What you’ll learn about the benefits of content marketing:  

• There are many benefits of content marketing:
  • It lets you create a narrative around your brand
  • It boosts customer retention
  • It reduces long-term marketing costs
  • And so much more

Today, most brands have become publishers. If they don’t have a blog or content library on their website, they have an expansive social media presence with which they publish on a regular basis — and customers have come to expect it. Brands use this content as part of their inbound marketing efforts to organically attract target consumers with information that provides value to them. And as brands adopt content marketing strategies to enhance their status as publishers, they’re seeing a wealth of benefits as a result. 

From educating prospects to building thought leadership, content marketing can go a long way to setting up a brand for success. Read on to see if it’s the right strategy for you.

But, First: What Is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the process of using content in different formats — be it blog posts, email copy, infographics, podcasts, or video — to reach and engage your target audience. This content gives you the opportunity to share your business’s unique perspective on your industry while also extending elements of your brand, such as tone and voice, beyond your website and advertising campaigns. 

Content marketing also goes a long way towards educating and supporting your target audience, ensuring they know all they need to by the time they get to the bottom of the marketing funnel and are ready to make a purchasing decision. To get this right, however, marketing teams need to be able to identify the type of content that makes the most sense at each stage of the funnel, starting with awareness-level content and getting more product-specific as the prospect moves along the consideration and decision stages.

There are many benefits that make content marketing a crucial part of a broader marketing strategy. Here are seven of them for you to consider.

#1 It Lets You Create a Narrative Around Your Brand

You’ve put a lot of effort into building your brand and your products — but does that really make an impact if your prospects don’t understand them? With the right blog, video, or whitepaper, you can ensure that your audience has the context they need to fully comprehend your business, the industry it operates in, and how its offerings can help address common issues. And by adding targeted distribution in the mix, you can ensure that those pieces of content are put in front of the right people at the right time. 

By generating content that delights readers, you can also cultivate brand fans and advocates. These are people who might not need your product, but are so captivated by the content you’re producing, they can’t wait to share it with friends, family, and colleagues. 

#2 It Positions You as a Thought Leader

Sharing your company’s point of view on topics in your industry can also set you up as an authority in the space. Engaging and informative content builds trust, especially if you’re able to provide useful answers to your audience’s questions and help them shape their own perspectives. The bonus? If your business is considered to be a reputable source for information, it’s more likely to perform better from an SEO perspective.  

#3 It Helps Educate Your Leads 

Gathering leads is an important part of any marketing team’s efforts — but not all leads are created equal. Publishing rich, high-quality content can help ensure that your prospects are better informed about what your business does and how it could help them, making them more qualified than the average lead when they choose to engage. 

Supporting conversion is also a key benefit here. If your prospects are enjoying the content and finding value in it, it’s more likely that they’ll come back and move further down the marketing funnel. 

#4 It Boosts Customer Retention

Savvy marketers know that it’s just as important to keep your existing customers engaged as it is to target new prospects. Content marketing efforts that feature customer case studies, early information around new product offerings, or a look at the future of your industry can play a big role in keeping your customers engaged and continuing to provide value to them even after they’ve purchased your products or services. 

#5 It Feeds Your Social Media Strategy…

Content marketing can do a lot to boost your social media engagement. Having a roster of content you can atomise and share on social media will position your accounts as trusted sources of information that people will want to engage with as they learn more about your industry. You can also use your social media accounts to generate a cadence of content that lets your followers know when to expect the next batch of useful content. 

#6 …and Your SEO Strategy

Your content marketing strategy and your SEO strategy are ultimately two sides of the same coin. Both are designed to increase visibility into your brand, products, and services. Keeping SEO top of mind as you write high-quality content — and embedding the keywords you want to rank for within it — will ensure that your content gets as many eyeballs on it as possible. Meanwhile, revisiting your high-ranking SEO content and ensuring it drives people down the funnel can improve the impact of your content marketing efforts. 

#7 It Reduces Long-Term Marketing Costs 

In 2011, HubSpot determined that content marketing was the most cost-effective tool in a marketer’s tool belt — and that hasn’t changed. Despite the upfront costs of producing written, designed, or video assets, the return on investment for effective content surpasses that of any other efforts.  

Customer expectations and digital practices are continually evolving, and those changes are bound to have an effect on what content marketing looks like in the future. As you start building out your strategy, it’s important to keep it nimble and agile — that said, having good content at the core of your strategy will always be the key to success. 

Curious to learn more about how a content marketing strategy could help your business build stronger relationships with prospects and customers? Get in touch with us and let’s chat.

Photos by Bernard Hermant and Firmbee.com on Unsplash