Year after year, engaging content is proven to impact audience decision-making more than any other marketing technique. And while other content marketing channels continue to grow, well-written, informative content is still a great way to connect with your target audience – 70% of consumers prefer to learn about a company from a blog post to an ad – and boost your on-page SEO, potentially saving you thousands on advertising.
So, can you afford to get it wrong? In a word, no. But let’s delve a bit deeper and look at exactly why great content is so valuable…
It builds relationships, trust, and loyalty
We humans are hardwired for connection, so we make purchases based on brands we can identify with. This is why content marketing doesn’t talk ‘at’ people but connects with them. Potential consumers want to feel like they’re buying from someone they know and can depend upon, and great content can heavily influence this, capturing potential customers’ attention, building trust, answering their questions, and enabling them to form a direct and trusted relationship with your brand. And the more often great content brings them to your site, the more they’ll know about your products and services. OK, so maybe they’ve no reason to purchase them now. However, if that changes, guess who’ll be front of mind?
It educates and entertains, not sells
People want to feel in control and make their own decisions: 70 percent of people would prefer to learn about a company or brand through articles rather than advertisements. In contrast to display advertising (remember those annoying ads that ‘pop up’ on your screen and carry on doing so for weeks just because you were looking for weed killer on Amazon?) content marketing creates added value, helping potential customers to find answers to questions, such as, ‘How can I use weedkiller in a way that’s safe for pets?’ Its first step is not to sell, but to give control back to the customer; so, they can learn about your company, expertise, and services in their own time, and then make the decision to act upon it.
It generates better leads
Once people have been drawn to your website, you have all sorts of opportunities to engage them further. Almost 60% of consumers made a purchase after reading a blog and ‘gated’ content like white papers or eBooks, which visitors access in exchange for basic contact details, provide you with qualified leads to nurture down the sales funnel with content that connects on a personal level – building a relationship that can convert into paying customers. As many as 72% of marketers say content marketing increases leads and engagement, generating three times as many leads as traditional marketing strategies. And remember, a single piece of content can provide an array of touch points for potential leads to find you. Not just where the piece is published, but everywhere it’s shared – from social media channels and email to syndicated print, too. Just don’t forget your call to action; if you sign off your content without an invitation for your reader to do something, then you’re basically creating a lost lead.
It can position your brand as an industry authority
When you consistently create great content, people see you as the go-to in your field. In other words, you become an industry authority and thought leader. But if you want to be seen as an expert, you need to earn your stripes. Many brands churn out low-quality content in the hope that some of it will resonate with their target audience. But it’s important to focus on quality over quantity. While anyone can create content, not everyone can create great content that educates, entertains, and inspires. In a recent Salesforce study, of the 71% disappointed with the content they downloaded from a business, 25% of those said they would never read content from that business again. So, it pays to ensure your content is well-researched, well-written, and contains credible sources, statistics, and relatable examples. And don’t forget to update it regularly.
By providing value-first content, potential consumers and clients will not only start to pay attention, engage, and trust you but also keep coming back for more.
So, there we have it. With so many tangible benefits, you really can’t afford to get content wrong. But what if you’ve neither the time nor the expertise to do it right? When you consider that the typical blog post takes around four hours to create and is 1376 words, that’s a lot of time spent away from doing the things you really are good at. Even delegating or hiring and managing others to create great content can creep into a full-time job, and not many companies have this resource to draw on. Outsourcing your content writing, on the other hand, can speed up the process and help you scale far quicker and more affordably than doing it all yourself – not to mention being one of the best ways to ensure you get good SEO content that people want to read.
And guess what, we have just the people for that! Need help writing great content? Drop us a line and we’ll put everything we can do into words.