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Content marketing is a strategy that every business should be employing, but unfortunately many still don’t. The benefits of content marketing are not to be ignored and the sooner you start putting together a plan for your own company’s content, the better off you will be in the long run.
In this article, we’ll go over some basics about what content marketing is and why it matters, as well as give you an idea of how to get started if you’re on a tight budget or just need some fresh business ideas for blogging.
Let’s dive deep into this topic.
What is content marketing and why does it matter?
Many people have heard the term content marketing before but might not know what it is exactly, or how to get started. Content marketing is about sharing relevant and engaging stories with your customers that make them want to do business with you (instead of your competitor). Consistent, high-quality content across all mediums canhelp you build trust and rapport with your audience over time.
Content marketing works by creating ongoing conversations with potential/current customers so they know, like, and trust you enough to be a repeat customer. Most importantly, content marketing gets more traffic than just about any other type of promotion on the market today. Search engine algorithms value content based on high quality, links and social shares (amongst other things).
You’ll also want to create a strong online presence through your blog, website, and social media profiles to will impress any potential business partners or investors. It’s important to note that you don’t need to own a blog to begin blogging; you can begin creating good content via guest posts or other forms of publishing on existing blogs such as Medium or LinkedIn.
The benefits of a steady, high-quality content marketing strategy for your business
So what are the benefits of consistent high-quality content marketing?
1. Builds trust and rapport with potential customers – When consumers come to your site, they can find information about you that is valuable and relevant. This helps build trust because they can see that you are an honest company or individual out there that has the good of your customers at heart. Content marketing is a great way to win at digital PR.
2. Increases traffic and SEO rankings – Having well written and interesting blog posts, articles, or videos will bring in more people to your website when compared to low quality posts. Your website will also rank higher on Google search when you have high quality content posted regularly.
3. Can be used to attract new business partners or investors – You will not need to hard sell when you have high-quality content on your website. When you create or even feature yourself and/or your company as the subject of one or several blog posts, other companies might contact you to create a partnership or investment opportunity.
4. Brings in more customers when the content is shared via social media – The chances of your social media contacts sharing a link to an article about something they found interesting go up when it’s from someone you know and trust (you).
This also gives people more opportunities to find out about your company and move down your sales funnel, because many times people will “like” and/or “follow” a Facebook page that provides them with quality information for free.
5. Makes it easier to launch and promote products, apps, services, etc due to increased exposure – You might be worried about spending time and money on something new only to find out it doesn’t work. You won’t have this problem when you do a lot of content marketing before the launch of a product or service because you will already have an interested audience willing to give it a try once you release it to the public.
6. Saves time & money compared to traditional marketing strategies – There is no need for ad agencies, no need to pay high rents for billboard space, etc. High-quality content can be written by anyone internally in your company that knows the subject matter well enough. Also, when you compare content marketing vs. display advertising, the benefits are several in favour of content marketing if you’re working with a limited budget.
Even better news is that the content you post on your website can also be recycled and used in other formats. For instance, you might decide to host a podcast and use content that you’ve already written for it.
7. You never have to worry about an ad being pulled out of rotation like radio, newspapers, etc. Unless you pull the plug on your blog/social media profiles yourself, the content you create will be public forever (or for a very long time).
Do all of these benefits sound great? Content marketing is a great way to promote your business or latest launch if it’s done right. You don’t have to spend tons of money on advertising either, but low-quality content can reflect poorly on you and drive away customers – so focusing on quality is key.
How to get started with content marketing on a budget
If you have a limited amount of money to invest in your marketing strategy, you should focus on creating high-quality content because it will have the most benefits. You can set up and/or promote your blog with lower costs than other types of advertisements or promotions, so if you are strapped for cash this is the best bet for you.
You don’t need to be an expert writer as long as you know a topic well and know how to write properly, breaking down information into sections that won’t lose readers’ attention. This will allow you to become an authority in your field because you have something new and valuable posted regularly (not just once every few months).
Also, if you lack internal content marketers and don’t know where to find one for hire, there are many freelance writers out there looking for more work. You can post an ad on Craigslist, or try using a service like Odesk to find a writer.
Ideas for how you can improve the quality of your blog posts
Once you have a few blog posts under your belt, it’s time to build some quality backlinks so the external world knows about your website and blog. You can start by searching Google for sites that accept guest posts on topics related to yours.
If you are going to reach out to different websites make sure the ones you choose have high domain authority and at least a decent number of social media followers, otherwise, they won’t provide much benefit in terms of SEO marketing or even in gaining new customers.
Also, be wary of companies or individuals selling high-quality links because most search engines frown upon them these days. Search engines look through the link profile of each site before determining where it will rank highly in their search engine results pages (SERPs). If there are too many low-quality links that point to a website, it will be dragged down in the SERPs, and fewer people will see it.
Ways to measure the success of your blog posts and gain further insights
One of the best ways to measure the success of your blog posts is by using Google Analytics, which can provide you with valuable insight. You should always keep track of how many people are clicking on your website from each blog post you submit to external websites.
If there are enough new customers coming through to a specific URL on your site then continue putting out high-quality content in that same vein; if not, maybe try a different approach next time and see what happens.
Many marketers have found success by using a service like BuzzSumo to find out what content is performing well in their industry. You can search for different keywords and see which blog posts get shared the most, which websites are gaining the most social media followers, and even what kind of content gets linked back to from other sources.
If you see that one of your competitors has written a great blog post that’s being shared all over the internet, don’t be afraid to write something similar because it could potentially bring in more customers than usual.
At the end of each month or quarter take a look at all the traffic coming into your website and you’ll know how many visitors are from organic search results (e.g., Google). You can also use a program like Hootsuite to keep track of when certain blog posts were posted so you can go back several months later and see which ones received the most activity.
This will help determine what kind of topics are trending among your audience and should be used for planning out future content releases.
Wrap Up
In conclusion, consistent, high-quality content is the backbone of any successful digital marketing campaign because it builds trust with your target audience and provides them with benefits that cannot be found anywhere else.
Focus on keeping close track of how your blog posts are doing so you can improve upon them in the future and always bear in mind that quality ultimately beats quantity when it comes to content marketing.
Author Bio
Hanson Cheng is the founder of Freedom to Ascend. He empowers online entrepreneurs and business owners to 10x their business and become financially independent. You can connect with him here.
