10 Benefits of Content Marketing & 10 Tips On How To Improve Your Strategy

10 Benefits Of Content Marketing Builds brand trust with potential clients. Produces long-lasting results for your business. Is a lead magnet. Get an invite to the exclusive party that ad blockers have created. Gets you more bang for your buck. Improves your SEO. Invites your audience to act. Visual content creation can be easy. Drive sales consistently. It can help you ride trend waves for exposure.

According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is 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.” Businesses that want to improve their online product marketing performance should consider developing a content marketing strategy. Valuable free information or instruction in a blog post, infographic, social media post, case study, eBook, or YouTube video can attract new prospects quickly and consistently to your company. While content marketing doesn’t have to be complicated, smart content marketing strategies can take your business to the next level. Deploying simple but effective strategies for small businesses is what the Big Leap team excels at.

10 Ways That Content Marketing Benefits Your Business

1. Content marketing builds brand trust with potential clients.

Not only that, there’s no faster way to build trust than by making good content that offers verifiable, helpful information. You don’t have to give away the store, but at the very least, demonstrating use cases is a surefire way to turn prospects into customers. Forget overly selling people. Instead, focus on showing them how your widget makes their life better.  Millions of people every day search online platforms to inspiration, information, and entertainment.

2. Content marketing is a great way to produce long-lasting results for your business.

When you develop content marketing strategies, your campaign doesn’t have an end date. Once you publish a blog post or how-to video, it can produce leads for your business for an indefinite amount of time.

3. Good content marketing is a lead magnet.

When you provide useful free information, your audience may be willing to trade their information for access to the information. This is a win-win situation where your audience gets access to useful information and you get to build your database of potential customers.

4. Developing good content is a way to get an invite to the exclusive party that ad blockers have created.

Content marketing can get in the door when traditional ads are locked out. According to the Content Marketing Institute, over 200 million people now use ad blockers. You can work around ad blockers by providing content that solves a problem or answers a question for your target audience. When you provide content that genuinely helps your audience, they will seek you out. The best way to sell is to not sell. Telling a story while providing free information is a great way to connect with consumers who do not respond to traditional ads. We live in a time where people are hungry for information and where information is readily available through search engines. 80% of business decision makers in one study said that they prefer to read informational articles about a product over reading traditional ad copy about the same product.

5. Content marketing gets you more bang for your buck.

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing strategies. When you can educate your audience about your product or service as an answer to their online searches, you build lasting brand trust. Following this strategy allows for continuous cultivation of new inquiries and clients for your business. Even with a lean team and tight budget, you can create content that’s interesting for your target audience.

6. High-quality content improves your SEO.

Google has changed its algorithm to ding sites that “keyword stuff” in order to improve their SEO. Creating consistent content that naturally incorporates keywords can help you gain visibility for your business without being penalized for “keyword stuffing.”

7. Content marketing invites your audience to act.

Inside of a social media post, a blog post, or a video, it’s easy to include a call to action to read more about your company, visit your website, sign up for an email newsletter, or visit your brick and mortar shop. If your content is interest and relevant to your viewer, they’ll want to learn more about what you do.

8. Visual content creation can be easy.

In fact, creating content for a content marketing campaign can be as simple as snapping a pic or creating a short video. If you run a pizza business, take people into the kitchen and show them how you knead your dough or slice toppings. If you run a factory, demonstrate how your new machines uniquely improve efficiency. Anytime you make it easy for someone to understand the benefits of your product, they’ll consider buying.

9. Content marketing campaigns drive sales consistently.

Small efforts add up over time. A winning content marketing strategy incorporates all the varying elements of your digital strategy and injects content creation throughout the cycle. Digital research helps people convince themselves to make purchases. Make it easy for them to perform their studies and you stand a strong chance of winning their business. Remember, even though it may take a few months to really see the results of your content marketing strategies, the results are long-lasting and compounding in effect.

10. Shareable content is trending.

Creating funny or meaningful videos, articles, or graphics that are relevant to potential customers can be a great lead generation. It’s common for brands to create simple graphics that quote celebrities, politicians, and other notable figures using brand colors. An attractive graphic with an inspirational message is easy for viewers to share with their friends and family who may also be interested in the products or services that your brand offers. A timely blog post that solves a problem for a user that their friends also deal with can be spread through networks quickly.

10 Tips & Tricks For Developing An Effective Content Marketing Strategy

1. Create content that educates, such as simple how-to videos or blog tutorials.

These kinds of materials help establish your brand as a legitimate authority on specific topics.

2. Give away something of value to your consumer.

Build your campaigns around content as a way to build trust with your customers.

3. Make your material professional-grade.

Avoid sloppy grammar, typos, and other visual errors that can negatively affect campaign performance. If you’re shooting a tutorial video, make sure that your audio is clear. If you’re posting a quote graphic on Instagram, double-check to make sure that you’re quoting the right person and eliminating any embarrassing spelling errors.

4. Establish a sufficient budget to maintain your campaigns.

Be smart about planning the budget that you need for your campaign. You don’t need to hire an award-winning videographer in order to run a great visual content marketing campaign. You can find affordable and accessible tools that still produce content that catches your target audience’s eye. Think about what kind of content your audience is most likely to consume. If your target audience spends a lot of time on Instagram, think about creating visual content like graphics and videos that will catch their eye while scrolling through their feed.

5. Stay patient as you implement your content strategy.

The amount of time it takes to really see results from a content marketing strategy depends on your business situation (e.g., size, type of product, buyer demographic), but for the average small to medium size business, it can take around 6-9 months.  Small pieces of your strategy will over time start to build on each other to bring you great results for your business.

6. Match content to buying cycle of your customers.

Does your customer need to compare your business with other businesses in your industry? Are they just getting introduced to the kind of products and services that you provide? Thinking about these questions is key to deciding what kind of content marketing strategy will generate the most leads for you. No matter your product or service, the Big Leap team can definitely help you determine the stage that your buyers are at in the buying cycle.

7. Make it fun.

Working with your team to generate content can be a fun way to break up your daily routine. Research what other companies in your industry are doing and find new ways to talk about what’s important to your customers while giving your customers a glimpse into your brand’s personality.

8. Practice makes perfect.

Brainstorm with your team to come up with ways to integrate your products and services into engaging videos, blog posts, or social media posts. As you publish content, you can see how your viewers respond and then adjust your future content accordingly. When a content marketing strategy is perfect, your customers will barely notice that it’s there.

9. Teach, teach, teach.

Showing potential customers how your products and services can make their lives easier is a quick way to get in front of a new audience.  Education can drive sales because it helps your audience better understand how your solutions work and how they can specifically benefit from buying from your business.

10. Just get started!

Whether you create blog posts, Instagram stories, Facebook posts, YouTube videos, infographics, case studies, or any other kind of content, you can be effective at telling the story of your brand. It’s okay to start small and get in the rhythm of creating the content that your audience is looking for. Content is king, but consistency is queen. When these two work together, good things can happen for your business.

Videos, articles, and social media posts are perfect tools to allow glimpses into your operations. It’s never too late to add a content marketing strategy to your business marketing toolkit. There’s a massive opportunity for anyone who’s willing to find ways to incorporate their product in engaging videos and articles. The online market responds to relevant content that informs in an interesting way.

For more on how Big Leap can help you with your content marketing strategy, take a look at our content marketing services here.