In today’s digital age, one of the hard truths about the business landscape is that people simply do not like paid advertising, and would rather make purchasing decisions based on the value of content that they derive from a brand.
How then do you market your product effectively without force-feeding ads to your established and prospective customer base? The answer is content marketing.
Statistics show that 60% of buyers rely on content to make better product decisions; 70% feel more connected to a product or business because of content marketing, and 80% would rather view a series of content than an advertisement.
Going by these statistics, it would be foolhardy to treat content as an afterthought in your marketing efforts.
Why Content Marketing?
It is what the people want. Beyond the product in question, consumers are looking for information that is relevant, original, and accessible.
They’re more likely to stick with a brand that delivers these things to them at seemingly zero cost.
When thinking of content marketing, some of the first things that come to mind are social media and blog posts, but there’s a lot more to it than that.
Content marketing is a variegated strategy focused on the creation and distribution of content through multiple formats to capture attention, foster engagement, and build a close relationship with established consumers and prospects.
Think of content marketing as the wiser, friendlier, more attractive, and less infuriating sibling of advertising. Click To Tweet
It’s a way of getting people to know about your business and trust your brand enough to buy whatever you’re selling, by providing them with knowledge, expertise, and solutions to their primary concerns.
How Content Marketing Can Increase the Power of Your Brand
Whether you’re selling to consumers (B2C) or businesses (B2B), content marketing is one of the most effective and rewarding ways to grow and transform your brand.
It helps you drive inbound leads, increase sales conversion, and stay on top of the industry chain. Let’s dive into its benefits in more detail.
1. It saves money and yields a greater return on investment
Content marketing will cost you about 62% less than traditional marketing and will generate three times more leads.
This comes in very handy for small businesses that can’t afford to compete with the deep pockets of larger corporations.
Things like email marketing, social media content, and even blog posts do not require truckloads of cash to create and distribute.
The conversion rate for content marketing is six times higher than regular advertising methods.
Your content can inspire people to try out your product, seek out more information about it, and take other steps in the sales funnel that eventually leads to them exercising their purchasing power.
If your content marketing strategy is working effectively, it will improve your brand visibility and allow prospective buyers to get acquainted with your brand even before they decide to use your product. It wouldn’t matter that you only have a limited budget to play around with.
- Email marketing is currently the most lucrative and effective type of content marketing. It can help you reach a wider audience and drive up revenue with targeted and segmented campaigns.
- People respond better to non-intrusive content. If your content feels like an ad and takes control away from the audience, then you’re doing it wrong.
- Diversify your content streams. The more platforms you’re taking advantage of, the greater the payoff in terms of lead generation.
2. It Improves Brand Recognition and Awareness
Regardless of the size of your business, there are going to be eligible prospects out there who have little to no idea about you. This is where content marketing comes in.
You can keep expanding your reach, exposing your business to new customers, driving traffic to your website, and building a stronger relationship with your audience as long as you keep publishing unique content.
People are likely to keep returning to consume more of your content and share it with others if it resonates with them.
There are so many creative ways you can build a strong identity and presence for your brand. One of them is promoting your workplace culture.
Let people peek behind the curtains. Share moments from your office life on social media. Creating content that features the staff works wonders for branding because it humanizes the business and makes it easier to relate to.
- Don’t shy away from putting faces to your brand. They help you connect with your audience.
- Cultivate a unique voice to go with your brand identity, that makes you recognizable instantly.
- Use a color palette that represents your brand throughout your content.
3. Fosters Trust with Your Target Audience
If you want to improve consumer trust and loyalty, content marketing should be the foundation you’re building on.
When you keep putting out useful and informative content tailored to your audience, they start to see you as an authority in your field.
Over time, they will come to trust and depend on you as a credible source of information within that niche, as someone who is genuinely looking out for them and working in their best interest.
These feelings and perceptions are then transferred to your product offerings, encouraging them to become loyal followers, even brand ambassadors.
- Consumers want content that feels personalized, so try to incorporate that into your marketing strategy. When they feel you “get” them, they will feel close to you.
- The content itself has to be high-quality, otherwise, your audience won’t stay engaged for very long.
- Offer insights that nobody else did, give them exclusive tips and advice that isn’t just poached and rewritten from competitors.
4. Hassle-Free Promotion
The beauty of content marketing is how it allows you to remain in the line of sight of customers without being all up in their faces.
They want discounts, promotions, information, and all you have to offer. However, they definitely do not want to be harassed with them every second of the day.
