Top benefits of content marketing

Although we’re in the business of advertising, there are great ways to market your business that don’t require ad spend. One of these strategies is content marketing. Creating original content makes your business stand out and gives value to prospective customers. When done correctly, it can even boost your website SEO.

You may have heard some buzz about content marketing, but what exactly is it? Our article answers this question and goes over the benefits of implementing a successful content marketing strategy.

Types of content marketing

Content marketing is the creation and distribution of content that’s unique to you, your business, or your industry. Not only is it informative, but it builds trust and authority. Content can come in a variety of formats. Most people automatically think of blogs, but content is much more than that!

Content marketing and SEO

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) focuses on optimizing your website to get traffic from organic search results. Search engines like Google crawl websites looking for content to match to a user’s search query. If you’re publishing highly relevant, engaging content on a regular basis, users have a greater chance of finding you.

To increase your chances of boosting your SEO and ranking higher, think of these points below as you’re publishing content:

• Use target keywords user are searching for
• Answer questions that match how the user is search and the words they are using
• Optimize on-page SEO elements like headers, title tags, and alt tags
• Use structured data (schema) unique to every page you want to rank

Publishing one blog post won’t move the needle. What matters is consistency. Whether you write an article once a week or every month, publish high-quality content regularly. After time, you should see some SEO gains.

Content marketing establishes credibility

Why should your audience trust you? You can claim that you’re the best in your industry, but with what proof? Original content proves that you know what you’re talking about. Voice your perspective on industry-specific topics, answer common questions about your industry or business, and showcase case studies from happy customers.

Avoid creating self-serving content. If it sounds like a sales pitch, it’s a sales pitch. Prospects will see right through it. Instead, provide quality information that sets you apart from competitors and helps establish you as a thought leader. This is an opportunity to flex your knowledge – prove to your audience that you know your stuff by showing, not telling.

Content marketing extends your reach

Content lives all over the internet – use it to expand your reach. Republishing content on other platforms and in different formats will help you engage with a broader audience. You can write a blog post on one topic and can share it on social media, post a video version on YouTube, and create an infographic. All of this from one single idea! Leverage evergreen (timeless) content by promoting it on multiple occasions over a large span of time.

Content nurtures leads

Relevant, high-quality content helps connect with your audience and moves them through the buyer journey. We go over the differences between cold, warm, and hot leads in this article. A comprehensive content marketing strategy will include different topics and formats to help convert website visitors into qualified leads. Businesses can establish a deeper connection with customers by creating content that speaks directly to the target audience’s needs and interests. The right kind of content can speak to users throughout your funnel.

Awareness

For example, someone who visits your site in the awareness stage (a cold lead) is probably looking for general information or a solution to a specific problem. Your website or blog posts should answer their questions. This starts building your credibility as a thought leader.

Consideration

A user in the consideration stage (warm lead) may already know about your business and is comparing other products on the market. This is an opportunity to have content like an ebook shine. This type of content solidifies your expertise and how your business can solve their problem.

Buying

Someone in the buying stage (hot lead) is poised to make a decision. You're in the running and the right content can tip the scales in your direction.

Using AI for content

With the popularity of AI, it’s tempting to use these programs for content creation. AI can be used as a resource to kickstart the content creation process but is limited to the information that’s already on the internet. If you’re a niche business with little information about your industry online, AI won’t probably produce reliable content for you. If you're someone who isn't a subject matter expert and are writing content you'll have no way of knowing if the content is right or wrong. That's a scary thought.

AI generated content can also (not surprisingly) sound artificial. Without the proper training, AI won't sound like you and people will be able to tell it's not human authored.