Brafton has reported that content marketing is poised to be a top priority in 2011, and the findings of Alterian's survey How Engaged is Your Brand suggest that site content is an area where the majority of marketers need to improve.
More than half of respondents (57.46 percent) plan to increase their overall marketing budgets next year. Three-quarters of respondents expect rising budgets to be allocated to building their social and digital campaigns. The survey suggests marketers might be well-advised to put greater investment in site content.
According to the the study, more than half of marketers (55 percent) focus primarily on offers and campaigns on their sites, not giving consideration to brand experience or informational resources. Worse, more than one-third of marketers (34 percent) say their websites are nothing more than “company brochures.”
In a recent Google Webmaster Central video post, Matt Cutts spoke out against using sites merely as corporate brochures. This practice reduces the chances of earning merit-based links, which is bad for SEO. He says:
You have to have great content – some reason why your site is not just a brochure and why people would want to link to your site.
With this in mind, marketers should look to increase the informational, educational content on their sites next year. Offering high-quality, industry specific news may offer a good solution to producing relevant, fresh content that will be rewarded by search engines. As Brafton has reported, specialty sites writing on niche topics seem to be the winners of the recent Google algorithm update.
