What is Content Marketing and why should you do it? Content Marketing is the creation of valuable, relevant information to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. The purpose is to market your business without the “hard sell”. Instead, the intent is to help you establish your “thought-leadership” in the field, making prospective customers feel good about seeking your guidance. Content Marketing can take the form of blogs, e-mails, podcasts, videos, newsletters. It is informational but does not have to directly represent the brand of the writer. Many people think of Content Marketing as only a Search Marketing play, but the benefits are many, below are a few to consider.
Cost-Effective Marketing
Compared with traditional advertising such as TV, Radio or Direct Mail, Content Marketing is relatively inexpensive. For many business owners a small investment of time is all that is needed. Research a topic that is important to your business or customers and write about it. Even if you pay someone to wordsmith an article it will cheap compared to a TV commercial.
Increase Value of Other Media
Google has always shown a preference for new content on websites. Regular Content Marketing will help SEO rankings and increase web traffic. Similarly, new content increases paid search(SEM) Quality Scores, which lowers the bid needed to win a search auction.
Drive Brand Awareness
Content will remind people who you are and what you do. If you have your content posted by other bloggers or content publishers your name will be regularly introduced to a new audience.
Content Marketing is Not Intrusive
People read articles, blogs, newsletters etc. because they want to learn something. When a person chooses to read your content, they see you as an authority. You will be viewed as a valued resource and hopefully someone they reach out to for more assistance in the near future.
Targeted Traffic to Your Website
A visitor to your site who comes from content marketing usually has a specific agenda, to learn more about a subject in which you are a perceived expert. This is a high quality visitor and one who is more likely to convert.
Develop Backlinks
Quality content will be picked up or referenced by other bloggers, writers and publishers. A blogger who references your content will reference you through a backlink to your post. Backlinks help organic search (SEO) rankings. Find other content marketers in similar fields to yours and see if you can use some of their material and backlink to them. In turn, they may backlink to your content.
Close the Sale
People research purchases more than ever. Content Marketing can help you with rankings when people search. It is also possible that your Content will be found by itself, leading a researcher back to your site. Or your content may be part of your website. Either way, your thought-leadership will be part of the buying decision. Meaningful content will help buyers feel more comfortable choosing you.
Like most marketing undertakings Content Marketing should be part of an over-all strategy. It takes a little time to execute. But the payoff is large relative to the time and money that you invest. Think about your business objectives and start your Content Marketing plan today.
