Have you heard the phrase, “Content is the king?”
Though content marketing used to be a method to set yourself different from your competitors, now it has become a necessity for a brand. Content marketing is considered as the heart of the most successful marketing campaigns. Behind every great company is a wealth of relevant and valuable content that connects with the company’s audience. But you may be wondering, how content marketing helps in digital marketing.
(Learn more about Scope of Digital Marketing)
To help you understand the significance of content marketing better, we have created a list of ways of how content marketing can be helpful for your small business:
1 Content marketing helps to improve brand reputation by building trust
One of the biggest benefits that really shows the significance of content marketing is the reputation building qualities of great content. With great content, you can build trust with your customers and leads. When readers read your content, they start developing an opinion of your company. If they find the content to be educational, valuable, and engaging, they will start trusting your brand. The more value you offer with your content, the simpler it will be to build trust among your target audiences.
Moreover, when your customers and leads start noticing that you are publishing content across platforms consistently, they may see you as a leader in the industry. Publishing content through a third-party publication or sharing the content with influencers can help you build trust within your target audience.
2 Content marketing helps influence conversions
If you wonder why content marketing is required, then have a look at the conversion statistics. It has been proved by several studies that Content marketing offers conversion rates about 6 times more than other online marketing methods. After reading the recommendations on a blog, about 61% of online customers in the U.S decided to make a purchase. As per 75% of companies surveyed, content marketing helps in increasing marketing leads, both in quality and quantity.
Content marketing improves conversions as it allows you to connect with your customers and leads. You are not only working to build relationships and trust, but you also encourage conversions by providing customers the information they require to make a smart buying decision.
To optimize your content for conversions, always include an attractive call-to-action. Your call-to-action (CTA) informs the reader what they should do next, helping them to the next step in the conversion procedure. Whether converting means making a purchase, collecting more info, or contacting your sales team, it is significant to make it clear to your audience within the content what do you expect from them to do next.
3 A well-optimized content helps in improving SEO efforts
The importance of content becomes clear when we look at the role content plays in helping a business build and improve search engine optimization. SEO plays a significant role in enhancing the visibility of your business online. However, if you want to enhance SEO, the first thing which you need is well-optimized content.
Research has proved that content creation is the best SEO technique. In fact, sites that post consistent articles and blogs have an average of 434% more pages indexed by the search engines compared to those that do not publish any content at all. The more content your site has, the more pages the search engine will index and show to your users when they search for some information in their search engine results.
Though every time more pages does not guarantee higher traffic, it does give your company the opportunity to rank for more and more keywords. For example, creating blogs on various topics that are relevant to your target audience provides you more options to rank for those keywords that your target users are searching for. The more content you have on your website, the more reasons you give to your target audience to follow you. This means high on-site time, which can positively affect your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) process. The time spent by a user on your site is an indicator that your website provides valuable content.
4 Publishing great content is a cost-effective method to attract new leads
For those who think why content marketing is important, have a look at all the different ways that content can assist your business to attract new leads. Lead generation plays a vital role in small businesses that depend on consistent traffic to grow their company and increase sales. Content marketing is not great for lead generation, but it is affordable too. Though content marketing costs nearly 62% less compared to traditional marketing tactics, it can generate more than 3 times as many leads. The affordability of content marketing makes it an important tactic for small businesses that want to increase their budget.
It is significant to note that content marketing is time taking. It may take a while to see the positive results. This is mainly true when it comes to SEO. However, as far as creating high-quality content is concerned, a little effort can go a long way. The significance of content marketing is easy to find out when you consider the ROI. As creating content is affordable and effective, many businesses will experience an impressive return on investment on their content marketing with time.
The key to increasing content ROI is developing a content marketing strategy based on your target market. You should never simply write content for the sake of writing. If you want to gain benefits out of it, then make sure your content should be strategic in the topics you select, types of assets you produce, and your promotional approaches.
5 Content helps your brand to display your expertise
Customers want to deal with experts who are aware of the ins and outs of the industry. This is another answer to how content marketing helps digital marketing. Content marketing allows your company to show its expertise in the field while offering valuable knowledge that can help customers make a correct purchasing decision.
Every time you publish a blog, article, or any other piece of content, you are showing your customers how much knowledge you have about the industry and the challenges they face. When the time comes for them to make a purchase, they will remember that the brand provided them with the information that they required to understand their problems.
Let us say a customer has two options. A business that publishes content consistently that is informative and educational and another one that does not have any content. The customer will probably purchase from the first one that publishes content to show their expertise and knowledge. That way, they will have the confidence that they are taken care of by industry experts who have answers to their queries.
6 Want to build a relationship with customers? Publish informative & engaging content
If you are still confused, why content marketing is important in digital marketing, then consider how content marketing can help you to build a relationship with your consumers. Earlier, we discussed how content plays a vital role in building trust and establishing a positive brand reputation. This can help you to grow your audience and reach new leads.
But you might be thinking about those who have already bought from you. Repeat customers are considered as the bread and butter of small businesses. In fact, according to studies, 61% of small businesses say that half of their money comes from repeat clients. Loyal customers are nothing but a benefit to your business. If repeat sales are an important part of your company’s revenue, then you must find ways to strengthen your relationship with your current customers.
This is where content marketing comes into the picture. You should not stop publishing great content after a lead becomes a customer. Content that offers value for your customer will help in increasing brand loyalty by empowering the relation you have with your customers. This can increase repeat sales and help you to establish strong brand advocates.
So, you may ask what type of content is good for building brand relations? Content like how-to and other kinds of informative visual content can help your customers get more of your products and services. The more value they attain, the more likely they will come back.
Comparisons and brand guides are another example of content that can provide more value for your consumers. By helping customers make a smarter purchasing decision, you are working to build trust and support repeat sales.
7 Your customers look for great content
Why is content marketing vital? Well, your customers and leads want to read informative content. In fact, about 20% of the time that people spend online is just reading content. So, why not give customers what they are looking for? If you want your content marketing to be effective, then do not ignore the data that you have collected from your customers. You can collect data from your customer insight from user feedback, journey maps, customer persona, and vanity metrics. This information is important for planning your content. Develop custom content that focuses on your target audience and offers value to them. Whether it is for educational or entertainment purposes, use your content as an opportunity to show your customers what your customer is all about.
The key to creating effective content that helps you to connect with your audience is focusing on topics that are related to their interests, challenges, and needs.
With all these advantages defined above, it is clear why content marketing is important for businesses of different sizes. As there is a huge scope of digital marketing, many are turning to online marketing or content writing career. If you too want to build a career in digital marketing, now is the right time to do so! Visit digital marketing courses in bangalore to know more.
