What Are the Actual Benefits of Content Marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute defines content marketing as: “A strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience, and ultimately drive profitable customer action.” The following are actual benefits of content marketing.
1. Improve website traffic and boost sales
When you create high-quality content relevant to your target audience, it helps you attract more website visitors. And once they are on your site, the engaging and informative content will keep them there longer, which can boost your sales.
2. Increased brand awareness
A recent study showed that content marketing could help increase brand awareness by up to 54%. When you publish high-quality content, it gets shared across different channels, which helps to reach a larger audience. As more people become cognizant of the brand, they will likely consider doing business with you.
3. Boosts your SEO ranking
Content is one of the most important factors Google considers when ranking your website. The more high-quality content you have, the higher your site will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs); other websites are more likely to link back to it. This increased number of inbound links signals to Google that your site is a valuable resource on the topic, boosting your SEO ranking. SEO ranking is important as it can help you attract more website visitors, leading to increased sales.
4. Build trust and credibility
When you publish quality content that is helpful, valuable and informative, it helps build trust and credibility with your audience. As they get to trust and know you better, they will be more likely to do business with you.
5. Generates leads
Quality content can help you generate more leads by enticing people to exchange their contact information in return for something of value, such as an eBook, whitepaper or case study. Once you have their contact information, you can follow up with them via email marketing to convert them into customers.
6. Helps attract and retain customers
Quality content helps you attract and retain customers by providing them with valuable information that they can use to make decisions. It also encourages them to come back to your site for more updates.
A recent study found that companies who blog receive 55% more visitors than those who don’t. And, companies with a blog have 97% more inbound links on average.
7. Improves social media engagement
Social media is one of the most popular platforms for sharing content. When you share quality content on social media, it helps to improve your social media engagement. This is because people are more likely to like, comment and share interesting and informative content.
8. Helps you become an industry thought leader
When you release new content, you immediately establish yourself or your company as an industry thought leader. This helps boost your reputation and credibility with potential and current customers.
People like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. Content marketing helps create that connection by providing valuable information that helps your audience solve problems. When you become an expert in your field, it can also lead to more opportunities, such as speaking engagements or joint ventures.
In a study by Demand Metric, it was found that businesses that blog generate 67% more leads per month than those who don’t blog. So not only does content marketing help you build relationships with potential and current customers, but it also helps you generate leads. And as we all know, leads turn into sales.
9. Increases ROI (Return on Marketing Investment)
Content marketing has been shown to have a higher ROI than traditional marketing techniques like print ads, direct mail, or even email blasts. A study by the Content Marketing Institute showed that “78% of B-to-B marketers saw an ROI from their content marketing efforts in 2013.”
And it makes sense when you think about it; if you can provide your target market with valuable, relevant information that helps them solve their problems, they are more likely to do business with you when they are ready to buy.
But how do you know whether your content is providing value to your audience? One way to measure this is by using the “engagement rate” – that is, the percentage of people interacting with your content (by reading, sharing, commenting on, etc.). The higher the engagement rate, the more your content is likely to be perceived as valuable. Another way to measure success is through conversions; in other words, how many of those people who interacted with your content ended up becoming customers?
Both of these measurements are important indicators of whether or not you’re achieving your desired results from content marketing. But even if you don’t see an immediate ROI from your content marketing efforts, don’t give up. It is a long-term strategy, and you may not see the full benefits of your investment for some time.
When it comes to content marketing, quality is always better than quantity. So, make sure you invest time and effort into creating high-quality content that will resonate with your target audience. And don’t forget to promote your content on social media and other channels to get maximum reach.
Categorized in: Content Marketing
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