Author: Kimberly de Silva / Source: Entrepreneur
The three main benefits of content marketing are increased sales, cost savings and loyal customers.
This story originally appeared on Bizness Apps
For some time now, paid advertising has been used as a reliable strategy to gain new customers. Unfortunately, paid ads are becoming less effective. The modern day consumer doesn’t want to be blatantly sold to, they want to organically learn about a company or product and determine whether it fits their needs at their own pace.
Content marketing is the answer to their prayers. By making your brand a credible and authoritative resource on topics that matter to your potential customers, your business is more likely to get discovered by the right audience.
But as you might have guessed, big brands often have a whole team of marketers working on educational blog articles, e-books, videos and webinars to create content that stands out. As a small business, this might not be feasible, but that doesn’t mean you should give up on content marketing all together! Find out how your small business can benefit from a content marketing strategy.
What is content marketing?
Let’s start with the basics; what does content marketing encompass? Content marketing is more than just the format of content (i.e. blog article, e-book or video), it’s a long-term strategy in a variety of formats that builds a stronger relationship with your audience.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
It comes down to this: Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues.
How can your business benefit from content marketing?
Content marketing can be extremely powerful for big and small businesses alike. The three main benefits of content marketing are increased sales, cost savings and customers who are more loyal. But it goes beyond these three key benefits; take a look at the diagram below:
More specially, content marketing can help you to:
- Establish brand identity that your audience connects with, which will subsequently help to maintain brand awareness and recognition
- Gain the competitive advantage over your competitors who do not have a content marketing strategy
- By positioning your company as a thought leader in the industry, you can create a long-term, trustworthy relationship with customers and prospects
- Generate more website traffic and better exposure without investing a large amount in advertising
- Convert more website (or app) visitors into leads and sales
Does content marketing really work for small businesses?
Neil Patel, an expert marketer, says that he gets this question a lot from smaller, growing businesses. As mentioned earlier, you frequently hear about larger companies pushing out amazing content that is often used as an example of how to do it right. So, can you see a positive ROI from adding content marketing to your strategy as a small business? Patel says “Absolutely. And you don’t need to have a ton of money to do it.”
It’s important for small…
Peter Bordes Jr
Founder & Managing Partner Trajectory Ventures. Lifetime entrepreneur, CEO, Board Member, mentor, advisor and investor.
Obsessed with the infinite realm of possibility in disruptive innovation driving global digital transformation in technology, cloud-based infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data, DevOps, fintech, robotics, aerospace, blockchain and digital media and advertising.