Struggling to stand out online from your competitors and get the kind of reach you’ve always hoped for? First things first: you need to take a look at your content marketing strategy. It’s 2021, and in an increasingly competitive B2C market, killer content is more important than ever before.
In fact, without it, your hope of succeeding in the online world is virtually non-existent. But what are the EXACT benefits of content marketing for getting online customers? Let’s break it down.
Types of Content Marketing
First, let’s go back to the beginning and talk about some of the different types of content marketing you can choose from:
- Video
- Blogging
- Social media
- Lead magnets
- eBooks
- Webinars
- Checklists
- Podcasts
- Infographics
- Visual marketing
And those are just SOME of the different types of content marketing. In a world with so many options to choose from, it’s more important than ever to stand out.
After all, the benefits of doing content marketing can mean the difference between your business booming or it getting lost in the crowd.
Seven Major Content Marketing Benefits For Online Customers
As for the specific benefits? Let’s explore seven of them right now.
Lead generation
Greater content and lead generation are a match made in heaven. Like other types of marketing, content marketing helps you attract (and retain!) business, customers, sales, and so on.
Whether leads find you organically or through SEO-optimized content, it’s one of the best ways to target them.
Not to mention, content marketing can be done for free. You can write a blog post, social media posts, videos, etc., and use these for lead generation all without spending a dime.
That being said, if you DO invest in professional content marketing services, your results will be that much better!
Authenticity
Americans are exposed to…wait for it…an estimated 4,000-10,000 ads EACH DAY, according to digital marketing experts. It’s only natural that many of us feel burnt out by this constant onslaught of advertising.
But luckily, content marketing helps you market yourself in a different, less intrusive way. You don’t need to have your ads popping up all over the place to make an impact.
Instead, thoughtful, strategies can market your services or product without bombarding users with endless pop-ups and in-your-face advertising. Content marketing can come across as far more authentic, less pushy, and more personable than most other forms of advertising.
Just make sure to keep your focus on ensuring your content is valuable to the readers while also effectively marketing your product or service. Yes—it can be done!
Here’s what we mean by that.
Let’s say you sell fishing gear and you have a blog on your eCommerce site. You might be tempted to write all of your blog posts about your specific products, highlighting their features, uses, etc.
But instead, you can offer even more value to your readers by including helpful information in these same blog posts.
Focus on tips, tutorials, and other valuable content, and then highlight your products without dominating the post with sales-y content. That way, your brand comes across as far more authentic and personable than it would if you were only pushing your product.
Establishing customer relationships and trust
Content marketing really helps your customers get to know you. And the more they know you, the more they can trust you. And can you guess what happens when they trust you?
That’s right–they’re more likely to buy what you have to offer!
For some customers, it might take a single, thoughtful post about the benefits of your service to establish their trust in you. For others, it might take them to follow along for several months before they invest.
Either way, content marketing is a way to connect with your customers, build trust, and ultimately, lasting relationships!
Better brand awareness
Content marketing helps get your brand name out there. Even if someone doesn’t stop scrolling past your content, they take in your brand visuals, even without realizing it. Then the next time they see your content or brand pop up, they might actually stop on it.
Or, let’s say your business has physical locations too. If they’ve seen your business name/brand logo pop up enough times online and then see your physical location while they’re shopping, that brand awareness might just bring them into your business.
Boosting E-A-T
New to E-A-T? It stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness, and all of that adds up to page quality. And why does that matter?
Because Google places a LOT of value on-page quality (E-A-T) when they determine which pages show up in search results before others. (Read all about their search algorithm and ranking factors right here)
Luckily, content marketing is an excellent tactic for boosting E-A-T. You can use your content to demonstrate your expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness, and over time, Google starts to notice this! Ultimately, it pays off big time and you’ll start to notice more and more online customers.c
Increasing your social media presence
One of the really cool things about content marketing is how content can be repurposed.
What you share on Facebook can then be shared on Instagram, for example. Your blog posts can be shared all over the place, and ultimately, your social media presence grows along with it.
And the great thing about having a social media presence is that it also comes with many of the same benefits you get from marketing your content. Namely, better brand awareness, lead generation, establishing customer relationships and trust, and even lead generation.
Higher conversion rates
We saved one of the very best benefits of content curation for last: it means higher conversion rates!
And the stats prove it. According to DemandMetric, content marketing costs 62% less and generates approximately three times the volume of leads than traditional marketing.
Not to mention, content marketing can cost a lot less than other forms of marketing and advertising. So that means you’re not only getting more business, but you’re spending a lot less to get it!
Experience the core benefits of content marketing for yourself
In this modern world, virtually ANY business can benefit from content marketing. It’s no wonder all of the world’s biggest brands use content marketing as part of their overarching marketing strategy.
Whether your content marketing strategy could use some work (or it needs to be created from scratch) there’s no time to waste! Your competitors are using content marketing to reach YOUR target audience. It’s time for you to do the same!
Set your brand apart, build awareness, authenticity, trust, and ultimately business…all with the power of content curation.
If you are starting from scratch or you just want to upgrade your content marketing game, we know it can seem overwhelming. Consistently producing the amount of content you need can feel virtually impossible when you think about all of the other things you have to do in a day for your business.
So, if you want to be like the world’s biggest, most competitive brands, you not only need to create content to help you market your business, but you also want to consider outsourcing your content marketing to the pros.
And at Blue Water Marketing in Florida, we’d love to be the content marketing experts you choose for the job! Click here to learn more about our data-driven content marketing services and what they can do for you.
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