Five Reasons Why Content Marketing is Not a Waste of Time
Content marketing is not a waste of time. Like most other forms of marketing, content marketing has the capacity to either set you back, or hopefully get you a ton of great clients. In case you’ve never even heard of it, content marketing refers to sending information to your clients in order to sell your services, tell them more about your industry – or for our purposes, generate some leads.
There are many different kinds of content marketing including:
- EBooks
- Social media posts
- Blogs
- Whitepapers
- Newsletters
Pretty much anything that presents your audience with information with the purpose of generating a lead or sale qualifies as content marketing.
Content marketing has the capacity to become a waste of time if your organization isn’t doing it correctly. If you’ve seen a terrible, poorly written, completely off topic blog out there, you know what I’m talking about. If you’ve seen businesses advertise totally irrelevant, cutesy small talk or photos on their social media networks rather than messages that elevate them and increase their branding power, you know not what to do.
If you’re keeping away from content marketing for your business because you’re intimidated, it might be time to either do some exploring, or hire a content genius to help you. However you decide to handle it, content marketing can be time worth spent for your business. Here are five reasons why.
Content Marketing is good for Your SEO
When your content marketing utilizes well-researched keywords, your SEO will start to look better over time. Sure, good search engine optimization isn’t just about writing great articles – but one major factor in ranking over competitors is sharing good, updated content both on your website and in your link building. If you’re not using content to beef up your website and get great, authority links back to your site, you can be sure your competitors are.
Content Marketing Helps You Not Come Off Like a Cheapskate
These days, information is power – AND money. Getting an email address because you gave away an eBook is a great way to keep in touch with clients. Each time you use someone’s email, you’re keeping them in your sales funnel.
You can’t just ask customers for emails without being willing to give something in return. Content marketing allows you to give the customer a valuable piece of information they can use in their everyday lives or business transactions. Giving the client great content for their personal info is quid pro quo, and it’s expected these days.
Content Marketing Establishes Trust
Reading your content gives customers the opportunity to know who you are, what you can offer and to gauge your expertise on a certain subject. The more in-the-know you appear to be, the more your potential clients will trust that your products or services are the right choice. Content marketing allows your clients to get to know you before making a purchase. Establishing that trust from the get go can make for an easier, more harmonious working relationship as well.
Content Marketing Gets You Out There
If you and your competitor offer the same services at the same prices –but I find out your competitor has a kept-up blog, a huge social media following and a good number of guest blogs out there, who would I trust more?
Not only does good content make you more competitive, good content marketing gets in front of more eyes than no marketing at all. You can create great content for your Facebook and run $5-at-a-time sponsored ads to reach friends of friends. If your content is worth reading, just $5 can result in hundreds of subscribers.
Content Marketing is Multipurpose
Great SEO, trust building, brand building, reputation energizing – the best reason to engage in good content marketing for your business is that content marketing is multipurpose. You can use it for SEO, for great social media, for better brand awareness and more. Because it’s easy to do and robust, a good content strategy can benefit you in all channels of your marketing.
If you find the right help or have the expertise to deploy a great content marketing strategy, you’ll next need to look at measuring your results. A lead management system that scores and helps you follow up with leads can integrate directly into your content management program. Lead Liaison is a great choice. If you aren’t ready to deploy a content marketing strategy yet, now is the time to work with Lead Liaison to ensure your tracking needs and goals are met before you begin content marketing. Talk to us about how we can integrate our services with your content marketing strategy today!