9 Powerful Benefits of Content Marketing for your Business

Businesses have long relied on paid advertising to acquire customers.

However, this is serious!

Today, 30% of all internet users deploy ad blockers on their devices. Not only on desktop but also mobile devices.

And they have valid reasons for this action.

This is not favourable for the brands that rely primarily on paid advertisements to reach new and current customers.

Bottom line?

You must look for other ways to acquire and retain your customers. And what’s that?

Content marketing! Today, you’ll learn the 9 powerful benefits of content marketing for your business.

But, exactly…

What is Content Marketing?

The moment you hear the term ‘content marketing’, you think about blogs and social media.

But content marketing is much more than that. And that’s why the benefits of content marketing are beyond your imagination.

Content marketing is defined as:

Creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content that attracts and retains a defined audience and ultimately drives a profitable customer action.

So, content marketing covers the following aspects:

1. Defining your target audience
2. Creating relevant content for them
3. Distributing that content on suitable channels
4. Driving a profitable customer action from content like sign-ups, purchases, etc.

Fractl shares these benefits of content marketing at various stages of the sales funnel.

Both paid advertising and content marketing attract the audience to your brand, but content marketing is all about providing value and giving something to your audience to build trust before they convert into your customer.

Broadly, these 8 content marketing tactics are used by B2B marketers.

Find the right content mix amongst these that works specifically for your audience.

What are the Benefits of Content Marketing for my business?

That’s a valid question many small, growing businesses ask.

They often see larger brands doling out a ton of amazing content that speaks of their products and services.

So can you REALLY drive a profitable ROI from content marketing?

Absolutely, if you do it right! And you don’t even need to spend hefty amounts on it.

You realise that 70% of your customers prefer learning about your company through an article over any kind of advertisement. And a lot of customers are out there actively looking for that content.

However, another problem is how to get started or what to write about?

If you’re not sure how to do it, then outsource content marketing to get the benefits.

The benefits of content marketing are worth the investment. Here are 9 reasons your business should invest in content marketing.

1.Means of Promotion Without Selling

One of the best content marketing tips I ever heard was: Tell, not sell.

Customers visit your website and follow you on social media because they want to hear from you.

They want information, and how you can help them solve their problems. What they don’t want is your product promotion 24 x 7.

Though your products and services are a valuable solution for your audience, they don’t want your products right away. They first want to understand how your product/service can offer them value.

That’s what content marketing does. It lets you provide value to your audience beyond your products, thus giving customers more reasons to pay attention to you.

Here are some great content marketing examples

2. Builds Trust

Why would people buy from you unless they trust you?

That’s the benefit of content marketing.

By creating and distributing quality content related to your business field consistently, you show people you are an expert at what you do.

Content is the backbone for improving consumer trust. As they trust you, they’ll be more willing to not only share your content but also return for more information.

As the frequency of seeing and sharing your content increases, so does your brand recall and engagement.

It helps build trust between you and your audience, who then converts into your customer.

3. Establish Brand Identity

An established brand can quickly influence the buying decision of the audience. However, it didn’t establish this identity overnight.

It took months to make their audience pay attention to their brand. And it’s all in the power of content marketing.

So, even if you are new in the game, you can leverage from your content marketing strategy that highlights your unique identity.

Your business’ unique voice will resonate with the audience it aims to serve.

Your customers are grateful for the service and solutions you provide, but when you ramp up the value with your content, you position yourself as a key resource they need to pay attention to.

When you become a reliable resource for your audience, they are more likely to turn to you when it’s time to make a purchase.

4. Boosts your Organic Search

Search engines have changed the business scenario completely. Research shows that 97% customers use popular search engines to perform a local search for goods and services before making a purchase. 

If your marketing strategy does not weigh heavily towards your business showing up during those searches, you will lose a major chunk. 

5. Performance is Easy to Analyse

Business without a data is like throwing a stone in the dark expecting it will hit the target.

But now you have all the easy-to-acquire metrics which help to determine what is working and what is not and adjust your strategy accordingly.

This way, your online marketing strategy easily becomes a smooth well-oiled operation, highly efficient at gathering leads and converting them to customers.

6. Generate Leads and Attract Ideal Buyers at Low Cost

What’s the basic purpose of any marketing?

Generating leads!

Ultimately, your aim is to attract new people to your business that you can sell to.

Content marketing attracts even those who may not have even decided to buy yet. They discover your business through your useful content and get interested that converts them.

A good content marketing strategy will make your business readily available to those actively searching for it. These are your ideal leads because they have already made up their minds that they need you. Content marketing allows them to find you.

A study from HubSpot found that businesses with consistently fresh content on their blog see 126% more leads than those companies without a blog.

7. Levels the Playing Field and Leads to a Higher ROI

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional advertising while being 3 times more effective in generating leads.

Indeed, with a well-thought-out content marketing campaign, your business could rub shoulders with a much bigger one.

8. Allows you to Take the Advantage of Social Shares

When you publish high-quality content, people will take note and are more likely to share it on social media.

Look at this chart from Fractl which shows the average social shares per month across different industries.

Once you publish your content, it continues to give you traffic month over month at no cost to you. With every share, it places your brand in front of fresh eyes.  

Compare this to be paid advertising where your reach dries up completely as soon as the campaign ends.

9. Brings People Back to your Website

Won’t you benefit from recurring visits from your ideal leads?

By adopting a cohesive, effective content marketing strategy, you establish your status as an expert in your field.

Once that happens, your target audience looks to you as a source of solutions to all their worries. They keep coming back to your site for more information and your business will benefit.

Conclusion on the Benefits of Content Marketing

The benefits of content marketing are inexplicable. Content marketing is the preferred choice for most brands to gain and retain customers at a low cost.

It not only helps promote your brand but establishes your authority in your field of business, which no one else can take. Once you become an authority, your earnings automatically shoot up.

So, are you ready to invest in content marketing? If Yes, here are the top content marketing trends to focus on in 2020.

Let me know in the comments about the benefits of content marketing you get for your business.