Why Your Business Needs Content Marketing

Consumers are so used to advertisements that we have become adept at blocking them out. We can fast forward through commercials, flip past magazine advertisements and ad block every banner or button on the web.

Traditional advertising doesn’t seem to be cost effective anymore. So how do you tell your customers about your products or services?

What is Content Marketing

Content Marketing means consistently creating and sharing valuable free content. It is a way to communicate with your customer and educate them on your products all while creating trust. You are experts at what you make, sell or do. And so you are your own best advocate when it comes to telling a client or customer why they should do business with you.

Where content marketing really differentiates itself from traditional advertising is you are communicating without selling. It’s the idea that by giving sincere and valuable information to your customers they will reward you in return by giving you their business.

Why you need it?

In short, because it works. Roper Public Affairs reported that 80 percent of people prefer a series of articles versus an advertisement, 70 percent said content marketing made them feel closer to the business or product, and 60 percent said the content helped them make better product decisions.

Not only does content marketing help you establish loyalty with potential customers, it also provides your website, and social media outlets with more traffic. If you set up your marketing strategy correctly whenever someone interacts with your content (video, text, or photo) they will be directed to your website. And if you’ve been following the last few blog posts, your website will be chock-full of call-to-actions and contact information that converts those interactions into $$$.

Beyond the loyalty and inbound traffic there is always the added bonus of injecting your site with SEO-goodness. All those blog posts, guides, image captions, and social interactions with be jammed full of keywords that naturally relate to your business. Search engines love an active website. If you maintain a consistent content marketing plan, you will see your website climb in rank.

How you should use it

Now that you understand some of the basics of content marketing, here are a few examples of what your content should be communicating. Answer your customer’s questions before they ask them

• Communicate your values as a business
• Share industry knowledge or best practices
• Educate your customer on your products and or services
• Build trust by showing your customers that you are always there to help
• Give an inside look into how your business operates

When you build a solid reputation as a company that looks out for its customer’s best interests you capture an audience of loyal customers. A solid content marketing strategy backed by a great website will allow you to convert that loyal audience into future business.

Our three part series

Understanding content marketing is just the tip of the ice berg. Developing a documented strategy and executing it is the next step. Stay tuned for our three part series on getting started with content marketing. And you can follow us facebook or twitter to get more updates.