value can it bring to your marketing strategies? We’ll discuss further.

1. Improves Your SEO

Original content posted to your website and social channels can improve your practice’s search engine ranking. The better your search engine ranking, the more likely you are to be noticed by prospective clients online.

Blog marketing is particularly popular because it enables you to implement keywords into your content, which will help you rank for a particular search query. It’s one of the most vital foundations of a solid search engine optimization plan.

When searching for keywords that will help your target audience find your content, we suggest focusing on specific, long-tail keywords that clearly describe your content. As a local business, you don’t want to compete with big industry names for broader keywords.

A long-tail keyword targets a particular search query so that your audience finds value in your content.

For example, suppose you were writing a blog for a veterinary clinic about pet vaccinations. In that case, you may want to research a longer keyword term like “pros and cons of puppy vaccination” or “when to vaccinate your puppy” as opposed to a term like “pet vaccinations.”

Using more specific language increases the chance that a user clicks on your page and gets the information they’re looking for. Long-tail keywords also target web users that are further down the sales funnel. In our example, a person searching for pet vaccination information may need to schedule a veterinary appointment for their new dog soon. Finding this veterinarian’s blog post could cause them to make an appointment with that clinic.

High-quality content only helps you reach the right audience and can also improve your search engine optimization efforts. That’s why you should create custom content that uses the right keywords.

Read On: How to Brainstorm Keywords and Improve Your Google Ranking

2. Builds Your Authority

Creating custom content enables you to establish yourself as a knowledgeable leader in your industry. As you begin to produce more content on particular topics, both your audience and Google’s algorithm will begin to see your practice as an authority on those subjects.

Posting valuable content regularly will cause your audience to increasingly rely on you for information. Think about it. When you search for information online, are there particular sites that you visit first?

For example, if you were looking for business news, would you search for the New York Times? Or maybe you look to a particular healthcare site when you want to Google your symptoms. These brands have made a mark in your mind by providing good content and establishing themselves as an authority on a particular set of topics.

Google also takes notice when your content is valuable to web users. Backlinks to your content signal to Google’s algorithm that people are sharing your pieces online. This tells the algorithm to rank your content higher for related search queries because other users are demonstrating its usefulness.

Remember, the better the search engine ranking, the more likely you are to be noticed by prospective clients.

3. Creates a Community

Did you know that 90% of people like to engage with brands through custom content?

As our digitally native generations begin to enter the workforce and increase their buying power, businesses must adjust to their needs. Millennials and Gen Z have grown up with prime-time television commercials, clever billboards, and paid internet advertising. They know how to spot a company that is just out to make a sale and when a company is providing genuine value.

Original content enables you to do more than grow an audience; it allows you to create a community. Content marketing requires you to tune into your audience’s needs and create content that targets those needs. As web users begin to rely on your content, you are better able to foster relationships with them and move them further down the sales funnel.

Share your content on your practice’s social media platforms to increase its visibility.

Social media is the perfect place to maintain these relationships. Post original content to these channels consistently to encourage shares and generate interest in your brand. Be sure to reply to comments and messages promptly so that your community comes to know your brand as reliable and personable.

4. Sets You Apart From Competitors

Custom content creation provides your practice with an opportunity to establish your brand effectively. The more established your brand is, the easier it is to distinguish it from others in the market. Custom content allows your business to show its unique personality and build an emotional connection with customers.

Whether it’s your writing style, image choices, or font styles, try to maintain consistency, and your existing customers will be able to distinguish a partner that makes your business unique. It may take time, investment, and effort to find your unique brand voice, but everything will be worth it once your audience learns how you stand out among the rest.

5. Enables You to Target Unique User Problems

Custom content plays a vital role in establishing how your business can help people’s problems. When you create content specifically related to your services and what your audience would find interesting, you have the opportunity to reach existing customers who might be searching online for useful content.

Answering popular questions surrounding your industry is a great way to drive relevant traffic to your website. One stellar idea for reaching more customers while addressing unique user problems is creating an FAQ page or an in-depth guide on your website that answers service-related questions.

Content Marketing for Small Businesses

As a local business, content marketing gives you another avenue to make a name for yourself within your community.

When you go to create content for your practice, keep these things in mind:

1. Pay attention to your audience’s needs and create content around their interests.
2. Research and implement keywords into your blog and on-page content.
3. Create content that your audience will want to share on other websites or social media.
4. Interact with your current and prospective clients online to foster a community.

Whether you’re making content for social media posts or your website blog,

Let Us Help You with Your Content Marketing Goals

Have more questions about custom content and content marketing? Give us a call at 800.792.8384  or click here to talk about your content marketing goals. We can help you take your custom content marketing efforts to the next level.