Content Marketing Benefits

What is Content Marketing?

If you’re in the digital marketing sphere or even have minor marketing knowledge, you’ve probably heard the cliched yet justifiable phrase “content is king”. This phrase rings true in all forms of marketing but reigns supreme in digital marketing. With so many businesses on the Internet battling for customers’ attention, and so many different types of content at your disposal, you’d be remiss if you didn’t use this channel to help your business break through the clutter.

Unlike traditional marketing strategies that pitch your brand and bombard your audience with ads, content marketing offers relevant information that your customer actually wants or needs to help answer a question they may have. Content is what makes the marketing world go round. Without it, there would be nothing to share on social, SEO would fall flat, and PPC wouldn’t have anything to drive traffic to.

Content will provide valuable information to your target audience while also promoting your brands offerings and establishing your brand as an industry thought leader. When thinking about adding content to their marketing strategy, the first thing that comes to mind for most people is creating a blog. While blogs are a great way to provide valuable information (especially when deploying the content cluster strategy), they’re not the only content marketing tactic out there. There are many types of content your business can and should utilize, but the decision should not be random. Strategically think about what will resonate most with your customers. Email, blogs, infographics, lead magnets, and interactive content like quizzes, are all great examples of content marketing that will elevate your marketing strategy.  

Related: Understanding the Many Different Types of Content Marketing

Still not convinced that content is king and an essential part of every marketing strategy!? Check out all these content marketing benefits that will take your business to new heights.

Content Marketing Drive More Organic Traffic to Your Site

Consistently publishing content will help bring more traffic to your site. The content you publish has to resonate with your target audience and follow some guidelines if you want to see results. Blogs will help drive traffic from returning customers who want to know what your company has been posting, referral traffic from customers that trust your business, and organic traffic from a simple search on Google. Additionally, if you’re publishing quality, evergreen content and sharing it on different channels, the content will continue to generate traffic long after it’s been posted and visitors will, in time, be pushed through the sales funnel.

A solid content marketing strategy will also give your business higher visibility in search engines and a higher domain authority. With more pages of content on your site, search engines will have more to crawl, and therefore give you the opportunity to rank for more search queries.  Also, with more quality content on your site, you can get more inbound links from other sources and, in turn, your domain authority will increase.

Content Marketing Helps You Become a Thought Leader in Your Industry

While content marketing is essential for increasing traffic, a solid content marketing strategy will also help establish your business as an industry thought leader. Google’s new algorithm focuses more on the intent behind the content, rather than overused keywords. With that being said, content should not focus on rankings but instead focus on establishing authoritativeness and thought leadership.

Becoming a thought leader in your industry will also help your business stack up against competitors. But keep in mind, that your content should always be authentic. Here are a few tips to make sure you are producing quality and authentic content.

• Don’t be overly promotional. Search engines don’t like to see self-promotion. They will more likely rank content that’s unbiased and more informational rather than content that seems sales-y.
• Establish trust with your audience through consistency. Consistently publishing content will show your audience that you are the one-stop shop for all industry-related information and news. Trustworthy thought leaders don’t try to jump on the latest trends bandwagon and produce current content simply because it’s current; they also want to provide their audience with evergreen content they are passionate about.

Related: Building a Strong Content Marketing Plan & Strategy

Content Marketing Helps to Educate Your Customers

Content marketing provides your audience with a solution. With a good content marketing strategy in place, your audience will continue to come to you with their problems because they know you have the answers.

Focus on creating content around your customers biggest pain points. How do you find out what your customers are struggling with? Listen to them! Write down their questions, read their comments, and start developing a step by step plan to combat their problems. Developing content around these problems will not only help your customers with a problem, but it will also help to build trust between your audience and your brand.

Content Marketing is Universal

One of the best things about content marketing is that any industry, no matter how unstylish or boring it may seem, can utilize content marketing strategies. There is no “bad industry” for this marketing avenue. You don’t have to have a fashion brand to employ a content marketing strategy. A company that specializes in security cameras or computer software can still create industry related content that will help them become thought leaders and drive traffic to their site.

Content marketing is no longer just an extra piece of the puzzle. It’s the foundation of a strong marketing strategy. Some of the world’s most successful companies are turning to content to help them dominate the competition. For example, IBM, an information technology company with a seemingly monotonous business, is producing entertaining and relatable content that attracts visitors from various backgrounds.

GoPro is another example of a well-known company that deploys a successful content marketing strategy. They’ve created a platform that lets users generate their own content. According to the Content Marketing Institute, 6,000 GoPro tagged videos are uploaded to YouTube every day.

These two very different companies are both strong examples that prove the success of content marketing.

Content Marketing Improves SEO

SEO relies heavily on content marketing. Without it, SEO wouldn’t have any way to deploy keywords that have been heavily researched. Keywords need to be strategically placed throughout the content, but be sure not to employ a tactic called “keyword stuffing”. Content marketing also offers more keywords opportunities and can help you rank higher. Using unique long-tail keywords will give you a high chance of ranking well for that specific keyword search. The more content you have, the more keywords you can use.

If a customer comes to your page and leaves right away because they can’t find what they are looking for, this is considered a bounce and it affects your overall SEO. However, with a good content marketing strategy in place that offers your customer a who, what, when, why, where, and how right off the bat, that customer is more likely to hang around for awhile, browse other pages, and get to know your brand better. It’s important to make sure the content you have doesn’t bore the reader, so make sure you are creating meaningful and engaging content.

Content is Sharable

One of the best things about content marketing is that it can be shared on various social platforms. Consumers can forward an email to a friend, re-post an Instagram, or upload an infographic on Facebook. All of this helps to increase visibility and brand awareness while also growing a group of brand advocates.  When consumers share any of your content, they are advocating your brand and showing their friends and followers that they trust what your company stands for and offers.

In order to create shareable content, the content has to be insightful, entertaining, and answer questions your audience might have. A how-to guide or an in-depth resource are excellent sharing opportunities. Research what type of content your audience is interested in by looking at pages they follow, other business they like, etc. However, you don’t want to duplicate what’s already out there. You need to provide added value and “one-up” the competition.

Related: What is Quality Content?

Wrapping Up

Creating consumable content is the key to any marketing strategy. Whether it is through SEO tactics, a Facebook post, or writing a blog, content marketing is an essential aspect.  There are many benefits of content marketing. Consistent content marketing will help your company become a thought leader in your industry, educate your customers, and improve your SEO. Another benefit of content marketing is that it is universal and can be shared across various platforms. Any business in any industry can leverage content marketing to help your company stand out amongst the competition. Don’t fall behind, utilize the many benefits of content marketing and see your business prosper.