08 Feb 5 Benefits of Content Marketing for Your Business
When you hear the word marketing it tends to either scare some people because they don’t understand it or they automatically brush it off and think it’s something they have to outsource regardless of it’s complexity or simplicity. A lot of emphasis is put on SALES these days and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that, I’m a well conditioned and skilled sales person myself :). But, the way to a better sale is through marketing which is done effectively. What is marketing? In a nutshell, marketing is responsible for putting the right set of eye balls in front of the right information, product or service. Without proper marketing it is that much harder to make the sale. Imagine trying to sell a Japanese made car with leather seats and premium audio system when the prospect just wants an American-made pick up truck with cloth interior. While there are lots of different marketing methods to grow your business I want to go over one particular style of marketing that has been proven to be one of the most effective ways, that is content marketing. Let’s take a look at 5 Benefits of Content Marketing for Your Business.
- Provide Value. Value based marketing has become very popular with the birth of Social Media but it has existed for many years before, even before the world knew of any paper or coin currency. Value based marketing is when you provide your prospective customers real value that is useful to them before asking them to buy anything. In the modern day we call it making an educated decision. If you’re a dentist, you can post stuff about daily routine of how to keep teeth healthy. If you’re a lawyer, provide information on having the right contracts before engaging in any type of partnership. “3 Contract You Must Have as a Successful Consultant” would be a great example for an article you can publish for your readers as a lawyer. If you’re a hair stylist, provide value on how to keep healthy hair or certain products to use to prevent dandruff. If you’re an insurance agent, educate, provide value on how to select the right coverage for our homes, auto or life policy. You get the point. Creating content is easy because it is your profession and responsibility to know the information. Don’t be afraid to give thinking that your prospect won’t need you or may go to your competition after receiving the information. The more value you will give the more attention you will get, and retention of your clients will increase. Attention is the new currency today, and the best way to get it is by increasing value through content.
- Positioning. Positioning is key if you want to dominate your niche. Competition is what everyone is involved in but dominance over a niche is seldom found. Those that dominate their niche are the ones that positioned themselves as experts in what they do. By providing great content, either video or text, sets you apart from your competitors. Position yourself as the leading expert in your field and you will never know what it’s like to hunt for business, you will become the hunted.
- Lead generation. When you provide content that your followers and readers enjoy they wouldn’t mind submitting their information (email, phone) in exchange for either more valuable information or simply to reach out to you and inquire about your product/service. Don’t hesitate to include a call-to-action with the free content that you provide. Call-to-action may be to dial the phone number or to subscribe to the newsletter or some sort of email opt in in exchange for something of value to them. GetResponse is my favorite email auto responder for a newbie to use for collecting emails.
- Authority Level. This is a big one, very similar to Positioning but with a strong psychological image engrained in your prospect’s mind. Simply put, when you create content related to your niche you automatically set yourself up as an expert in your field. In your reader’s mind you’re the authority of some level in that industry. You want to validate that image by proving that you DO know your stuff by having strong points in your content. Charts or statistics of some sort from 3rd party. If you’re comparing your product or service to another competitor then you want to provide a clear comparison on why you’re better. It can’t be all about pricing. Include the age of your business, innovations, client testimonials, social media engagement, documented video content of the operation, etc.
- Best ROI. For once, lets talk economics here. Marketing through content creation will be the best return on your investment long term. Most of the content creation is free, except for the time and knowledge you put into it. You can measure other marketing strategies and figure out the ROI on things like paid Facebook ads, radio ads, TV commercials, telemarketing, paid articles with 3rd party publishers, print ads, etc. But you can’t measure the value based marketing, creating content for your prospects. It is actually invaluable due to it’s long term residual payout from work done once. Not to mention what it does to your brand awareness.
Here is the bottom line of the benefits of content marketing for your business. Understand that it’s the biggest investment for the long term of your business. It is sustainable and cost effective. While you set your business apart as the leading expert in the field you’re creating brand awareness and securing the trust between your brand and your prospects. Trust is a factor within the purchasing that has always existed and always will, no matter how the technology changes. Today, less people trust the ads and commercials and more people trust content (value added) and social proof. Social proof, testimonials, is the added fuel to your content based marketing activity.
Leave a comment below if you have any questions about content marketing or tell us about your business a little HERE and your main concerns so we can assist you.
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To your continued success,
Raphael Mavi