In an always-online world, content marketing separates businesses that succeed from those that fail.
Wireless networks and smartphones have put the internet in our pockets wherever we go. As people increasingly seek information at all times, your business’s online presence matters. A lot.
97% of people who know something about your business will want to research what it can offer. People with needs who know nothing about your business can discover how you can help them through online channels like Google search, YouTube, or Yelp.
Without a strategy to manage these online content channels, the content you put out there could be aimless and ineffective. Your words might fail to accurately capture what makes your brand special. Or, worse, you can fail to make a positive impression and lose big opportunities to competitors.
On the other hand, having a great content strategy or the help of a content writing agency in Atlanta can provide the following five concrete benefits to your branding and your bottom line:
Google is not only the #1 search engine but also the #1 website, period. Millions of people visit Google every day as the first step in their online journey. They use the search engine to answer questions, find information, or just seek out a brief distraction.
85% of consumers say they are likely to use Google for product information or ideas, making it the most popular online channel for pre-purchase research.
Google prefers ranking websites with fresh, high-quality content. The more up-to-date your content is and the more markers of quality it can cultivate, the more likely you are to rank for the search engine queries your potential customers are using.
This net effect is why search engine optimization (SEO) requires a stream of great content in addition to technical know-how.
Getting discovered and achieving brand awareness are just the first steps in a closed sale. A potential customer will need to evaluate your offerings in greater detail before they will be willing to commit to a purchase. Or, they may just need answers for simple questions like, “Will this business be open if I come by now?”
Incomplete or inaccurate information frustrates these curious consumers. Their impatience can quickly lead them to a competitor so they can get the information they need.
One recent survey found that 80% of consumers say they automatically lose trust in a business that lists incorrect details online, and 94% say they would be frustrated by this.
Your business website likewise has to provide an adequate experience before it can earn someone’s business. The same survey mentioned 91% of consumers want access to informative content, and over half (57%) wouldn’t recommend a business that had a poorly-optimized site design.
Relative to the immediate flash-in-the-pan results advertising promises, content marketing aims to set the stage for long-term, significant returns.
One reason content marketing can frustrate some business owners is that it’s like gardening: you’re sowing the seeds of quality content to gradually build a bountiful resource. Consumers will want to engage with this online garden ripe knowledge, and search engines will want to rank it.
This approach takes time, but it’s actually far more effective than traditional advertising.
According to the Content Marketing Institute,
content marketing generates three times the number of leads as outbound marketing techniques, like paid advertising. And, on average, it costs 62% less!
Another important facet to content marketing is that it remains focused on the long term. The efforts you take today combine with the efforts you make tomorrow, creating a fertile flowerbed for easy wins.
In other words, the more you put into content marketing, the more you get out in increasing amounts over time.
This cumulative effect is particularly obvious when it comes to your brand’s reputation. Businesses with sparse website content may have trouble getting discovered or convincing visitors to enter the marketing funnel.
Sites with good content earn trust as well as traffic signals that can help you rank. Trusted sites can then win over even larger groups of leads while building stronger relationships with long-time customers.
None of these gradual benefits can be earned without a consistent dedication to quality and a focus on your long-term strategy for online success.
If your business is already doing what you think it needs to do to be successful, having a complete content strategy can help bolster those efforts.
For instance, if you have a great local radio campaign that piques interest in your brand, you want customer leads to arrive at a well-crafted and persuasive website.
If you want customers to submit their emails to your marketing list, you need to tantalize them with valuable content or the promise of helpful updates. Otherwise, only a small fraction of visitors will leave contact information, possibly meaning they’re out of your funnel forever.
Or, if you’ve crafted an outstanding e-commerce system for your website that lets you sign up new customers at all hours of the day, you’ll want that effective website to rank for relevant keywords. If you can’t rank, you’re only producing a fraction of the sales you’re capable of!
In this way, great content writing is like the icing on an already delicious cake. Most people will appreciate what it adds, and to some people it will be their favorite thing about your business.
We at Antarsia Marketing are incredibly passionate about content marketing. For us, it’s not just a way to make a buck. It’s our craft — something we want to perfect and to use to make an impact on others’ lives. We have the high attention to detail and long-term vision your website content needs to find cumulative success.
So if you want to attain all of the benefits of content marketing we just listed above along with many, many more, drop us a line. Your first blog is free, so it’s not like you have anything to lose!