If you’re looking to boost engagement and build stronger relationships with your customers, content marketing is a must. In fact, 72 percent of marketers report significant improvements in prospect engagement when they utilize content marketing.
Content marketing is all about strategically creating content (blog posts, videos, infographics, podcasts, etc.) to provide value to your audience, build trust, and increase conversions.
This isn’t a new tactic by any means (brands like Coca-Cola and AARP have been creating impressive marketing content for decades). However, it has evolved quite a bit over the years, and digital content creation is now considered one of the most effective ways to build your brand and expand your reach.
Not sure how to get started with content marketing? On the fence about what it can do for you and your business?
Read on to learn everything you need to know, from the different types of content marketing to the businesses that can benefit from it the most.
What Types of Content Marketing Are There?
One of the great things about content marketing is that there are so many different types of content you can create to reach your target audience. The following are some of the most common examples:
Blog Posts
Blog posts are some of the most popular types of content marketing. Roughly 82 percent of marketers who regularly blog report seeing positive returns from their efforts.
Videos
Video content creation is quickly becoming a favorite among marketers for all kinds of business. Video yields higher engagement rates than many other types of content, which explains why 80 percent of marketers say that including video in their content marketing strategy helped to increase their sales numbers.
Podcasts
Podcasts aren’t just for listening to true crime stories. They’re also an incredible marketing tool and provide you with a platform to go in-depth about your business and your products or services.
More Americans listen to podcasts than have Netflix accounts, which means there are tons of potential listeners out there who could benefit from the information your business has to share.
Infographics
Infographics provide engaging, visual representations of information and data. They’re meant to present information in a fast, easy-to-digest way, and they can even improve people’s retention rates. After all, people remember about 10 percent of what they hear but 65 percent of what they see.
eBooks
For marketers who want to deliver a lot of information about a particular topic, eBooks are a great content marketing option.
eBooks allow you to give your audience a deep dive into a specific issue and provide them with some valuable information. You can also offer them as free downloads in exchange for people signing up for your business’s email list.
What Benefits Come from Content Marketing?
It doesn’t matter if you’re writing blogs or filming videos. Content marketing provides a ton of benefits to businesses of all kinds.
Here are some of the most frequently cited benefits you can experience when you start including content creation in your business’s marketing strategy:
Better Search Engine Rankings
One of the main reasons why businesses are relying more on content marketing is the fact that it can help with search engine optimization (or SEO) and boost their ranking on search engine results pages (or SERPs).
The closer a website is to the top of the search engine results page, the more likely people are to click on it. This means more traffic to your website and more potential for conversions.
Increased Credibility
Creating content is an effective way to increase a business’s credibility, too.
The more information you provide, whether it’s in the form of a video, a podcast, or a blog post, the easier it is for people to trust your business and believe that you and your team know what you’re talking about. This, in turn, increases the likelihood that they’ll want to buy what you’re selling.
Higher Rates of Engagement
When you create and share content regularly, people are more likely to engage with your business. This is especially true on social media.
If they see that you’ve taken the time to create quality infographics or share links to helpful blog posts, they’ll be more inclined to like and comment on your posts and share them with their friends.
Increased Brand Awareness
Content marketing helps to spread the word about your brand so that people can recognize it more easily.
When they see your logo often, whether it’s in their podcast app, on YouTube, or another social media platform, they’ll start to feel more connected to your business and your products or services. They’ll also be more curious about checking these things out for themselves.
Increased Brand Loyalty
Consumers are fickle. There’s no denying it.
By regularly publishing quality content, though, you can keep your business at the forefront of their minds. This, in turn, encourages them to keep coming back for more.
Better Conversion Rates
When brand awareness, credibility, and customer loyalty increase, and when engagement rates and search engine rankings go up, your business will typically experience better conversion rates and increased sales. This means more money in your pocket, more longevity, and more growth over time.
How Long Does It Take Content Marketing to Work?
This is, understandably, one of the most frequently asked questions about content marketing. After all, nobody wants to invest time and money into something that’s not going to provide noticeable returns.
When you first get started with content marketing, it’s important to know that it can take some time before you begin seeing the benefits outlined above.
Many businesses start to see results after about 6-9 months. You may see improvements sooner, though, especially if you invest more upfront in content creation, promotion, strategy, etc.
Another key to successful content marketing is consistency. To grow your audience, improve your search engine ranking, and increase conversions, you’ll need to share content regularly. You can’t throw up a blog post or a YouTube video here and there and expect to see great results.
Remember, consistency feeds the algorithm. The more your business can be counted on to produce quality content, the more you’ll be rewarded with higher search engine rankings, more views, etc.
What Types of Businesses Should Use Content Marketing?
Just about any kind of business can benefit from a strong content marketing strategy. However, certain types of businesses should be extra-diligent in their content marketing efforts, including those that fall into the following categories:
New Businesses
If you’ve recently launched a business, you’re probably eager to do anything you can to expand your reach and get people interested in what you have to offer. If this sounds familiar, content marketing is one of the most effective tools you can use to build your social media presence, boost your search engine rankings, and start attracting more traffic to your website.
Expanding Businesses
Are you getting ready to expand your business? Perhaps you’re opening a new location or have a plan to start selling a new range of products.
In either case, expanding businesses can use content marketing to get people excited about the new developments and encourage them to check them out.
Companies Solving Complex Problems
Some businesses have a harder time explaining their products or services to the general public. Maybe you aim to solve a very specific problem, or perhaps a lot of people are unfamiliar with what you offer.
In these cases, content marketing can help you to clear up confusion, explain why your product or service is valuable, and help people to develop an interest in trying it out.
What Kind of Content Should You Create?
Whether you’re writing blog posts, recording videos, or drafting an eBook, this is a common hang-up for a lot of new content marketers. What subjects are you supposed to address in your content? How do you keep things fresh and interesting?
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Answer frequently asked questions
- Provide demonstrations showing people how to use your products
- Share testimonials and positive reviews from past customers
- Introduce your audience to your team
- Give them a behind-the-scenes look at your business
Experiment with different types of content in the beginning and pay attention to your analytics.
This can help you to see which content resonates most with your audience (i.e., which content gets the most views, plays, downloads, social media engagement, etc.). Then, you can create more of that kind of content in the future.
Final Thoughts on Content Marketing
As you can see, there are lots of advantages that come with including content marketing in your business’s overall marketing plan. From increased engagement to higher conversion rates, why wouldn’t you want to make creating and publishing content a priority?
Keep the information outlined above in mind so you can start experiencing the benefits of content marketing today. If you need more help planning and launching your content marketing journey, feel free to contact us today at Waller Digital to learn more about our services.
