Eight Elements of Great Online Content

When it comes to online marketing, you’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king.” But is it really? New York based copywriter Jeff Sexton thinks so. He offers an amusing look at what Amazon.com’s website would be like without content.   

In his 30 content truths, Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 goes even farther. He says that today’s chief content officer is tomorrow’s chief marketing officer.

Why the big emphasis on content?  Several reasons:

1. The Web, with its widespread availability of information, has taken control away from businesses and put it in the hands of customers or prospects ‑ especially when it comes to marketing. Today’s prospects frequently find you of your their own volition; they anonymously (and voyeuristically) search and research your company or products on the Web — without you even knowing it. The only thing between you and them is your content.
2. Even more noteworthy, it’s likely that much of that scattered information was not put there by you. Today, with broadband and social media, everybody is a publisher. Positive (or negative) comments about your business easily reverberate through the blogosphere, message boards, product review sites and Facebook. Businesses must decide to be part of this self-publishing content revolution, or ignore it at their own peril.

Brian Halligan, CEO of Boston-based Hubspot, puts all of this in a unique perspective. “You have to think of your website as the hub of a broader online ecosystem and pull people into it.” According to Halligan, the best way to do that is with content. “A modern marketer is half marketer and half publisher,” he adds.

So, if content is so important, and you are in the process of developing it, here are a few things you should keep in mind.