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Crafting Purpose-focused Food & Lifestyle Brands

Content Marketing Secrets, Part II: Become The Definitive Resource

People like authority. In fact, people gravitate to authority almost every day of their lives.

I’m not talking about the kind of top down, fear-the-man kind of authority normally associated with “authoritarian rule.”

I’m talking about authority as in “he or she is the authority on this or that subject matter.”

This isn’t something new to you. Instinctively, you get this. You no doubt already have experience seeking authority in your own life, many times.

Throat ExamFor example, if you’ve had an illness in the family, you’ve sought out a medical authority on the particular disease or malady. A “specialist” in the field.

Or, when you’ve planned to make an important purchase, you’ve sought out an authority on a particular product or service. The authority may have been a knowledgeable (or know-it-all, depending on your perspective) neighbor. Or it could have been an authoritative trade publication.

An essential point here is you’ve sought this authority out.

So, not only do people like authority, but more importantly, they seek out authority.

Now, how do you, as a marketer, with a product to sell, a service to provide or a cause to promote, take this understanding of authority and apply it to your Internet Marketing and Content Marketing strategy?

The answer is that you strive – with your content strategy — to become the Definitive Resource about whatever it is that you are about. In fact, you strive to become not just the Definitive Resource, but the trusted definitive resource.

Several important things happen as a result of becoming a trusted Definitive Resource about your product, your service or your cause:

  1. You become a teacher, a mentor. A guiding light. A thought leader. An authority. And your target audience(s) will reward your efforts by gravitating toward your web presence like moths to a porchlight;
  2. You become the online resource others want to link to because you have the best, most authoritative content about your product, service or cause;
  3. You rank high in Google search returns because Google will rank your site largely based upon how important your site is. And one of the most important measures of your site’s importance is how important it is to others. Hence, the importance of quality inbound links. Sounds important, doesn’t it? Well, it is;
  4. You provide something for your target audience to talk about — with you, or with each other — through social media and social networking channels;
  5. You convert more site visits to sales because you will have earned the trust of your target audience by teaching, not selling.

These are but a few of the benefits that can be reaped from becoming the trusted Definitive Resource about your product, service or cause. In a follow up post, we’ll break down the essential steps it takes to become a Definitive Resource.

ADDITIONAL READING:

Read Part III of the Content Marketing Secrets Series

Authority Rules, by Brian Clark, CopyBlogger