Why Content Marketing is Essential for your Business

These days, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to capture the attention and interest of consumers. Small businesses struggle through a lot of noise in the advertising world; DVRs have paved the way for people to skip through commercials, software exits can now block ads from websites, and people can now customise what they want to see on their social media feeds.

If you own a small business, it’s essential for you to be able to ensure that your brand isn’t being ignored by the community, but is instead being promoted through produce messages that your target audience would be interested to see and read. Now, more than ever, it’s imperative to evaluate how you communicate with your customers. Instead of making constant sales pitches, its time to open your ears and eyes, and repackage your brand as something that provides valuable information, not just another annoying interruption.

“Content marketing” is a digital marketing technique, which works to effectively communicate with consumers by providing them with information that purposely engages them. This is a great option for small business who want to attract and keep loyal customers, as it allows them to promote brand awareness by using relevant and valuable information.

Content is King—Is This Still True?

When Bill Gates wrote an essay titled “Content is King” in 1996, the statement quickly became a mantra for professionals in the marketing and communication industries. Over two decades later, it remains relevant and deeply ingrained into our practices. The sad reality is that this statement has lost its true meaning.

Everyone on the Internet is producing content; we are constantly bombarded by tonnes and tonnes of content, that most of it has simply become white noise to us. Content does not have the same razzmatazz as it once did and as the amount of content churned into the World Wide Web keeps on growing, engagement rates continue declining. What’s more is that the audience has become as skilled as ignoring content as they would in traditional advertising.

You may be wondering why we’re still talking big about content marketing, and that’s because consumers and readers are still hungry for content—quality content, to be specific. We are here to discuss how important it is to produce quality content that is valuable and relevant to your target audience.

When designed, produced and executed accordingly, content marketing can help your business enjoy the following benefits:

Effectively Promote Brand Awareness

One of the vital ingredients of a successful content marketing campaign is consistency, meaning it’s essential that you regularly publish new content. This way, you are opening doors for your target market to see your business’ name. Once they’ve become familiar with your brand, they will remember you the next time they’re in need of the products or services you offer.

Become a Trusted Industry Expert

Let’s say there are eight auto repair shops in your town. If you’re the only one who provides useful information to the members of the community, your brand will stand out, giving itself the reputation of a trusted industry expert. Its advised to seek opportunities that allow you to demonstrate your expertise, as this will help ensure that potential customers trust in your skills and credibility without question. When you work to help the community in some way, your business will gain a reputation of being likeable and trustworthy.

Smaller Investment yet Greater Return

One of the great things about content marketing is that it costs significantly less than other forms of advertising. Compared to traditional and outbound marketing techniques, content marketing is generally about 62% less expensive.

Aside from the lower costs, content marketing generates three times the number of leads, and these leads greatly contribute to the overall traffic of your site. Needless to say, they bring new prospects, social media reach and better brand visibility.

On the other hand, traffic should not be the only way you determine the success of your content marketing campaigns, but still something that you should always observe. If you’re running a small business, content marketing is the most affordable way for you to get good results.

Let’s take email marketing as an example. Email marketing allows you to reach a wide yet highly targeted audience, but also offers some of the best ROI you can expect from digital marketing. To discover more, make sure you also check out our tips for successful email marketing!

It Provides Fresh Content for your Website

These days, consumers rely heavily on the Internet to discover the information they need when they make decisions. Most of the time, websites provide the first impression on customers, therefore it goes without saying that you’ll need a good one to capture the interest of your audience. If your website appears as outdated or neglected, it will exude an unprofessional vibe. Keep in mind that consumers who are actively searching for services will most likely visit a website or a social media page several times, therefore it’s important to give them fresh information. This ensures you’re giving your potential customers a new and interesting experience after every visit.

To create quality content also means to make sure that you always have fresh information in your website. It is worth noting that Google does not necessarily look at the depth or context of your content when it determines how relevant your content is to search queries; this search engine is also looking at how fresh your content is.

Search engines like Google give freshness scores based on different factors, including:

  • The time the content was first created and uploaded
  • How often you update the content
  • Whether the content is modified on a regular basis
  • If the content attracts new inbound links
  • Engagement and traffic metrics

It is essential to regularly create content for your small business, as doing so allows you to produce a regular stream of old and new traffic to your fresh and even older content.

Motivates Consumers to Take Action

It’s natural for consumers to procrastinate when they need to dedicate time and money to a service or product, however if they find a relatable story or definitive answers to their questions, they become motivated to schedule an appointment or make a purchase. With quality content, you can guide your customers through their buying journey, from awareness and assessment to making a purchase. Doing this ensures you benefit from more sales.

Let Customers Find your Content

It would be a waste of time and resources to create quality content which is unable to be found by your customers and audience. To ensure your target market are finding your business and have access to your content, it’s important to incorporate effective SEO techniques when producing content. There should be a balance between producing Google-friendly and user-friendly content, as finding a way to ensure this would be worth investing your money and time.

This is where Lollipop Digital comes in. With a team of search engine optimisation specialists and seasoned copywriters, we can bring your content marketing game to the next level. We can ensure that you have quality content online which your potential customers can easily find.

If you want to find out more about our digital marketing services, do not hesitate to call Lollipop Digital. We are ready to help you gain a competitive edge online!

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