When done correctly content marketing works, there is no doubt about it.
In fact, some figures claim that compared to traditional marketing, content marketing is 62% less expensive and generates approximately 3x the volume of leads. Who doesn’t want to see those sorts of returns on their marketing efforts?
Yet often content is put on the back burner as a ‘nice to do’. In this article we explore why this is a terrible idea and why your business needs a content marketing strategy.
Create Consistency
Creating strategies is a business wide concept. Without a strategic road map of how we hope to achieve our business goals it is unlikely we will ever reach them, or at the very least a lot of resource and effort will be wasted getting there.
The same can be said for a content marketing strategy. By understanding exactly how you plan on achieving your marketing goals you can create consistency and prioritise content marketing as a useful tool.
Just like sales, businesses often don’t realise the importance of content marketing until it is too late. Creating a strategy will mitigate the risk of your content being left behind for more ‘pressing needs’.
Establish Brand Identity
Big brands are experts at communicating their brand identity. Smaller, savvy brands also realise the potential behind developing an established brand amongst their customers.
With so much competition in every industry, using content marketing lets you show your brands personality and ultimately generate stronger relationships with your customers as a result.
A strategy is so important in doing this as it lets you plan how to portray your business rather than letting a random assortment of content be published. Take for example that you want your brand to come across with a trendy tone of voice, without a strategy you are likely to push out a combination of content spanning from wacky to pretty dry and boring.
Boost Search Engine Rankings
As a business owner or marketing professional you will be well aware of the importance of ranking well on search engines like Google.
But did you know that a good content marketing strategy will be one of your greatest tools in getting there? When it comes to SEO, search engines love websites that consistently post about the same or very similar subjects. They like this because it ensures the website is current and relevant to searchers needs.
By incorporating your best performing business keywords into your content strategy you will increase the likelihood of turning up in searches for these terms, bringing more interested customers to your website.
Sales Pipeline
The ultimate goal of businesses is to make money and creating sales is a huge element of this.
Your content marketing strategy can help you feed your sales pipeline with fresh leads in a number of ways. This works by bringing potential customers onto your website through social media and search engine rankings. You can then create value which hooks your customers in and this can ultimately be converted into sales leads.
Creating a content marketing strategy is clearly a smart move if you really want to benefit from the tool. Positioning yourself as a thought leader and consistently delivering useful content will pay off in terms of sales in the long run.
