Welcome to the next instalment of our digital marketing 101 series.
You may have heard the phrase “content is king”. And it is – good content, anyway. Content marketing should be a part of pretty much any digital marketing campaign because it’s cost-effective, brings in leads and accelerates the growth of any brand.
The internet is all about content and we all spend a great deal of time seeking it out, whether to learn or to be entertained. By offering high-quality content that answers your audience’s questions while showcasing or at least guiding readers to your products or services, you can add value to their experience with your brand, and that’s a great way to build trust.
On its own, content marketing can take a while to gain momentum, but as part of a multifaceted campaign, it serves as a foundation for the messaging on your other channels. Including content marketing in your campaign strategy will help you to increase audience engagement, nurture your brand’s digital presence and ultimately to drive sales.
Here’s a breakdown of what content marketing can achieve:
1. Generate high-quality leads and convert them
High-quality content is sure to resonate with an audience – those with a genuine interest in what your brand has to offer. That means the leads you acquire through your content will be high-value and more likely to convert. Be sure to use a compelling call to action within your content to lead visitors to a landing page and into your sales funnel. And thanks to the information your content provides, your audience will be able to make more informed purchases, making them happier customers.
2. Boost SEO
Consistently having great content on your site is terrific for SEO. By using topic clusters, you can fully explore a topic and offer comprehensive information, and visitors are more likely to stick around and explore your site. It will also mean that other sites begin linking to yours, which does wonders for your ranking in search engine results (SERPs).
3. Improve audience retention
By offering your audience something worthwhile, you’re sure to draw them back for more. It’s safe to say that better audience retention has a direct impact on customer retention because it keeps your brand top-of-mind and helps to foster long-term customer relationships.
4. Gain industry authority
With well-researched and comprehensive content about specific topics that are relevant to your business, you can start to become an authority on those topics. That means more backlinks that attract more traffic and generate more leads. You may even be able to get your content to rank at the top of the SERPs with a coveted featured snippet.
5. Enrich your social media
When you have a reservoir of high-quality content to draw from, you can use excerpts on your social media pages to hook a visitor’s attention. This will give your posts more weight with useful and informative content and help you to attract more followers, thereby growing your brand’s presence.
6. Foster brand advocacy
Great content can do more than bring people back for more, it can turn them into advocates who go out and do your marketing for you. The share button can be truly powerful, and brand advocates will use it to share your blogs or videos with their friends and family, spreading your brand message far and wide.
Put high-quality content front-and-centre in a digital campaign and you’ll see the impact it can make, especially for products and services that require a bit of audience education, especially in the B2B space. Make sure your content is well-researched, engaging and looks amazing, with polished visuals or infographics, and you’ll be ready to start reeling in leads.
If you’d like a little more guidance, we’d be more than happy to help. Start with our Beginner’s Guide to Generating Inbound Leads.
