As traditional marketing is becoming less effective day by day, companies are switching to digital marketing strategies, and in particular, content marketing. Small businesses and large enterprises alike are reaping benefits from effective content marketing.
If you are puzzled and looking for reasons why your business should master content marketing, this guide will clarify all your doubts.
Emerging as one of the most effective business-critical marketing tactics for companies, more and more companies are considering content marketing as a serious investment.
Below, let’s explore content marketing in-depth, along with the benefits.
What Is Content Marketing?
You will find hundreds of definitions for content marketing across the web and from experts. Let me explain it to you in the simplest of terms.
Content marketing is the creation and distribution of high-quality, useful, and relevant content in various forms to existing and potential target audiences.
In the above definition, mark the words high-quality, useful, and relevant, as they are exactly what sets content marketing apart from traditional marketing.
The difference is quite evident in the fact that the latter bombards the audience with irrelevant, mostly invaluable, and, most importantly, off-target marketing. On the contrary, content marketing precisely aims to sell a service or a product with pinpoint information, targeting a specific audience with a much wider reach.
Content marketing is part and parcel of every marketing tactic used these days. Be it strategizing social media content, search engine optimized content, or even the content for paid ads, a failed content strategy can down even the largest of enterprises.
Don’t mistake content marketing as a totally distinct branch of marketing, however. It falls under the Digital Marketing umbrella alongside social media, web blogging, inbound marketing, email marketing, PPC, and SEO. The takeaway here is that all the marketing tactics in the modern era are incomplete without high-quality content.
Now that we know enough about content marketing, let’s dive right into the reasons why companies need to master content marketing.
Benefits of Content Marketing
1. Audience Retention
It is a no-brainer to say that content marketing is a crucial part of customer retention. When you visit a website of your interest and find a few appealing articles that answer your questions, you automatically tend to look out for the same website the next time you need answers to similar questions. That’s what great content does! It wows you and stays on your mind for a long time.
Websites have a dedicated blog section that addresses their target audience’s problems. It captures their attention through top-notch valuable content and compels them to visit the site again for more helpful content.
Does this excite you to start content marketing for your business? You can depend on us. Get started today by booking a consultation call with us.
2. Better Lead Generation and Conversions
Lead generation through content marketing and audience retention go hand-in-hand. Your business can generate leads from new or returning visitors. When your audience consumes your content, they are likely to make a purchase on your website.
Although there are a lot of factors that go into this, the topmost factor that decides whether they purchase or not is content. Content can make or break your sales game.
Good content throws a wide net to attract a relevant audience to the business. Once you get a certain number of visitors to your blog, the opportunities are endless. You can convert prospects to potential customers by guiding them through your sales funnel.
Your blog posts or other content should be the starting point of the customer journey. After getting the audience to your blog posts, you shall drive them to the next stage of their journey. It can be a product or service purchase page, a consultation call page, or simply an email newsletter registration. You may call it the landing page.
Blog posts are usually accompanied by calls-to-action (CTA), placed at a preferred location to generate more leads and sales. Some of the common CTA locations are as follows:
- In-line.
- Top of the post.
- Bottom of the post.
- Side panel.
- Pop-ups.
If your content impresses the audience, chances are they will click on the CTA button and consider taking the next step on their journey, like purchasing a product, opting for a free trial of a service, or signing up for a newsletter.
And it doesn’t just stop there. Consistent content marketing efforts through email newsletters and social media can drive more revenue to your business by converting them into customers.
3. Better SERP Performance
Improved SERP performance is yet another big benefit of content marketing. In fact, the whole purpose of content marketing revolves around improving the performance on search engine ranking pages (SERP), thereby maximizing the company’s reach on the web.
No matter what kind of content you create, there’s always a platform to perform on. For instance, Google and other search engines are platforms for blog posts.
Consistent high-quality content alongside SEO efforts can help your business become more visible online and build trust with your audience. Some of the tactics include:
- Regular blogging.
- Grouping and categorizing posts.
- Updating them from time to time.
- Creating cluster/pillar pages.
Therefore, never overlook content to maximize your reach over the web, social media, and other marketing platforms.
4. Improved Brand Awareness
Content marketing benefits reach far beyond SERP performance. There are numerous ways to build brand awareness, but content marketing does it in the most unique way.
Getting your posts to rank on page one of SERP is a good start. Besides SERP, aim to often market your product on multiple platforms. This content marketing strategy was introduced by Hubspot and given the name Surround Sound Strategy.
In a nutshell, market your brand in various content types on different platforms and do it often. The more frequently your audience hears about your product, the more likely they will be to purchase it. Remember, only create content specific to your audience’s needs by writing about topics they’re interested in. By doing so, they’ll associate their problems with your solutions and thus your business.
5. Position Yourself as an Authority in the Niche
Last but not the least, creating quality content and marketing helps establish you as an authority and expert in the niche. If you can position your business as a reliable source of information, the chances of your brand ranking high on SERP will most likely skyrocket.
How do you achieve it though? Well, that is one of the best-kept secrets of the content marketing industry. Here are a few tactics to work on for establishing yourself as an industry expert:
- Create content that stands out from your competitors.
- Provide valuable answers your readers are looking for.
- Publish expert-written and expert-reviewed content.
- Engage with your audience.
Related Article: How Blog Content Writing Can Influence Your Company
Key Takeaway
Content marketing cannot be overlooked under any circumstances in the marketing world of the modern era. Creating a strategy is one of the most important ways to market your business and multiply your profits.
Not only does it help in improving your business’ reach and SERP performance, it also helps boost your leads and conversions if executed effectively. If you have a proper content marketing strategy in place, there’s no stopping you from getting more people attracted to your business and creating a wider customer base.
