By Eric Hamilton

Content, content, content. Those are the top three priorities for companies that want to be successful with online marketing.

The internet, and social media in particular, offers business owners a golden opportunity to promote their products or services to an audience much larger than ever. It’s possible to become your own publisher and communicate with current and potential customers as often as you’d like.

But here’s the catch: Even the best online marketing tacticians will fail if they don’t consider the quality of the content they are delivering. Simply put, online marketing plans are only as good as the content they deliver.

For many, that requires a fundamental change in thinking. Instead of “I’m on Facebook, now what do I say?” the thought process needs to be “I have a lot of valuable things to say, how do I develop my messages and find the right places to convey them?”

It’s a matter of developing good content before you consider the channel.

What is good content?

Your online followers are expecting to hear from you. They are also expecting that what you have to say will educate, inform or benefit them in some way. What kinds of content will accomplish this?

Think about content that reflects expertise and capabilities your customers find valuable. What kinds of questions would customers have about what your business can offer them? What kinds of content would best highlight the services for which you’re best known and those that draw praise from your customers?

Some specific examples of valuable content we recommend include examples of your work, blogs or opinion pieces, frequently asked questions (with answers), names of your customers, information about your people, pictures, graphics and videos.

Perhaps one of the most powerful pieces of content businesses can share comes from third parties. For example, say you are a healthcare provider and a patient comes in with a lot of pain. After diagnosing the problem and considering some solutions, the patient is treated and winds up feeling a lot better than when they came in.

This positive experience could support a testimonial or success story about that patient. And you can share this content not just on your website but also across social media channels and other online and offline vehicles. That’s the power of valuable content.

It’s not about the channel

Just as they have throughout history, channels of communication will continue to change. Today’s Twitter could become tomorrow’s rotary phone.

That’s why it’s important to invest in a sustainable program to develop meaningful content about your business: No matter how much the channels change, good content will empower you to participate effectively in the conversation with your audiences.

As the internet continues to inspire new communication channels, sharing content will continue to get easier and more internet users will expect to see good content from companies they do business with. Organizations that meet those expectations will be in a better position to succeed.

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Eric Hamilton is a consultant at Pecchia Communications, an Ohio public relations firm that helps its clients build and share content effectively.