Six Benefits of Content Marketing
Investing in Content Marketing Adds Value to Your Business in Many Ways
Do you have a company blog? Are you posting links to your articles on your social media feeds? Then you already have the basics of a content marketing program. It’s defined as “the practice of creating, publishing and sharing content with the goal of building the reputation and visibility of your brand.”
Content marketing is one of the most effective marketing tactics you can use these days. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 91% of B2B companies are using it to achieve their marketing goals. It’s a long-term approach, so choosing it as a strategy requires spending both time and money. The effectiveness and results that content marketing can deliver make it a worthwhile investment with a strategic and effectively executed plan.
Here are six benefits of making an investment in a content marketing program.
Storytelling Is Highly Effective at Engaging and Persuading an Audience
Content marketing, at its core, tells your company’s story in a wide variety of ways. The end goal of content marketing is to tell your company’s story in a way that drives deep understanding, engagement and ultimately a positive perception and reaction. The kind of connection a content consumer makes with a company or brand is one that is highly memorable and one that frequently drives action, both immediate and in the future.
Build Brand Loyalty With Content Marketing
The objective of most marketing programs is to build a customer base that loves your company or brand. They may love your company because of a positive experience that they have had with your products or services, or because of a great customer service experience they have had. Even in B2B marketing, a customer can be moved by your company’s mission, origin story or a sense of connection with employees or leaders — and that is what a great content marketing program can foster. It tells stories that aren’t necessarily overtly promotional. With your company as the author, the subject and the source, you are establishing your company as a thought leader, which drives connection in a more authentic and powerful way.
Content Marketing Increases Web Traffic
Creating and publishing engaging content that keeps readers on the page helps drive higher page rank on a search engine results page. Why? Because search engines are programmed to show the best, most relevant results first. Search engines evaluate content by watching the behavior of searchers as they click on results. If your articles keep visitors reading after they land on your website, that tells the search engine that it’s likely that the reader found what they were looking for. It’s also telling the search engine that the content was authoritative and compelling. Engaging content draws more highly qualified visitors to your site, and it keeps them there — visiting other pages on your site, reading more about your company and increasing the likelihood that they will convert into a contact or sale.
Content Marketing Can Highlight What Sets You Apart
At your company there are probably certain stories that highlight the key differentiators and advantages of your company. No matter the narrative, you should bring the story to life on the platform that tells it best – whether that’s a blog post, video, podcast or a photo gallery. From there, you can distribute it to the audience most likely to be interested. Putting engaging content in front of the most interested individuals — and managing it for your own goals — is at the heart of content marketing’s valuable impact.
Content Marketing Builds a Library of Valuable Assets and Intellectual Property
As you begin to tell stories, you’ll start building a library of creative assets. Blog posts, website articles, e-books, photos, videos and podcast recordings are tangible assets of your company. They are paid for and continue to deliver returns as long as they are published. A two-year-old video that explains how your product or service works will continue to get traffic if it’s relevant and effectively optimized.
Many of the content assets you create can be repurposed in dozens of ways, meaning you save money in the future by already having a piece of content that can be edited or reworked to serve a different purpose and to a different audience. Think of it as inventory that is paid for, that doesn’t depreciate and that has ongoing advantages for a long time after initial purchase.
Content Marketing Creates High-Quality Leads and High Conversion Rates
According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing generates three times more leads than outbound marketing, and costs 62% less. How and why does content marketing generate so many more leads? It’s all about consumer behavior. Authentic, compelling and useful content creates a deeper level of interest in your brand, which leads these prospects to an action such as downloading an e-book, registering for a webinar or signing up for an email newsletter. All three of those actions give you contact information, which then becomes a potentially valuable lead.
As you can see, content marketing is a worthwhile and valuable long-term investment. It is also one of the most effective marketing strategies, building tangible value for your company that delivers impressive returns.
Ready to create or improve your content marketing program? Contact the content marketing experts at Prototype Marketing and start connecting with and converting your audience today. Call us at 434-846-2333 or send us an email.