We can confidently say that content marketing is effective because you’re reading into it right now. Do you check our blog regularly or did you find us by way of a social network? Either way, you’ve proven the point we’re about to make.
90% of consumers find custom content useful. Although there has often been a discrepancy between how B2C and B2B brands market themselves to consumers online, content marketing is nearly equal in terms of adoption. 86% of B2C and 91% of B2B brands utilize content marketing to increase digital visibility.
With efforts focused largely on blogging and social media, content marketing is the future of digital business. The vast benefits include thought leadership, brand awareness, increased traffic and user engagement, as well as sales lead generation and even improved SEO ranking.
Thought Leadership. Over 2/3 of consumers will spend the time to read content from a brand they’re interested in. A content calendar is an excellent way to schedule out important concepts while still leaving more open-ended days for trending topics. And don’t forget to include visuals! Articles with images get 94% more views.
Brand Awareness. Influencer marketing is an integral aspect of content marketing. Identifying those within the digital sphere that have an influential presence is beneficial for planning and marketing content, along with reaching more users on social networks. Listening and reaching out to those influencers can increase content and social shares.
Increased Traffic. Social success is typically traced back to quality blog content, cross-promotion and search optimization. Companies that blog have 434% more indexed pages and see 55% more traffic to their site. Although it’s not necessary (or even realistic) to put out fresh content daily, it is important to do so as often as possible.
User Engagement. Interesting content is one of the top three reasons consumers follow brands on social media. When it comes to individual networks, B2C brands have the opportunity to reach consumers across a wide variety of mainstream and niche platforms. B2B brands, on the other hand, focus on distributing content on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google+.
Sales Lead Generation. Inc. reports that: “By delivering the right content to your buyers at the right points in the buying cycle, you can help them take incremental steps toward a sale.” Establishing trust and brand affinity, content and social conversation brings new connection potential for brands and consumers.
SEO. In order to reap search benefits, your blog and social profiles should all be correctly optimized. Blog-wise, this includes content quality, frequency and freshness, as well as linking, tagging and keywords. Optimization on social profiles takes similar efforts, although it depends upon the specific network. Search Engine Land says that “A single blog post can provide numerous benefits to a marketing funnel, from building links to long-tail SEO traffic to generating leads to engaging your audience to social shares; and, it can even help you close deals.” An interview with Matt Cutts further explains link building for content marketing.
Content marketing is constantly evolving and encompasses far more than what we’ve touched on here. Whether is a branded infographic or high-quality article, this form of social inbound marketing is altering the way in which businesses market themselves. The benefits of these opportunities include thought leadership, brand awareness, increased traffic and user engagement, sales lead generation and SEO.