There’s no doubt you’ve heard of content marketing, but if you haven’t invested in it yet, perhaps it’s due to your skepticism of its long-term benefits, or your caution to invest in something that might quickly become a fad. If you are intimidated by the complexity of the strategy, you may not have dived in if you don’t know what you are doing. Or you may not have given it a serious look because you’re busy with other marketing tactics.
Here are the top 10 benefits of content marketing that will convince you that it is a very practical, efficient, and effective marketing strategy.
1.More on-site content
It is true that spending more time on content marketing will mean more content on your site, which means more reasons for your customers to stick around, more opportunities to learn about your brand, and more profits.
For more on why on-site content is good, see The Top 10 Benefits of Blogging On Your Website. Great content keeps users on your site longer, and that’s always a good thing.
2.Higher visibility in search engines
Google indexes every blog post you publish. Having more pages doesn’t guarantee you’ll get more traffic, but you’ll be able to rank for more search queries if you have more quality pages indexed. Your archive of information should be able to appear on those search results if you target long-tail keywords and topics that your customers frequently search for.
3.Higher domain authority
Your website’s domain authority will increase even further if you publish more, higher-quality content with more inbound links from sources outside your site. Content with more inbound links will also increase the perceived authority, relevance, and trust of your website.
The more high-quality content you create, the more organic search visibility you’ll gain across all areas of your site. So, the higher your domain authority, the better your search rankings.
4.More referral traffic
The possibility of linking back to your site depends on your commitment to the guest-publishing segment of your content strategy. When you guest publish for external publications, you have the opportunity to link back to your site. An authoritative, relevant site with high traffic will enable you to earn thousands of new visitors with a single guest post.
5.More social traffic (and followers!)
By syndicating your content through social media platforms you will increase the amount of users who view and read your material–plus, users can share your content with their friends and followers, greatly expanding your reach. You will earn more and more followers for your brand on social media, driving more traffic to your website.
6.Increased conversion potential
With content, your primary objective should be to engage, inform, and provide value for your readers. Once you’ve achieved that, you can incorporate any remaining space into a pitch for your products or services. Adding conversions to your content can be done very easily, provided that you do it tactfully. Just remember the keyword here is “tactfully” and not turn the content into an advertisement.
7.Improved brand reputation
Whenever a person reads your material, they’re developing an impression of your brand. If they find what they read helpful, informative, or enlightening, they’ll think more highly of what you do.
In addition, if they see your content published on external media and show up on their social newsfeeds, they’ll trust that you are an established thought leader in the field.
8.Tighter customer/reader relationships
Having an established brand can boost your audience size and recognition, but having great content will also increase your customers’ loyalty and closeness. By utilizing the personal brands of individuals, you can develop greater personal relationships with your customers. When they come to rely on your services as a primary source of information, their loyalty is almost assured for as long as they buy your products.
9.Universal utility
Content marketing isn’t limited to a specific industry. Any business, in any field, can benefit from content marketing. Manufacturers can provide insights into industry developments or just make their industry more approachable and relatable to consumers even though it may seem “un-sexy”.
10.Decreased marketing costs and compounding value
It’s incredibly cost-effective, and even better, it offers compounding returns. Your first few months of a content marketing strategy might not yield much in the way of results, but you’ll begin to see the results after a few months. During the next few months, you will see more growth. By the time you are a few years into it, you will have easily quadrupled your investment.
If you invest in content marketing today, the sooner you will start seeing results, and the better results you will eventually see the sooner you start investing in it. Content marketing is inexpensive, safe, and available to anyone in any industry at any time. It shouldn’t matter whether you’re looking to increase traffic, elevate conversion rates, or simply build relationships with your customers if content marketing is included in your marketing strategy.