For many people in the business world today who haven’t yet had much experience with Internet marketing or SEO, it can seem counter intuitive to post content on your own website that isn’t directly promoting your company or brand. However, with today’s consumers ever more aware of promotional ploys, a company has to have some amount of non-promotional content on their website in order to draw a crowd.
Since this is the case, you may find yourself wondering how and why you should include non-promotional content on your website and blog. To help get you started, here are some tips and tricks for putting less promotional content on the Internet with your company’s brand behind it.
Contents 70/20/10 Rule
In content marketing, there is a rule known as the 70/20/10 rule. This rule means that 70 percent of the content you publish should be informational and add value to the current dialogue surrounding your industry, 20 percent should be content you share from other sources within your industry besides yourself, and 10 percent should be promotional.
Because many people in business feel that this is a backward recipe for success, it can be difficult to change your way of thinking about the Internet and marketing on this platform in order to find the success you need. However, using this rule really will help you to have a bigger audience for your content and more trust from those consumers.
Give The People What They Want
Based on the rule mentioned about, what can and should be included in the 70 percent of informational, educational, and non-promotional content? According to Play Buzz, this content could be one of many things, just so long as it gives your audience what they want in terms of relevance and value.
When coming up with content ideas that would fall into this 70 percent, consider content and media that is fun to view, easy to digest, and entertaining to share and talk about. The more visually pleasing and interactive your content is, the more likely it is to be shared on various social platforms and around different communities, which is just what you want to help grow your online business.
Follow Non-Promotional Best Practices
For the actual creation of this non-promotional content, eMarketer.com shares some best practices that all businesses should follow. These best practices include ensuring that the content you create adds value to your viewers and your industry, that you’re using this content to tell some kind of story, that you have picked the right channels on which to share the completed content, and that the content is building traffic for your business. If you can keep these four best practices and goals in mind when creating non-promotional content for your company, you have a better chance of having your non-promotional content do some real work for your business.
If you have yet to employ the power of non-promotional content in your online marketing strategy, use the tips mentioned above as a jumping off point for creating a larger and more interactive community around your company. The success you can find by being less promotional online can work wonders for growing your business.