AOL has been using a revamped content marketing strategy to drive traffic to its sites, and now the company reports that it will be hiring more journalists to produce in-demand hyper-local content. Marketers catering to nearby audiences might want to follow suit.
Reuters reports that the company will be hiring new writers to reach hyper-local audiences with high-caliber editorial content. The hyper-local content is positioned to help the company bring in significant traffic and revenue.
“[It is] a way for us to leverage this great network to bring in real-time news,” the source quotes Arianna Huffington as saying. “All voices will be welcomed and encouraged if they clear the quality bar – it's not a free-for-all.”
Other businesses might take a page out of AOL's book and use search-optimized, high-quality local content to attract relevant site visitors. As Brafton recently reported, Google News is now raising the stakes for local content. The company is offering mobile users a “news near you” feature that prioritizes content in its news aggregator according to source location (among other things).
