What is Content Marketing?
Phew! I was worried that 10 content marketing services experts might give you 10 different definitions. But they’re all a bit like family everyone may have their own way of doing something, but they’re all still grounded in the same core values.
Content marketing is a way to generate new customers – it’s a strategy that revolves around the creation and publication of content in order to gain new visitors.
This is typically done through social media, blogs & videos, and eBooks & other interactive tools to share your expertise with potential buyers.
Here, let’s use an example of content marketing.
If your fitness business has been stagnant for a while then you should start writing blog posts or creating videos. Try to create an article 2-3 times a week that is keyword-directed and people will start to find your site for information on these topics. The posts on your blog usually start to rank after a while, and once spring hits people start searching for ways they can get in shape to hit the beach. They come across your blog, read some of your posts and find that they’re coming back each week to learn more from you. Some people just make changes on their own, but others are sick of trying to do everything themselves and want a professional to handle the situation instead. They call you for a free consultation, then eventually sign up for one of your programs.
Content marketing services with the qualities presented in the example above is one of the most effective ways to bring inbound leads to your business.
Check out these 10 easy ideas to start creating expert content to fuel your company!
1. Sometimes it can feel hard to promote your business because you lack the trust of potential clients.
All of the tips this personal trainer offers online are part of his effort to gain the trust of readers. The more content you share, the easier it is for potential customers to see that you’re an authority in your industry. You’re obviously experienced in this field, so potential customers will start to trust you more because they’ll feel like they know who they’re getting into a business relationship with.
2. Build Brand Awareness
Let’s be honest, most people don’t care about your business. Having good content marketing can help you get visitors to your site who are interested in what you want them to be interested in. Negative feedback happens – and it’s hard to please everyone. Responding to criticism lets people know that you’re listening. These reviews can also be wooed over into including your business in their content and linking out to your site, so they indirectly end up helping advertise for you. Try writing content that highlights your skills in order to keep your audience happy!
3. Great for Organic Search (SEO)
When you open your browser and type a keyword or phrase into Google, the search engine is trying to find you the most relevant information it can. It gathers this data through providers like web search services, past searches, and things that other people have shared on social media. For valuable, useful information for your target buyers, not just spammy sales (“look at me!”) copy Google looks at the quality of your content as well as how relevant it is to certain people. It might rank higher in the search results if it’s been vetted and found to be helpful, professional and valuable.
4. Generates Leads for Your Business
So, it’s the most important part of marketing. We say “you can’t beat trust and awareness.” The whole reason we do anything to generate leads for our business is so we can convert them into customers in the future. Through content marketing, you can find leads and engage your audience before they are ready to buy. You skip the fight and competition. Sprinkle some juicy bonus content throughout your site, like e-books. This will help you come across as more qualified and can entice your leads to buy from you! I need people in order to sell, so content marketing is the best way to reach them
5. Attract Ideal Buyers
It is great to have more leads, however without a pipeline full of good ones, you will end up simply wasting your sales team’s time. You need to make sure the buyers you are attracting are well-qualified and fit your business’s needs.
The best thing about content marketing is that only interested people are the ones that you reach – which means you don’t have to convince everyone who clicks on your article or posts. People who have an interest in the topic you’re blogging about will search for your blog. This means only the people who have a genuine interest in your company will make it to your conversion page, which is crucial for marketing success. With so many destinations on the internet, it can be difficult to get people past your landing page. But if someone likes your content, then it’s worth getting their email. They’re more likely to give you their personal information in order to read more of your valuable material (ebooks, case studies, checklists, videos) Weeding out the bad leads brings you more qualified prospects and your sales team will only have to spend time talking to those of the highest quality. So they won’t have to waste money on others. This is what Inbound Marketing is all about!.
6. Get more leads by updating your lead nurturing strategy – from targeting to follow-up and converting.
Instead of wasting your content marketing efforts by using them to only generate interest during the initial phase, use them to generate leads at different points in the buyer’s journey. The buyer’s journey consists of 3 stages: awareness, consideration, and decision. This exercise is meant to show you how a tax law firm might be able to nurture new leads through their desired journey. Throughout these steps, pay attention to how each one can help the lead feel like they’re still headed in the right direction.
7. Your Visitors will Share Your Content on Social networks
You’ve been in your field for a long time and you have an experience that most other people lack. If you create content that shows the reader why they need to be dealing with your company, then other businesses may share your content and will want to do business with you too. It’s quickly becoming the most efficient way to reach your consumers – social media is now neck & neck with search engines for content distribution.
It’s always a good idea to create content that’s useful and meets people’s needs. If it also gets shared, you’ll definitely be ahead of the pack! The more people your content can reach, the better. And nowadays in our digital, mobile and the viral world, a particularly captivating post may end up reaching even more people than you had originally dreamed of
8. Increases the Likelihood of Website Visitors Returning
Content is a really powerful tool for building up a community. If you’re providing people with helpful and informative content then you’re beginning to build up trust with them. They will keep coming back to sites that they know are trustworthy.
9. Achieving brand authority comes with a long-term view and consistent targeting of your market.
An obvious benefit of content marketing is that it allows you to showcase your skills so you come across as a knowledgeable expert in the field. The people who’re searching for what you have in mind will find it from you; they just need to know that they can trust what you have to say. More content equals more exposure and it’s a good way to reinforce your position as the industry expert.
10. Build Backlinks
The best way to increase traffic is by starting a blog and sharing your expertise. Well-established blogs get linking opportunities that amplify traffic by 2x, 5x, or even 100x. One of the big draws of this strategy is that it can provide a boost in page rank. More links, more visitors and increased authority for your pages are all benefits to reap from this tactic. While search engine algorithms are out of our scope, we’ve got something for you if you’re interested. We recently posted this great article on how those things work if you want to check it out. One thing you’ll learn is how important it is to build backlinks. This can be a quick way of improving your ranking in search engine results.
In Conclusion
The reason for publishing content during your business is long. But what matters most is that it works and in this age, it’s the best way to get people talking about you. The only problem here is our number 1 which should have just been “because it works”.
There will be tactics that may have a large impact on generating traffic or customers for a brief period of time. There will also always be methods that produce no end result whatsoever. You should invest in content marketing because there’s been a lot of time & effort put into your business to make it this far; doing so now will reward you for it later on.
