What is a Content Hub

Before going any further, let’s start by defining what a content hub is.

A content hub is a platform where visitors can find content in the form of articles, videos and white papers. In most cases, you can also call it a blog.

The main difference is that blogs are more personalised (first person perspective) whereas content hubs are more topical, pretty much like an online magazine with topics from different categories.

That Content Guy, the very site you are visiting now where we discuss and showcase good content marketing practices, is a prime example of a content hub.

Brands with a good Content Hub

There are many brands out there with a great content hub, and the ones that stand out are Expedia, Red Bull and Salesforce.

Notably Red Bull, when visit their website (www.redbull.com), instead of seeing the standard company info, you’ll see an online publication filled with interesting sports-related content.

To find information relating to the company and products, you have to scroll all the way down to find a link to their product & company page.

No, you won’t find the typical corporate or product info on Red Bull’ main website.

It is easy to tell where Red Bull’s priorities lie, which is showcasing content that their fans would be interested in before presenting their (boring) corporate information.

While it might not be feasible for most brands to structure their website this way, it is important for brands to have a content hub within their website.

In the following, we explore some important reasons to do so.

1. Social Media is No Longer Free

It might be free to get started on social media, but it sure isn’t free to maintain it. Resources are needed to develop engaging content and ensuring that it reaches out to the right target audience.

Gone are the days where brands start a presence on Facebook and expect the page to grow organically. By default, most brands are only able to reach less than 5% of their page fans, and the number declines every year.

You’ll have to fork out some dollars to reach your remaining fan base, which begs the question: Why bother growing the page if page likes are just a vanity figure? Which brings us to our next point.

2. Building Your Consumer Endpoint and Encouraging Organic Traffic

Don’t get me wrong, social media is still important for Digital Marketing success, but since you are already investing money into content development and paid media, why not build a content hub where you can direct users to via your social media platforms?

In the long run, if you have a content hub that is useful and relevant to your users, it will result in regular and organic visits to your website.

Producing regular and valuable content, and facilitating contests and campaigns directly on your content hub will encourage recurring visitors.

3. Improve Brand Search-ability

Developing content for your content hub is a form of investment. In this case, you are investing in the search-ability of your website.

With more content added to your platform, the chances of your content being discovered on search engines increases as well.

Utilise tools like Google AdWord Planner and Google Trends to improve the searchability of your brand.

4. Google is Emphasising on Content Freshness for SEO ranking

Besides the tangible benefits we mentioned, maintaining a content hub is also beneficial to improving search engine optimisation.

Google has recently placed more emphasis on content freshness, i.e. regular addition of content updates on your website.

There is only so much you can update on your corporate website, to ensure content freshness. Regularly update your content hub.

5. You Have Full Control of the User Experience

If you are running a campaign on Facebook, you’ll have to abide by their rules. There’s only so much you can do when it comes to user experience.

However, on your content hub, you can pretty much do anything you want. Perfect for control freaks!

Inspired to build a kick-ass content hub? Email us