Content marketing is a crucial and powerful tool for any business, small or large, B2B or straight to the customer. Having useful, reliable, related content on your site answers your audience’s questions, builds trust, generates leads, grows long-term relationships, and more. While you may know this, you still may wonder: Is content marketing effective…really?
Today’s customers expect high-quality, consistent content from top brands. According to the “State of Inbound” report, marketers prioritize content creation 80% of the time, with 26% accounting for B2B marketing budgets. It’s shown that engaging, consistent content affects audience decision-making better than any other tool.
What Content Marketing Can Do For Your Brand or Business
#1: Create a Lasting Relationship with Your Audience
Creating positive experiences for your customers or clients is huge. These situations leave good impressions in your audience’s mind and reinforce a positive brand impression. Not only can you capture your target’s attention, but you can also keep it and leave them with a desire to come back and enjoy more from you.
#2: Gain Traction on Social Media
Getting followers is one thing, and it’s certainly important. But getting interactions from those followers is the ultimate goal. Suppose you don’t see much engagement from your fans despite having a larger following. To fix that, you’ll want to employ content marketing and craft quality content that can assist you in gaining traction across social media platforms.
#3: Build Trust
You build audience trust in your brand by providing helpful content that answers questions and sparks their interest. You’re providing value without asking for anything, which will encourage people to listen to your recommendations. It also improves your reputation as a helpful, reliable source of information and creates more positive associations with your company.
#4: Generate Better Leads
Generating leads is also a great use of content marketing. When an audience engages with your content because they find it useful, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you. Additionally, calls-to-action (CTA) within the blog, email, or page can generate new leads as potential customers interact with them.
How exactly does it generate leads? Lindsay Kolowich, team manager of HubSpot Academy Acquisition Content Team, says, “content […] guide[s] users to a landing page. […Y]ou create content to provide visitors with useful, free information. You can include CTAs anywhere in your content[…]. The more delighted a visitor […], the more likely they are to click your call-to-action and move onto your landing page.”
#5: Improve Conversion
Posted content influences conversions because it helps your audience connect with you. It gives them the necessary information to make smart purchases.
When you’re using blogs to bring in traffic, focus on providing approachable, but robust information and value on the topic, trend or product you’re discussing outside of your own brand. Then, end with a strong CTA! CTAs drive conversion because they guide your readers to the next steps, like purchasing.
#6: Create SERP Visibility
Consistent, high-quality content is the key to improving your SEO. Your business’s content helps you become visible online, build trust, and show your audience you’re an authority in the industry. With a thought-out strategy, such as the pillar/cluster model, your content can assist you to rank higher in the SERP.
#7: Establish Your Company as an Authority
Quality content establishes your company as an authority. Suppose audiences see your business as credible for useful, helpful industry information. In that case, you’ll not only rank higher in search engines, but you’ll also have customers who are more inclined to trust your word.
Your content should show your expertise in your industry, and you should be aiming to answer your audience’s important questions.
#8: Create Brand Awareness
Content marketing can uniquely build brand awareness. HubSpot marketing experts call it the “Surround Sound” strategy. Basically, it does more than rank your article on page one. It also makes it appear everywhere potential customers might be looking for your product. When you write about topics your customers are interested in, they associate your helpful content with your brand. They start to “hear you in surround sound.”
#9: Create Brand Advocates
When you create positive associations with your content, even people who don’t need your product yet might endorse it. When people see you as valuable and reliable, but they don’t need your services or products at the time, they might still recommend you to friends and family. Content marketing can help you to find your clientele through word-of-mouth advertising.
#10: Save Money on Overall Marketing
For the past decade, content marketing has proven itself to be the most cost-effective marketing strategy around. In fact, content marketing costs 62% less than most traditional methods and has been proven to generate 3x more leads! While upfront costs can seem high, hiring a content marketing team regularly can pay off in the long run and will actually be more affordable overall than other marketing tactics. Compared to paid ads, video marketing, and traditional marketing, content comes out ahead every time, and the ROI is unmatched.
The Final Answer: Is Content Marketing Effective?
Content marketing is the key to success for any business in today’s marketplace. It helps you build trust and connection with your potential customers and proves you’re an authority in your industry. It shows that you share the same values as your customers and makes you feel authentic. If you’re looking to take your business to the next level, you need an effective content marketing strategy.