Unlike everyday marketing, content marketing helps incentivize customers. It gives a reason, evokes an emotion, and helps connect customers to the product, enticing you to buy. There are several ways content marketing contributes to better lead generation and ROI which we will explore in this article.
It’s cost-effective.
Traditional marketing such as direct mail, TV and radio ads can be costly. Content marketing has one strong advantage on other marketing channels because it reduces the amounts spent on ads. Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about three times as many leads. (Source: Demand Metric) With content marketing, you can have a 2,000 word article written for under $100, and that article can go on to provide a steady stream of leads for years to come.
It supports other marketing tactics.
Content marketing can work alone. However, it can powerfully increase your leads when combined on other channels such as paid search and paid social. Content marketing also strongly supports SEO. When you publish new content it pings search engines like Google. Google prefers websites that publish new content regularly. This will make a direct impact on your search rankings.
It increases brand awareness.
Content marketing creates brand awareness when your content is published on relevant and authoritative blogs or industry magazines. One strategy is called “guest posting,” where a company publishes your content on their website. The article typically comes with an authorship spot at the bottom. You can focus on creating brand awareness by highlighting yourself and what you offer. Guest blog posting creates brand awareness and lets people within your targeted industry know your expertise.
It’s non-invasive advertising.
Companies spend millions trying to create brand awareness with invasive billboards, cold calls and banner ads. It’s 2019, and we’re tired of invasive ads from companies. Content marketing, on the other hand, takes a holistic and organic approach by offering information and other helpful content to your audience when they search online. This creates happy, appreciative, potential leads who look to you as the industry expert.
It appeals to buyers at several buying stages.
Content marketing appeals to buyers at several buying stages. Working as an internet marketing consultant, one strategy I use for my clients is creating an in-depth informational guide. I then run paid ads on Facebook to the guide to create brand awareness. Those who click the guide are then pixelated and remarketed with promotional ads of my clients’ products or services. I call this “warming up” an audience to the brand.
It generates targeted traffic to your site to improve lead generation.
Content marketing helps you get targeted traffic. You can have thousands of website visitors but if you only target a fraction of them, you will have poor lead and sales conversion rates. With content marketing, you strategically develop the content to attract the people you want to target. You do this with good keyword research and then incorporating proper on-page search engine optimization techniques.
It creates natural backlinks.
Backlink relevance, quality, and quantity are all important metrics within Google’s algorithm. Google does not publish their algorithm, but tried and true SEO methods know that backlinks directly relate to search rankings. When you start to develop quality content, other websites will naturally link to it. Those links increase your search rankings and give you a better chance to attract leads.
It’s easily shared.
People can share content with each other through email and social media platforms. Sharing like this causes content to go viral and starts a snowball effect, essentially creating free advertising. Additionally, when content gets shared, it creates a social signal which helps it rank better on search engines.
It helps in the buying decision.
Content marketing helps in the buying decision. Over 80% of online buyers do research before buying. By strategically crafting content, your brand shows up when a potential consumer is actively searching to buy a product you sell. For example, an auto manufacturer could write an article on the top 10 things to look for when buying a new car.
Conclusion
Content marketing takes a lot of patience, dedication, and hard work. Although it has its complications, when done right, content marketing is one of the best long term marketing investments you can make within your business to provide consistent leads.
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