Why Content Marketing Is Worth Your Valuable Time & Effort

As a business owner, you’ve created a tantalizing product or service, you’ve structured the foundation of your business, and you’ve managed the successful operations. 

Now, society is asking you to craft content for what seems like just the hell of it?

Let’s dig in and find out why “content really is king”. 

What is content marketing?

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.

What’s different from copy is that content aims to inspire, guide, & entertain as opposed to sell and persuade. It adds value on top of your offering & keeps people interested in your brand. The cherry on top of the content marketing special is that it amplifies your search engine friendliness – helloooooo organic traffic. 

From articles, videos, blogs, e-books, infographics, stories, & new platforms entering the market every single day, you have plenty of options to ensure your brand is adequately entertaining and engaging your audience. 

Is content marketing crucial to your business?

For small business owners, creating content can be a cause for frustration because it seems unrelated to the daily upkeep of the business. Carving out time to write blog posts or develop vlogs can seem ridiculous when you have a myriad of other tasks that directly correlate to how much money you bring in each day.  

However, neglecting content marketing can quickly slip a dagger into a valuable client acquisition process and then swiftly move on to effortlessly cutting down current consumer satisfaction. Say adios to lead generation and au revoir to return customers. 

With 90% of all organizations using content in their marketing efforts, it’s time you not only jump on the train, but ensure that you’re setting up a plan for value-driven content that engages. 

Content marketing builds trust with your audience & brings in business. 

It’s difficult to show your audience that you are deserving of trust through traditional forms of advertising. Your target market is smart. They know that advertisements, product descriptions, and email campaigns are made with the intention of getting them to buy something. 

However, when you create something that adds additional value on top of the product or service you already offer, they begin to trust that you care about them — not just their money. 

Providing something funny, informative, enjoyable, or useful on a regular basis catalyzes your audience to appreciate you, believe you, and, most importantly, come back to you. 

Only content marketing can elicit this deeper relationship. And once this relationship is in place, consumers will find it much easier to click “buy now” the next time you send them one of your typical advertising pieces.

Here’s how to write strategic content marketing that will increase your traffic…

Examine your target audience. 

Although content seems to be an off-the-cuff style of writing, it is essential to write about topics that will pique interest and resonate with your target audience. Does your ideal customer typically like to be entertained? Or do they prefer to be informed? What are their needs? How can your key business offerings fulfill what they lack? Only when you compose content that plays into what they’re seeking will you be able to grow your business with content marketing. 

Make it conversational. 

Content speaks directly from a company representative to the consumer – as opposed to the overarching company — so it’s an amazing opportunity for you to be personable and form a connection.  Write to oneperson so that readers feel directly spoken to. You will lose people with “hello everyone” or “hey guys”. 

Although content is conversational, it should also infuse your authentic brand voice as well. Your viewers should get a taste of your identifiable tone no matter what piece of writing they’re reading. This will help them internalize a deeper understanding of who you are as a company. When viewers feel at ease because they know what to expect when they return to your site, higher are the odds of them returning. 

Give readers a next step. 

Whether you ask them to comment or send them to another post, providing your readers with an appropriate call to action ensures you don’t leave them hanging. If they get to the end of your content with no hint on where to go next, odds are, they’re going to exit your page and move on to something else that provides them with the full experience yours lacked.

Test different types of content. 

Unfortunately for the busy business owner, content marketing is not a one-and-done process. In order to maximize this valuable strategy, you need to continually observe what is working. Be in the habit of routinely checking what your audience is replying to or sharing. Take note of the specifics that they praise and create more content with that insight in your back pocket. 

Content is king, originality is queen. 

Once again, this requires time, energy, and thought, but in order to earn shares, likes, and subscribers, you have to create original content. Fresh, funky, and innovative ideas will attract more people and routine dissemination of this trifecta-driven content will keep them coming back. Don’t force content if it’s not there. The number one question you should ask yourself is this: “Is this useful or fun to read?” If you’re piecing together words for the sake of saying you checked the box, you’re most likely doing more harm than good. 

Make them inquisitive then fulfill their curiosity. 

Human beings are naturally curious. And as a human being, you’ve probably felt the joy and appreciation for a business or site when they easily and adequately answer a question you’ve been pondering. Be this source of ease for viewers. Pose a question that you know your audience has, structure your content so that it’s easy to scan, cut down on the fluff, and answer their questions in a straight-forward, but on-brand way. 

Be attentive to your following. 

When you open the door to the world of content marketing, you gain the power of commenting, sharing, and replying. These tools can dramatically and quickly boost your following and traffic – if you have stellar content – but it can also beckon public scrutiny. Be sure to monitor commentary on your content and reply in a timely manner. Let them know you’re attentive to their needs, their thoughts, and their ideas. 

Do you need to develop a content marketing strategy?

Content marketing builds trust, improves SEO, boosts conversions, forms lifelong relationships, and adds additional value to your business. HubSpot reported that in 2020, 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing, showing the market’s awareness of this valuable tool’s power. 

As a small business, it’s essential to begin outlining a content marketing strategy that is rooted in originality, value, and brand identity. If you’re looking for ideas on how to take advantage of this powerful tool, reach out today to begin setting your business up for success for this decade.