Content Marketing is all around us, whether we realize it or not. Think social media content, emailers, e-books, videos, podcasts, webinars, blogs, newsletters, case studies, games, video entertainment, and even events – almost any way we look, we are engaging with content in some form or the other. And a significant chunk of this content is directly or indirectly colored with a marketing intent, such as building awareness, trust, and preference towards a certain business or idea. This is content marketing at play.
So, what really is content marketing?
Content marketing, put simply, is a way to attract, engage with your desired target audiences through the creation and sharing of relevant content across different audience touchpoints across the real and virtual worlds. When done right, it is a great way to nurture a relationship with your audiences, while building authority and credibility around a desired subject, in their minds.
The main purpose of great content marketing is not so much to sell, but to create and offer something of value to the target audience, at different stages of the sales cycle – awareness, consideration and purchase.
For instance, consider that you offer loans for automobile purchase. Someone who is looking to buy a car and is seeking information to help make the right decision could benefit from content that provides an overview of all the available options in the market across different price points, including financing options. The same person in the consideration stage could be served content around all the factors to be considered while evaluating the best financing options. And in the last stage, the content could just be simple customer testimonials that help you seal the deal with a prospective customer. As you will see, each of these different content pieces serves a different value for a prospect at different stages of the cycle, without only intending to make a sale. So, even while you are sharing useful knowledge, you would be unconsciously earning valuable goodwill and equity, which might make the difference between a prospect choosing you over your competitor.
How Content Marketing can help your business
As you can see, content marketing goes way beyond trying to make a sale. It is really about your audience, and what they care about. But as altruistic as this might come across, content marketing actually offers some very tangible benefits to your business.
For one, it offers a great way to create differentiation for your business in an otherwise cluttered marketplace, and show them that you really care. The adage, “content is king” coined by Bill Gates in 1996 holds more true than ever, even after all these years. Moreover, good content can not only help create awareness, but can also drive quality traffic and generate quality leads, all of which can have a sweet impact on your bottom line. Yes, content marketing does deliver measurable ROI. Surprised? A look at these tangible benefits will help you understand how this happens.
- Building Consumer Trust
Over 90% of consumers do not trust ads. And let’s be fair, as consumers ourselves, aren’t we more likely to trust a non-salesy piece of content as compared to something that we know has been paid for?
Creating quality content that offers value in different ways is a great way to demonstrate that you really care about what your target audience wants, whether they buy from you or not. Unlike the traditional marketing approach which would only emphasize how awesome your business is, content marketing seeks to do a live demo of how awesome you actually are. And this garners a lot more trust as compared to asking audiences to trust a business.
With most people seeking information and solutions online, creating content that demonstrates expertise, authority and credibility will help you rank higher on search results. It is a known fact today that organic search commands a far higher degree of trust as compared to sponsored or paid results.
Search engines regularly crawl web pages to evaluate what each webpage is about, and the type of audience that it might be relevant for. So, when you create great content that offers value, you are that much more likely to attract more relevant web traffic that is likely to spend more time on your site. Search engine algorithms look at this as a mark of quality, and reward the page with better rankings.
Content marketing is usually more cost effective and scalable as compared to traditional advertising, and is a lot more effective as well. So it already scores an advantage with regards to cost right away.
Also, good quality and consistent content marketing efforts help to draw in a larger crowd of relevant audiences to your website and other online assets. It is a known fact that an increase in relevant web traffic leads to an increase in leads and ultimately, conversions. In fact, a CMI survey goes as far as to say that well planned content offers the possibility of multiplying your leads over 3X times as compared to traditional media. Compare this to any other tactic and you will see the results for yourself.
In case you are wondering whether your business needs content marketing, think no further. Content marketing is an essential tactic to create a pull. The old approach of bombarding prospective customers with pushy marketing messages just doesn’t cut it anymore. Consumer values have changed, and businesses would do good to keep up with them.
