Are you still trying to work content marketing into your 2013 marketing plan? Learn what the top five content marketing trends for 2013 will be so you can create a solid action plan.

1. Blog

Blogs lend credibility to businesses and help increase traffic to your website. The information included in blogs is useful for customers and other businesses and naturally includes keywords that can up your search engine rankings. Having a blog that has frequently updated content peppered with keywords translates into more search engine visits and indexing of your website – automatic search engine optimization!

2. Video

Harness the power of rich media with video. People appreciate and respond to information presented in various ways, and videos provide visually engaging and socially shareable content. A Wharton Research Study concluded that 90% of web surfers leave a text-only site in just 4 seconds. That number drops to 60% if a video is present on the home page. The same study found that visitors spend close to 6 minutes on a video site versus an average of 42 seconds on a text site. Posting online videos correctly also results in great search engine optimization, increasing your site’s chances of showing up on the first page of search results. If a picture is worth a thousand words, imagine what adding sound and motion can do! Plus, video is a great way to integrate content across sources; the same video can be posted on your business’s website, Facebook page, Twitter page, and YouTube channel…and then shared by all of your fans.

3. Social Media

If it makes sense that you should be where your customers are geographically, doesn’t it make sense to be where they spend an increasing amount of their time?  To establish an effective web presence and increase brand awareness in your audience, take advantage of social media marketing.  Not only do forums like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube give your business a platform to engage and interact with an audience, they also help you learn more about your customers.  Likes, shares, and comments help you gauge customer interest, and customers increasingly rely on social media sites for up-to-date information.  The way you customize accounts – colors, text, pictures, video, – also help create and communicate your brand persona.  As an added bonus, links on your social media pages drive traffic to your website.

4. Photos

Photos present another excellent way to drive traffic to your website.  The advent of Instagram and Pinterest gives businesses a way to share visual content linked to their company websites.  Engage customers with appealing photos and lead them to your website with the help of accompanying links.

5. Press Releases

Press Releases inform customers and the professional community of your business’s most recent endeavors, upcoming events, announcements and accomplishments.  Even better, press releases offer a valuable and credible way to reach your search engine optimization goals.  By nature, press releases include the name of your business and important and relevant keywords and language, and they so do multiple times.  The organic appearance of these words and their frequency helps drive traffic to your website, presenting more opportunities to promote your brand and enhance your web presence.

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About Restaurant Hospitality Marketing

Restaurant Hospitality Marketing is a full service, marketing firm that specializes in online digital media for the restaurant and hospitality industry.  We create beautiful, socially shareable, search optimized, content-driven, responsive websites that will bring you more customers and reservations. We also offer mobile marketing, social media content marketing, search engine optimization and marketing, reputation management, video production, and print media.