Content marketing aims to attract your target audience and retain them. You can achieve that by creating and curating content that provides them with value. That value could be solutions to their pain points, answers to their questions, providing comparisons, and more.
Content marketing helps make your brand “findable” in a sea of information. You consistently provide your audience with specific answers, showing them the value of your offerings. You’re also meeting new customers and developing relationships with existing ones. Whether you share data in an infographic or a blog post, the goal is to provide value to target audiences.
What Do the Experts Say?
Consider this statistic from 2015 from Content Marketing Institute’s report, “Is Native Advertising the New Black?” over 70% of consumers reveal that they’d prefer engaging with content to learn about products or services than a traditional advertisement. Despite the age of this report, its data is still relevant. Consumers want to learn new things (the classic adage, “show, don’t tell”). They don’t want to be “told” or see intrusive messaging.
In a recent interview, Melisse Lombard, President and Managing Editor at Evergreen Media tells us, “People know when they’re being marketed to now, and frankly, there’s just a lot of content out there. It is an ocean, not a sea. And people aren’t wowed by what they were wowed by ten years ago, either. You have to find the gaps that you can fill and ways to be innovative in your space.”
Learning how content marketing plays a role in your company’s overall success plays a pivotal role in meeting and exceeding your goals. This guide dives into the importance of content marketing. That includes:
- addressing your audience’s pain points
- nurturing relationships
- building trust
- improving SEO
- improving conversions
- edging out the competition.
You’ll also learn about how content creation services can help.
The Importance of Content Marketing
For its 2021 “Not Another State of Marketing Report,” HubSpot gathered data and insights from over 1,500 marketers. Some key metrics from this report as it pertains to content marketing include:
- Nearly 70% of marketers use social media as their primary approach to marketing
- Over the next 12 months, almost 35% of marketers state that generating leads is their top marketing priority
- Of the 76% of marketers using automation, 58% use of for task management, and 42% use it for content automation
- Over 60% of marketers use sales to measure the success of their content marketing strategy
- 69% of marketers invested in SEO, and of them, 71% used strategic keywords as their primary tactic
- Over the past 12 months, 77% of companies have seen an increase in email marketing engagement
- 63% of marketers state that they’ve increased their marketing budgets during 2021
- of that 63%, over 60% state that brand awareness is their primary goal for running marketing campaigns
Because content is king in all content marketing strategies, homing in on how to use it to create awareness and generate quality leads is critical for sustaining healthy sales growth. Content is your most powerful tool for drawing your target audience to your company’s website, where lead and sales conversions occur.
The Benefits of Implementing a Successful Content Marketing Strategy
There are four primary benefits of implementing a successful content marketing strategy:
- Educate your target audience: Your target audience receives valuable information about your offerings
- Improve conversion rates: Your content drives traffic to your website, which leads to improved conversion rates
- Build and nurture relationships: Your content helps establish trust, loyalty, and brand advocacy
- Provide your target audience with solutions: Ultimately, your offerings provide the solutions your target audience needs
In a recent interview, Nicole Bump, Fractional Content Director at Bump Inbound, explains, “A solid content strategy should outline what you are producing, why you’re producing it, who it’s for, and exactly what to look out for to measure your progress. When your content strategy is built this way, you naturally refer back to it often, which helps everyone stay on track.”
Addresses Your Target Audience’s Pain Points
Be sure your content uses language specifically addressing your target audience’s pain points and clearly shows them how your offerings are the solution. By determining your audience’s pain points, it’s easier to understand what matters to them and build connections. Your content should speak to their needs while ensuring you’re highlighting your offering’s benefits, features, and solutions.
Nurture Relationships and Build Trust
Creating content is the best way to nurture relationships and build trust with your target audience, and doing so allows you to interact with prospects and answer their questions. Because you’re creating valuable content without asking for anything from them, audiences are more likely to trust your brand’s advice, insights, and recommendations.
Improve SEO
Looking at the interview with Melisse Lombard again, she tells us, “Over the years, content has largely been looked at as an acquisition channel and tied in tightly with SEO and social, so it’s often been about lowering the cost of acquisition. That’s an oversimplification, obviously, of all of the possible business objectives that you could have for your content. However, at the end of the day, I still hear about that as a key target for most marketing teams.”
Optinmonster’s data reveals that 72% of online marketers believe content creation is their most effective SEO strategy. The more content a business publishes, the more pages search engines can index and show in search results, and doing so improves a business’s chances of ranking for more keywords.
Improve Conversions
Your goal for creating conversion-oriented content should include focusing on your target audience’s pain points and using content to reinforce your brand. Here are some tips for improving conversions:
- Create persuasive CTAs: Whether you want them to watch a video or download an infographic, clearly convey what steps you’d like your audience to take.
- Embrace influencer marketing: Influencer Marketing Hub’s data states that, during 2022, influencer marketing could grow to nearly $16.4 billion. Audiences trust industry leaders, and by showcasing them in a quote or testimonial, you’re strengthening the authority of your content.
- Use conversion-oriented keywords: We learn from MonsterInsights that content containing long-tail keywords is 2.5 times more likely to convert than a head keyword.
- Showcase original graphics: Data from Venngage shows us that 40.8% of marketers used original graphics to help achieve their marketing goals in 2020.
Generate Leads
Demand Metric’s research indicates that, even though content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing, it can produce three times more leads. So, if you’re operating a small business, content marketing is optimal to maximize your budget while simultaneously increasing traffic and generating leads.
Edge Out the Competition
Differentiating from the competition is critical in an increasingly busy digital world. Use content marketing strategies to set your business apart by showcasing what makes your offerings unique. Suppose your target audience researches what products or services can help them with their challenges. They’ll be more inclined to choose a company that provides them with the information they need.
How Content Creation Services Can Help
Content creation services provide brands and marketers with content, evaluations, strategies, and tools necessary to support their campaigns. The best ways to roll out these plans include collaborating with freelance writers, connecting with influencers, and working with content strategists. Nail down these processes by tapping into our freelance community, contacting our sales team, and seeing how our platform can help you succeed.