Is Content Marketing Worth It? (6 Benefits For Your Business)
Content marketing is the process of creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
In this new connected world where attention is at a premium but time and money are cheap, content marketing has become invaluable in creating familiarity and brand awareness and ultimately driving your business forward.
Here are 6 key benefits for your brand 👇
1. Content marketing can help you expand your brand’s reach
Creating content that provides value for your audience gives you the chance to put your message in front of them as a solution to their problems.
You can do so in multiple distribution channels, like social networks, search engines, online publications, and even email.
Creating and distributing valuable content that solves problems for your prospects allows you to meet them where they are, increasing your brand’s reach while positioning yourself as an expert in your niche.
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2. Content marketing helps you build authority and trust in your niche
When you’re creating content that matches your audience’s needs, you build a relationship with them where you are the expert and they are learning from you.
This approach builds trust because when you’re sharing information that will help your customers solve problems or make decisions, you are showing your expertise on the matter, removing all doubts that you are the right solution they are searching for.
Remember, content marketing is an approach to marketing in which the customer is the focus of the marketing efforts.
It’s a way to connect with your audience by providing them with the information they want, need, and expect.
3. Drive traffic to your website from multiple channels
More reach equals more clicks.
As we explained before, when you post more content online, you expand your reach because your content gets seen (at least the titles) –this is what we call ‘impressions’ in the online marketing world.
By responding to your prospect’s questions, you become the solution they are searching for or stumble upon online.
This increases the chances of them clicking through to read what you have to say about the problem or situation they are facing.
Content marketing practices help you drive traffic to your website through social media, email marketing, and search engine optimization (SEO) by creating and distributing content through those channels.
You become visible to your audience when you create valuable content and share it on your blog, with your email list, or on social media platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
Boost your social media referrals
By sharing content regularly on your social channels, you get seen by people that may be interested in what you have to offer.
The more relevant and interesting this type of content is, the more likely your audience will share it on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter, which will result in more traffic coming back to your website.
To create this type of content, you need to know what kind of information will be compelling for your customers.
What makes them want to buy? What makes them want to come back? What are their questions and concerns? You should consider these things when creating content for your brand.
Improve your SEO ranking and increase traffic from search engines
Every blog post you create gets indexed on search engines and triggered after a set of queries is searched for by a user.
This allows you to be a part of the conversation for essential subjects in your niche and makes you visible to potential customers that you could help with your product or service.
The more impressions you have, the more clicks (and traffic) you can expect.
Creating consistent content around multiple topics is the secret to skyrocketing your impressions. Each blog you publish will be responsible for bringing more users to your site.
This article discusses how to schedule and use your content for maximum synergy among distribution channels.
4. Content helps you connect with your prospects and customers at a more personal level
Content marketing is a way to establish a relationship with your customers by providing them with valuable information.
When your content gets seen for the first time by someone who never heard of your brand, this relationship gets started and may evolve all the way to having a raving fan that shares everything you publish with friends or colleagues.
This normally develops like this 👇
- You get seen for the first time and start building brand awareness. Your prospect starts following one of your social media accounts
- Your prospects find value on your free content and decide to sign up for even more value in exchange for a discount or a freebie
- You nurture the relationship via email by publishing exclusive content and letting them know about new content you create, events you plan, or special offers for your subscribers.
- Your prospect, now a customer becomes a raving fan after receiving great service from your company. The sky is the limit to what you can offer to this person on the back end.
This process allows you to build trust with your customers, which will lead to a long-term relationship between you and your audience (and ultimately turn them into raving fans!- A referral machine).
5. Content marketing increases conversions
Having more reach and traffic leads to more sales.
According to research conducted by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, 63% of companies that use content marketing report an increase in sales or leads from the same period the previous year.
In fact, companies that have been doing it for less than two years are seeing an average increase of 28%.
This is because the content helps users make more informed decisions about their purchases at a time that works best for them—when they’re ready to purchase.
If you sell knives and someone is reading your article about ‘how to determine what kitchen knife to buy’, they don’t want to be interrupted by ads for unrelated products.
Instead, they’ll likely click on a link within the article that leads them directly to where they want to go—to your site and its products or services!
6. Content marketing has a great return on investment (ROI)
The best part about content marketing is that, compared to traditional marketing, it’s cheap and effective.
On average, companies that use content marketing spend 62% less on their campaigns and generate around 3x the leads.
And in a recent survey, 70% of marketers said that SEO gives them better results than PPC.
The reason behind the exorbitant ROIs of content marketing is that it has a compounding effect.
Each blog you create lives online forever, ready to be found by anyone interested in what you have to say, and you can repurpose it to infinity via other distribution channels (email, social media, etc..)
This not only builds trust with your readers, who will continue to read your content and share it with others.
But also helps you to build a loyal following who will engage with your brand, which increases sales and leads for your business.
Some of the other findings from the study include the following:
93% of marketers say they will increase their content marketing budgets in the next 12 months, while only 47% say they’ll increase their paid advertising budgets.
In all industries except retail, more than half of businesses plan to increase their content marketing budgets in the next 12 months.
The top three reasons why businesses are increasing their content marketing budgets are:
- Because it helps them connect with customers/prospects;
- Because it builds brand loyalty and
- Because it increases website traffic and engagement.
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Takeaway: The benefits of content marketing are enormous. If you don’t have a content marketing strategy, it’s time to create one!
Creating a simple plan is the best way to start content marketing.
Start by defining your goals and understanding what you’re trying to accomplish with each piece of content you publish.
Then, identify each type of content you’ll need for your strategy: blog posts, case studies, videos, and more. Once this is done, it’s time to start writing!If you’re looking for help creating and executing your content marketing strategy, we’re here to help. Get in touch with our experts today!