Content marketing has never been more relevant than in 2020 and beyond. The attention economy has gotten tighter as people become more selective with the kind of content they consume.
A half-hearted attempt at content creation won’t permeate that bubble. Today’s buyer is trained to ignore regurgitated content and what they perceive as an obvious attempt at blatant advertisement.
One needs only cast a cursory glance at the popularity of ad blockers. Instead, buyers want to learn how you can add value for them. Not the other way round. And this is where content marketing comes in.
High-quality content, however, requires a concerted, strategic effort that is grounded in statistics (and by virtue, reality). To this end, content creation can be a bit speculative because you’re planning for the future based on trends of today, but if you plan it right, it could be your ace in the hole for growth.
So Why is Content – Good Content – Your Ace in the Hole for Growth?
Content will always stay in vogue. It isn’t just a random mishmash of text and images; it’s supposed to be highly informative and simplifies research on behalf of the reader.
If your content is informative and engaging enough, readers will want to stick around and read your entire blog because it saves them the trouble of doing the research.
Content can buy you attention from the buyer – at least long enough to establish a lasting connection.
Content Marketing Feeds on Emotions
Content has long been used as a vehicle for evoking human emotions. We’ve all experienced the thrills of reading a novel that keeps us on the edge of our seats and makes us think. A well-researched blog can create feelings such as humor, awe, and curiosity – and it can create enough incentive for buyers to bond with the brand over a quick emotional connection.
To this end, the best content is one that bypasses our appetites for skepticism and gets us emotional. What sort of content can you use to build that emotional connection?
Pro tip: Video Content is More Effective at Leveraging Emotions
Video content, in particular, deserves special mention here. Our brains can process visual information about 60,000 times faster than regular text. Video content can convey more emotions that other forms of content fail to leverage
Then there’s the personalization aspect of video content. We’ve become very adept at identifying content that isn’t relevant to us, whether it’s a blog post or an email with a bold “40% savings” stamp on the outside. We tend to filter through these in an instant.
Video content is gaining steam is that it can be highly personalized based on audience trends.
Finding New How-To Opportunities
Whether you prefer text or video content, it’s obvious that adding how-to content can re-energize your brand. For instance, if you have a B2B company with products designed around online collaboration, you could create how-to articles about transitioning to the new program and improving communication.
These articles are crucial because they address a very specific need for a specific audience. They are also directly related to your brand.
The best part is that they are full of natural call to actions that don’t seem like they were forced in. These CTAs demonstrate your willingness to help solve a problem that someone is having, and not just a mindless cash grab.
If you want to learn about new opportunities about how-to content, you can do so by:
- Asking your audience
- Researching what is already being asked online (also done through keyword research)
- Speaking with your sales team
If you run a business that does not have a clear idea for content generation, then you must go back to the drawing board and explore new strategies, which is possible using the methods stated above.
Become Creative With Content Marketing
In some situations, you need to create content that may already exist elsewhere on the internet, but your purpose is to do abetter job by becoming more creative. This means thinking outside the box and going the extra mile.
Even though some types of content seem like they’ve been done to the death, you can actually find more creative ways of presenting them. You can create videos demonstrating each process in meticulous detail, applying them in different contexts, and using diagrams.
Optimized Content Marketing Boosts SEO
The value of content marketing becomes astoundingly clear when you look at the role it plays in helping your website boost search engine optimization.
SEO plays an important role in improving visibility into your business. However, content only works if you improve optimized content.
Businesses that post optimized consent on a consistent basis have more indexed pages on Google than those that don’t have any content at all, As a general rule, the more blogs you have on your website, the more content Google and Bing have to index.
While it’s true that most pages don’t necessarily gain rank or high traffic, it does give you the opportunity to at least get the word out there.
For instance, creating content on different genres that are relevant to your reader base can give you more opportunities for ranking for the keywords that the users are targeting on Google and Bing.
As a general rule, the more content you upload, the more reasons your visitors will have of sticking around. This means lower bounce rates which can positively impact your SEO.
Google can actually measure the amount of time sent on your website an indication that you are right on track with valuable content.
Do you want to create high-quality content for your website but don’t have the time? Consider hiring a content writing service that does all the heavy lifting for you – from keyword research to content generation.
Content Brings in New Leads
Content marketing is the best means of lead generation – period.
Why does it matter though? Because lead generation is by far the most powerful tool that small businesses have of bringing inconsistent traffic to sustain growth and maximize revenue. Not only is content marketing ideal for lead generation, but it can be done on a bare bones budget.
Despite only costing just a fraction of the cost of traditional marketing, content marketing can bring in significantly more leads.
It is worth pointing out that content marketing is very time-intensive and it can take several months before you can see the fruits of your labor. This is definitely true in the case of websites that are still relatively new.
Even if you don’t have the time for content marketing, devoting just a few hours to your overall strategy can increase your traffic.
It’s easy to see the benefit of content marketing once you begin seeing the return on your investment.
Your Leads Want Great Content
The truth is, your leads and customers want to read more content. A sizable percentage of online uses spend their time going over content.
So it’s only fair that you give your readers what they want.
Just keep a few tips in mind when creating content for your audience:
- Gather data of your ideal customers
- Build their journey maps
- Obtain user feedback
- Create content based on the above data
- Measure ROI of the content after a few months in the wilderness (i.e. search engines)
- Revisit your content strategy and revise as needed
- Rinse and repeat
Wrapping Up
Content is always going to be the most powerful tool for getting more eyeballs on your page. The only thing that will change is creativity and innovation. Blogs that tend to do well are infused with the author’s personality to help consumers get more familiar with the brand. It’s what sets them apart from the rest.
