Content marketing is more than writing blog posts once or twice a week. It’s more than a monthly eNewsletter or white paper. Content marketing is relationship marketing at its best.
Done right, it will help your business in 9 critical ways:
- Build trust
- Generate awareness
- Establish thought leadership in your niche
- Start conversations with your followers
- Create community
- Interact one-on-one with prospects and customers
- Create a loyal fan base
- Increase website traffic
- Improve search rankings
The benefit of content marketing
There’s no denying the value — which is why so many companies are now onboard with content marketing. Specifically…
It’s more effective. The average cost per lead with a content/social media marketing blend is 60% lower than traditional outbound marketing.
It improves your online presence. Companies that blog increase their search engine rankings four to one. This is especially true since Google released its Panda update in early 2011. High quality content can now be considered the new SEO.
It allows you to market directly to your target audience. In 2010, more leads were generated through social media, blogs and search than any other source. Your prospects spend much of their spare time online. By meeting them there, in blogs and social media, you make yourself more accessible and establish your business as their go-to resource.
It doesn’t require a big staff. Since it’s largely digital, a small staff can often do the work of a large marketing team. Talk about return on investment!
Content is a powerful way to approach marketing
Content marketing is the marriage of publishing, PR and traditional marketing. It has all the power of good old-fashioned direct response.
- Its focus is pull rather than push.
- Its goal is engagement rather than interruption.
- Its result is long-term relationship with your ideal prospects.
Through content marketing, you can attract and connect with the people who honestly care about your message. And it can integrate with all your existing marketing to give you a full 360° impact on your market.
