The Business Value of Content Marketing

Since you’re here, there’s a good chance you’re either fully aware of content marketing, or you’ve been wondering what all the buzz is about and what value it can bring to an organization. Content marketing is an ever-growing world, one that is important to any business. But what is the business value of content marketing? 

First things first, content marketing is defined as a “strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” Sharing content through social media, ebooks, videos, images, infographics and blogging are just a handful of different approaches to content marketing.

 

Why choose content marketing over other marketing approaches?

We’ve entered an age where advertising has evolved, and markets have learned of new ways to build strong relationships between consumer and brand. Raise your hand if you enjoy being bombarded by a barrage of thousands of ads every day. I can guarantee that your hands are down. Okay, now keep your hand down if you like making smart budget investments. Still down, right? Statistics show that content marketing is on the rise, while also being more cost-efficient than other marketing approaches.

For example, content marketing is 62% cheaper and generates three times as many leads than traditional outbound marketing. That’s because outbound marketing is aggressive, product-pushing, in-your-face, and yes, annoying. People have become more attracted to articles than to ads. Content marketing also connects with a specific audience by providing relevant, consistent and valuable content. It’s designed to benefit a target audience, in contrast to pushy marketing strategies, to guide customers toward your desired business decisions.

The percentages for both B2B and B2C marketers are eye-opening. These numbers will only increase in the future.

 

What’s the significance of blogging?

More and more people use the Internet as a source of news and information. Content sharing is essential to content marketing and blogging is as crucial to your business as anything else. Companies that blog receive 97% more links to their website. Just one year ago, 53% of marketers said that blogging content creation was their top inbound marketing priority, and B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost three times more views than those blogging only 0-1 times per month. I could sway, intrigue, or bore you with stats all day long, but just remember this: blogging is an essential part of content marketing that every business should take advantage of. 

 

The business value of content marketing

Content sharing isn’t going away. It has become the norm for both B2B and B2C marketing. Here are a few of the major benefits of content marketing:

• Helps keep your business competitive, or ahead of competitors
• Assists you with understanding your consumers
• Helps both your business and your business’s customers meet their goals
• Establishes quality content that’s engaging to audiences
• Builds brand awareness
• Measures the return on your investment

 

So how do you get started?

Like anything worthwhile, it’s all easier said than done. Start by finding qualified, talented and passionate writers, bloggers, and experts in social media. Assign a budget for content marketing that makes sense for you. Identify your buyer persona: learn about their concerns and interests, then create customer-centric content around them. When you address your customers specific needs, it is highly likely that they will be much more intrigued by the content you’ve provided. Lastly, create clear, consistent and quality content. Yes, this is a lengthy, time-consuming process, but business owners are finding out that it’s smart to trust the process.

If there’s one takeaway from today’s lesson on the business value of content marketing, it is this: The more shared content, the more generated traffic. So keep sharing. In the end, it will all be worth it.