Just think how annoying pop-up messages are. You don’t want to do that.
By utilizing content to address their issues and questions that they have, you can reach and stay in touch with them through every part of the sales funnel.
- Offer value to both current and prospective buyers. Create content for every part of their customer journey.
- People in the awareness stage will be more focused on pain points, those in the decision stage will be more interested in comparisons and pros and cons, and those in post-purchase will find value in guides.
- When they find your content, they’ll read it, share it, quote it, refer it to others, and keep coming back for more.
5. Organic Search Engine Visibility
Search engine algorithms are constantly evolving, but their importance remains undisputed.
Research shows that 71% of consumers start their buying journey using search engines to find goods and services. Also, 74% use search engines to conduct product research and comparison before making a purchase.
The best way to stake a claim to choice real estate on search engines is to improve your local SEO by consistently creating relevant and informative content.
If your business ranks high on these channels, it means your content is one of the first listings that people will see when they search for related products or keywords.
- Ranking high is typically more important than going viral on social media. It has a longer shelf life and a higher rate of conversion.
- Stay up to date with the latest tricks and practices for SEO, so your content can get seen and work for you.
- Ensure your content is updated regularly.
- Build inbound links and backlinks.
6. Lead Nurturing
The point of any marketing effort is to acquire new buyers for your business and keep selling to old customers.
There are three crucial stages to a buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, and decision. If you offer valuable content at each of these stages, you can nurture leads to conversion.
For example, the Awareness stage — Lana has a pest problem in her house, so she googles “how to get rid of pests.” This search takes her to your blog post titled, “7 Tried and Trusted Ways to Get Rid of Insects in Your Home.”
As she reads your solution to her problem, she starts to trust your business. She then goes to your landing page to watch a practical video on the subject. Now she believes you know what you’re talking about.
Consideration stage — Next Lana considers the options to go with. She clicks on another video titled “How to Keep Pests from Returning”. By now, she trusts that if anyone can help send her past infestation packing, it’s you.
Decision stage — It’s time for Lana to decide what to do. When she started her search she wanted to fix the problem herself, but now she’s thinking about enlisting the help of a professional.
She heads over to your pricing page and requests a free quotation. Voila! You’ve generated and nurtured a promising lead using content marketing.
- The content you provide at each stage should push the buyer further down the sales funnel.
- When your content marketing effort does not directly or heavily promote your business, it makes your audience believe your main motive is to provide valuable information to them.
7. Builds a channel of communication through comments and social shares
The content that you publish on various platforms will increase the chances of your audience engaging with it and sparking conversations around it.
It will also help strengthen the relationship between your brand and existing customers. People who find valuable information on your social media pages will visit your website to know more.
Those that are already consuming the content on the site will share it and promote your brand on their social, or by word of mouth. Some will join your email list to stay in the loop.
More content. More viewers. More engagement. More shares. More visibility. More loyalty. Content marketing is a positive loop that feeds itself and its stakeholders.
- Think relevance. Engagement. Reach. That’s the content marketing way.
- Strive to build a community around your content. Give people a reason to keep returning to see what you have to offer or say.
- Answer and talk with your audience, make it a two-way street.
Content Marketing Quality Checklist
Content marketing strategies can include blog posts, social media content, newsletters, infographics, podcasts, videos, webinars, interactive events, e-books, guest blogging, illustrations, so you have lots of directions to pursue.
Whichever type you choose, the following guidelines can help you focus on what really matters:
- Focus on producing content that is relevant to your brand and value to your audience. You need to understand the people you’re trying to reach and how your content can be beneficial to them.
- There are over a hundred different types of content, so pick and combine the ones that are best suited to your business, but your audience too.
- While you don’t have to put out content every day, it should be regular, useful, and able to withstand the passing of time.
- You’re more likely to succeed when you know your goals and document your content marketing strategy.
- Repurpose your content for different platforms and media types. You can convert an article into a video, infographic, e-book, and so on.
To Sum Up
The benefits of content marketing to your brand are inexhaustible. It can take your business from zero to a hundred when done right. It helps develop confidence and trust in the products and services that you offer.
Content marketing is a cost-effective way to increase the power of your brand and grow revenue without alienating your target audience. Click To Tweet If you’re not already putting it to good use for your brand, now is the time to get started.
Interested in taking your business to the next level? Reach out to us through the form below and let’s help transform your business into a sales machine!