Content is often considered the main resource of an online business owner. Drive traffic. Help make a sale. It provides authority, credibility, and likability, all purchase triggers. It also helps you market your business.

Unfortunately, many business owners write their content with no direction or purpose in mind. They can write fantastic content. However, if you are missing a purpose, you are missing an opportunity.

So what do you want your content to achieve? It doesn’t matter if it’s short like a blog post or an article. It doesn’t matter if it’s a larger piece of content, like a report or an eBook. You need a purpose.

Potential Purposes of Content

• To drive traffic to a web page
• To increase SEO
• To drive traffic to a sales page
• To generate affiliate income
• To increase credibility and authority.
• To prompt a response/comments/links
• collect opt-ins

You may find that occasionally your content serves more than one purpose. For example, a report can be designed to collect subscriptions. In addition to subscriptions, you can also include affiliate links within the body of the report to generate revenue. Or you can link to a sales page on your website to promote your products or services.

On the other hand, if your content lacks a purpose, then you are missing out on a valuable opportunity.

Make the decision

The best time to determine the purpose of your content is when you create a content plan. When you plan your content, you will probably determine the keywords and the topic. You will also decide when you are going to publish it and where. It makes sense to integrate your content into your traffic generation, SEO, sales, and marketing strategies. This means giving your content a purpose.

How to include your purpose in your content

Every piece of content should have some kind of call to action. For example, if you want to encourage comments and comments at the end of a blog post, you need to request it. That is your call to action. If you want to send people to a sales page, you need some sort of “Visit LINK for more information.” Your purpose will be integrated into your call to action.

Take a look at the content you have planned for the next week or month. Does each piece have a purpose? Do you have a call to action? Is your content part of your overall business growth strategy? If not, make some quick changes and start reaping the rewards.