Why Content Marketing Isn’t Optional Anymore

Imagine opening a business, finding the right location, hiring the right employees, and selling the right product. Then, you draw people to your business by having someone on your marketing team stand outside the building every day and shout on a megaphone that you’re open for business.

While this may be a cute gimmick, it certainly won’t get you the customers you need to develop a sustainable business over the long haul. This same thing applies to marketing your business online.

You won’t be successful if you simply create a fancy website with all the visual cues and engaging content, hoping this “loud” approach to promoting yourself will attract people.

You have to lure them there. Enter – content marketing.

This strategic approach to bringing organic traffic to your website will help you build authority by adding value rather than bombarding the public with gimmicky ads. Explore how content marketing can help your business grow and thrive in a noisy digital marketplace.

What is Content Marketing?

In the past, most businesses had to rely on disruptive ads placed on billboards, television, magazines, and other platforms. Whether audiences wanted to see the ads or not, they were there for the taking, eventually causing people to treat them like noise and disregard them.

In some cases, people are even able to skip or block ads. Unfortunately, ads are costly for the promoter, and having people skip them or ignore them entirely can cost businesses millions in useless advertising.

Content marketing is a less disruptive approach to getting customers to your website and purchasing your product, in most cases, at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. However, instead of using gimmicks and selling, content marketing consistently provides value to customers through helpful blogs, videos, social media posts, and other content presented strategically over a period of time.

Such a method encourages prospects to develop trust for your brand through every step of the journey, from the initial awareness of your product until long after they purchase it. This period of time is often referred to as the buyer’s journey and may turn customers into repeat buyers and word-of-mouth advocates for your product or services.

What are the Benefits of Content Marketing?

If you want your business to be successful at attracting and retaining potential clients online for a much lower cost than traditional advertising, you’ll want to use content marketing. On average, it cost about 62 percent less than traditional advertising to gather leads from this method.

This is because content marketing lures prospects back to your site with more helpful information instead of traditional disruptive ads. Its objective is to provide indispensable value rather than salesy language.

By consistently using this method of solving problems and answering questions, you position yourself as a trusted authority. Educating prospects through the buyer’s journey into the sales pipeline empowers them to decide without feeling coerced to make a decision without much thought, like traditional ads designed to trigger emotional purchases.

Content marketing adds to long-term organic value rather than one-time sales with customers.

Ways to Incorporate Content Marketing

If you’re thinking about incorporating content marketing into your business strategy, here are some ways to do it.

Written Content

One of the most effective ways to incorporate content marketing is to develop written content. This content may consist of blog articles, social media posts, guides, whitepapers, and other “freebies” that offer valuable information to potential customers.

Incorporating search engine optimization (SEO), this type of content drives organic growth by scaling search engines. What results is plenty of people being led back to your website by clicking on and reading articles on specific topics that are discoverable because they rank well on top search engines.

Infographics and More

In addition to written content, you may also want to include content such as infographics, polls, and surveys. Such content offers value in an interactive way and attracts prospects to your site by offering information in exchange for their email address.

Video Content

Although this may not be as effective as written content, video content allows you to have another media to tell your brand story. Recording short or long-form videos and uploading them to platforms such as Youtube, Vimeo, Instagram, and TikTok drives engagement and encourages prospects to seek your product or services as a result of interacting on these platforms.

Audio Content

Similar to video content, another option for reaching audiences and providing value is by recording audio content. This is most commonly done by using podcasts to attract listening audiences.

While content marketing has been a casual means of attracting prospects, it is now more popular than ever before. As companies look for more ways to cut costs, especially with marketing and advertising, this method of attracting customers will become increasingly more critical for businesses to attract new audiences for less money than using traditional advertising methods.

Dominate the Digital Age with Content that Converts

If you need SEO that delivers real results, you need strategy – content, technical SEO, local listings, and an optimized website that work together. Web Fox Marketing in Livonia has helped Michigan businesses grow traffic, leads, and revenue with proven digital campaigns.

Partner with us to get found online with an effective digital marketing strategy and a mobile-optimized website that converts. Call to speak with a local expert for a free consultation.

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