Content marketing is here to stay, but what is it actually, and how do you benefit from it as an entrepreneur?
What is content marketing
When you focus on content marketing as a company, you try to strengthen the bond between the customer and your brand. You do this by creating, publishing, and promoting relevant information with which you offer customers a helping hand without directly promoting your service or product.
The strategy behind this? Simple; when you consistently create valuable content, potential customers will see your organization as a reliable source of information. This way, you generate confidence in and sympathy for your brand mission and position yourself as an authority within the field.
Therefore, attracting customers is not necessarily the goal; transforming a prospect into a customer and then into an ‘ambassador’ is why you do it!
Why you want to use content marketing
Content marketing forms the basis of your marketing strategy and plays a key role when you want to generate profit. Sounds interesting, but what specific contribution can content marketing really make to your company? View the main benefits here.
Content marketing increases organic traffic and online findability
SEO-worthy content increases online findability and, thus, your chances of transforming customers into loyal followers. Is the content you share relevant, unique, and of value to your target audience? Then major search engines like Google will probably think so too. By constantly improving and optimizing your content, you assure your company of a higher ranking position, which is reflected in your business’s success.
Social media runs on online content
Traditional media is increasingly shifting to the background, while the world of social media shows a constantly growing peak. As an entrepreneur, you can use this to your advantage by responding to the public via social media channels.
On these globally popular platforms, you can directly interact with your target group without incurring immediate additional costs. With valuable content, you increase your reach and generate not only leads but also more engagement.
Search engines run the show
Half of all online shoppers start their hunt for new purchases with some keywords on Google. A high ranking within Google offers your marketing strategy the necessary support for success and increases the chance of generating profit through online content.
Valuable content is shared, appreciated, and discussed by potential customers and rewarded with a higher ranking by Google!
Distributing content
In general, investing in content marketing effectively generates leads and conversions, but how you distribute your content is very specific.
Online content comes in various forms, and the most successful approach depends on your specific goals. For example, do you want to create a better bond between the customer and the product, or do you want to focus on direct action? Your objectives as an entrepreneur determine the nature of the content. Not sure about your approach yet? See some examples here:
- Blogs
- Social media posts
- Podcasts
- White papers & user cases
- E-mail campaigns
- Sponsored content
Practical tips
The world of content marketing is large and sometimes unclear, but you can navigate through the battlefield with these practical tips!
- Ensure consistency
Unfortunately, one valuable post is not enough. Consistency is core for a powerful online presence.
- Draw up a content marketing plan
A strategy is critical to success. Form a concrete picture of your mission and objective as a company and, more importantly, record your vision!
- Get an idea of the Return on Investment (ROI)
Try to create a picture of how content marketing will benefit you as a company and process data to determine your content’s success constantly.
So is content marketing necessary? Maybe even more than that! Call on us for help and expertise so you can get started.
