5 Ways Contractors Can Engage in Better Content Marketing

As any expert will tell you, effective marketing requires great content. 

In the case of home improvement contractors, this is especially true. Content has the potential to convey important information to your target audience. It can tell them what you do and how you do it. It can encourage them to interact with your company on its website or via social media. Good content can also create leads indirectly by building greater trust and legitimacy for your company. 

But what exactly is content marketing? How does it differ from traditional marketing methods? 

Though content marketing can encompass many different goals and practices, it is fundamentally characterized as "publishing material that is focused on the needs, interests, and engagement of the target audience, rather than the promotion of the company's products or services." 

This is in stark contrast with traditional marketing, which is intended to grab the attention of readers and push them to take action (such as opting in for more information or proceeding with a purchase). Unlike the inbound, interactive strategy of content marketing, traditional advertising is typically outbound and involves a one-way conversation with consumers. Instead of talking with clients, advertisements talk to them. 

Although traditional marketing has its uses, its success in recent times has been waning. More and more advertisements are littering television screens and radio stations, making it more likely that viewers or listeners will tune them out. Modern consumers want to buy from companies with which they have a relationship. And generating this relationship requires that the company produces and distributes consistent, relevant content. 

As Content Marketing Institute founder Joe Pulizzi said at a recent roundtable discussion, "Rather than focus on the label, it's important to focus on the underlying reality that consumers and prospective buyers are more empowered, and that the use of content for marketing purposes requires a strategic approach." 

In brief: content marketing is important, if not essential, to the growth of your business. 

Understandably, a lot of home improvement contractors have little interest in creating content. If you don't have much expertise with writing or social networking, the whole process can seem overwhelming, and some would rather stick with purely traditional marketing strategies. 

Nevertheless, whether you do it yourself or hire someone else to handle your content marketing, this is one of the most vital steps towards gaining trust and expanding your company's client base. 

Below are five tips for contractors on better content marketing.

1. Focus less on keywords and more on readability.

Though experts on search engine optimization (SEO) will advocate the importance of frequent keywords, this should not be the focal point of your content. Good, reader-oriented material is created with the intention of teaching, entertaining, and engaging the consumers. Even if you rank highly in search results, if nobody wants to read your content because it's too keyword-heavy, it's not actually helping you to attract leads. 

Produce content for your target audience, not for search engines.

2. Write often -- but don't sacrifice quality.

Posting consistent blog entries and social media updates shows that you're active, which can enhance your legitimacy and make you seem more connected to your readers. Though how often you should post depends on the size and structure of your company, it's not a bad idea to come up with a timeline for when you'll share new material -- and stick to it. 

That being said, quality should always come before quantity. If you find yourself running out of blog ideas, don't write just to write. Take a break, do some research, and wait until you've got something unique and relevant to offer. Readers will prefer this over the mindless babble of someone with serious writer's block.

3. Share content widely.

Your web contributions shouldn't be limited to your website or your Facebook page. Chances are, your ideal audience uses several different mediums to learn about different businesses and to educate themselves on industry happenings. Instead of making them come to you, meet them where they are. 

Post your content to Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Share photos on Instagram and Snapchat. Seek out related forums and networking sites and join the conversation by recommending your latest blog entry. The more people you reach out to, the better chance you'll have of gaining new followers.

4. Post photos, infographics, and other visual material.

Studies have shown that 80 percent of people stop reading an article after the headline, and of those who continue, most don't make it past the first couple of paragraphs. 

Unfortunately, reading is often considered more of a chore than an enjoyable pastime. It's for that reason that photos, videos, infographics, and other visual media forms are achieving greater popularity among business sites. 

As a home improvement contractor, you have the advantage of being able to show your work. Start taking pictures of your projects and posting them (with client permission) to your website and social media pages. It's here that Instagram and Snapchat really come in handy, but you can share images on Facebook and Twitter, as well.

 An experiment by Buffer for Business showed that tweets with photos received 18 percent more clicks and 89 percent more 'favorites' than those without. These posts also received 150 percent more retweets. While this is just a single example, it's clear that content with images can do a lot for your web visibility.

5. Repurpose your material.

If you don't have a large team of writers, it can be tough to come up with new content, even on a weekly basis. But you can maximize the value of what you publish by coming up with ways to revisit it in future posts. Slice up a longer blog entry into smaller posts and share them as part of a blog series, or post snippets of the same article on your social media pages. 

By using the same content for more than one purpose and on multiple occasions, you extend the lifespan of that material and get more out of it than you would if it were only mentioned once. This step takes some innovation, but it's well worth the effort. Once you find an effective way to reuse and recycle your already-published content, you'll take some of the work out of content marketing and heighten the interest of your followers.

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