Content marketing is a smart strategy that leverages content creation to engage prospects and customers. This type of strategy allows brands to show up and stand out online, particularly during users’ consideration and evaluation stages.
When done right, a content marketing strategy delivers your brand’s unique value, building a strong bond with both existing and future customers. Considering the smorgasbord of product options the internet hands to us on a silver platter, showing up and standing out has never been more important.
Think of your typical customer journeys. When searching for a new product, we’d bet you rarely trust friend recommendations alone. That’s because, when choosing between and evaluating different brands, users are typically looking at:
- Social media posts.
- Blog posts and articles.
- Testimonials.
- YouTube videos.
- Tweets.
- Forums.
All of the above are forms of content. And all of the above are necessary to help users cut through the clutter while making smarter, easier decisions.
Besides, brands that create consistent content in the form of images, videos, and text are the ones that show up at the right place, at the right time. And suddenly, content marketing becomes more than just an engaging, informative strategy: it becomes a landslide that sends customers to cart.
In this article, we’ll walk you through some of the greatest benefits of content marketing – and why you should strengthen your strategy starting today.
Brand Loyalty
Depending on the market, people will usually have a “favorite” brand. So, when you’re a challenger brand in an established market, do you even stand a chance of earning customer loyalty?
According to Think With Google, the answer is yes. A lot of the time, simply being present and creating content to establish brand awareness can be enough. To some users, the fact that they have a different, potentially better option to evaluate is enough! That’s why creating content for every stage of the funnel is so important.
Although being present can be enough to attract potential customers, it may not be enough to convert them. It’s also up to marketers to create valuable content that helps the prospect make a good purchasing decision.
Increased Trust
Which of the following brands would you trust more?
- Brand A: Posts content sparingly – it’s clear that there’s no content marketing strategy in place. Plus, the content sounds “sales-y”, so potential customers may not feel drawn to the content at all. In fact, they may feel like they’re being pushed to buy something.
- Brand B: Posts consistent content in different platforms, at every stage of the funnel. The content is interesting to the target audience, and it’s designed to attract new leads without directly selling anything.
The answer is quite obvious.
Truth is, people won’t buy anything unless they’re certain a product will solve their problems. They must trust what you’re offering. And trust can only be created if your content helps your audience achieve what they want to achieve.
By creating meaningful content that reflects your audience’s pains and desires, you can start building that trust. Until it comes time to hit “add to cart.”
Increased Social Media Engagement
When you publish consistent and valuable content on social media, this increases audience engagement. Engagement comes in the form of likes, shares, and comments.
If you post something your followers resonate with, they’ll like it. They’ll save it. They might even tag a friend or two. And, the more qualified prospects your social media content reaches, the more engagement you’re likely to earn.
Note that we said “qualified prospects,” which not all prospects will be. That’s why your goal is to know what type of content will make your ideal customers feel connected to your brand. The more connected they feel, the more they’ll interact.
Expertise Building
There’s a reason why we choose experts so much.
Research tells us that “one effect of expert advice is to ‘offload’ the calculation of value of decision options from the individual’s brain.” In other words: if an expert has supported a claim, people are more likely to view it as true.
For this same reason, smart marketers include expert testimonials to their web pages and social media content. They mention years of industry experience. They share the expertise of their team in “About Us” pages. And so on.
When their content is supported by expert evidence, this fires up what we call the “authority bias,” which helps users make better decisions, faster. For that reason, don’t hesitate to harness your expertise in your content.
A Better Relationship With Your Target Audience
Your customers are always performing organic searches on Google. They want to know what to do, how to do it, where to go, and what to buy. They need immediate help with those things – and that’s where you come in.
When you know the words and phrases prospects search when looking for solutions like yours, it’s easier for you to use those exact keywords on your content. Not only on your written content, but on your videos and image captions. Most importantly: if you know the motivations behind that search, that can supercharge your content creation.
If that well-researched content helps them, that can boost your relationship with your target audience. Trust us: your brand name becomes a lot more memorable after you’ve solved a problem or helped someone achieve an outcome.
The result? Feeling grateful, a prospect may want to find out more about your brand. They may visit your website, your other socials, and even look at your products. Even if they decide not to buy this time, they just might consider your brand the next time around. Congrats – you’ve just earned a potential customer.
How’s Your Content Marketing Strategy Looking?
It all starts with content, and it all ends with content. The loop never ends, and we’re here for it.
Although every single buyer journey is different, content is arguably the answer to why people may choose one brand over another. Yet, keep in mind that consistency, relatability and authority are what separates ordinary content from top-of-mind content.
