Who is the one true king of marketing? Common guesses may include ads, conferences, or even brand ambassadors on social media. But none of these even come close.
What if I told you the answer was quality content? Content is king today and will still be on the throne tomorrow. I’ll prove it to you – just in case you’re skeptical.
In 2020, 70% of marketers were already actively investing in content marketing (HubSpot).
79% of B2B content marketers say their organization has a content marketing strategy (Content Marketing Institute).
Years ago, experts projected that content marketing would be worth over $400 billion by 2021. By 2024, we can expect that number to exceed $600 billion.
Good content marketing has the power to increase engagement with your target audience. It can help you convert leads and win new customers. You can also use content to boost brand awareness and connect with prospects and leads at every stage of the buyer’s journey.
Quick Takeaways
If you haven’t already incorporated a strong content marketing strategy into your business or plan to this year, you’re falling behind your competitors.
No matter the size, shape, or state of your business, you should invest a portion of your marketing budget into content marketing.
Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing.
Content marketing will help you reach your target audience, engage people, build trust, and convert leads into customers.
To find the most success through content marketing, start by conducting research and then identify target keywords, write captivating headlines and content, and track results regularly. By optimizing your efforts over time, you can boost sales and ROI for your business.
Why Your Business Should Invest in Content Marketing
If you haven’t already incorporated a content marketing strategy into your business or plan to this year, you’re already falling behind. Whether you’re a one-person show or you work for a large enterprise, it’s time to get up to speed to remain competitive in your industry and hit your marketing and revenue goals.
This chart shows the average increase in traffic and measurable business outcomes (leads and direct sales in some cases) from our clients. The average increase in traffic is 138% after 12 months. The average ROI is 7x! The average ROI for social media ads is 0.86. That means most companies lose 14 cents for every dollar spent advertising on Facebook or Instagram.
No matter the size, shape, or state of your business, you should put a portion of your budget toward content marketing. For your business to grow online successfully, it needs unique, quality content. Without it, you won’t have what it takes to compete with similar brands online.
So how much of your budget should you allocate to content marketing? To remain competitive today – with well over 1.8 billion websites online – you need great content and a lot of it at that. That requires time and money. Prosperous businesses spend around 40% of their total marketing budget on content. We found that the most successful brands are spending approximately $8,000 per month on content marketing.
You may be wondering, is it worth the investment? It is. Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing. And the results are much more exciting, generating almost three times the number of leads.
3 Incredible Benefits of Content Marketing
These are the foundational benefits you can reap by taking content marketing seriously in your business.
1. Reach Your Ideal Customers
The first step in attracting ideal customers to your website through content marketing is targeting and reaching the right audience. Website traffic is one of the most common success metrics for content marketing strategies. By attracting quality traffic online, you can lead individuals successfully down the buyer’s journey with the end goal of gaining loyal advocates for your brand.
It all starts by:
Defining your audience,
Identifying relevant topics,
And sharing valuable, optimized, and engaging content in the places your target customers are spending time.
2. Engage with People and Build Trust
If your content is boring, irrelevant, or poor quality, people won’t just forget you. You might find them running the other way. If this happens, how can you ever expect to convert them into customers?
On the other hand, sharing high-quality content that grabs people’s attention will keep people coming back for more. Consistently publishing content your target audience craves will help you build brand awareness, connect with people, and build trust.
The more often someone approaches your business or interacts with your brand online, the better chance you will have of gaining new customers – especially if they’ve learned to trust you already.
Always be honest with your audience and prove you’re a trustworthy source. Content marketing is an excellent way to create brand awareness, build credibility, and educate people with reliable, current information. The secret to building trust and rapport is providing value first.
Source: CMI
3. Convert Prospects into Leads and Leads into Customers
Creating content just for the sake of having it is a waste of time and money. You need to set goals, implement a strategy to help you reach them, and then measure your results to ensure you’re making substantial progress. At the end of the day, your business exists to help people – and to make money by doing it well.
Attracting people to your website through SEO, getting them to engage with your content, and placing CTAs strategically to convert prospects into leads is critical. With content marketing, you can turn a cold prospect into a hot lead – prepped and ready to say yes to your next offer.
Driving traffic to your website through quality content creation works.
Taking Full Advantage of All Content Marketing Offers
If your content appears at the top of search results for popular terms and engages the user enough to convince them to click and land on your website, you have a good chance of eventually turning that user into a customer. But what does it take to make this process work for your business?
Here’s a basic outline of how we helped businesses find massive success through content marketing:
Conduct research: We research you, your competition, and your industry to understand your business, market, and audience.
Identify target keywords: We create 50 to 100 focus keywords highly relevant to your business and target audience. That way, we can devise creative headlines and write engaging copy.
Deliver headlines: We deliver one year’s worth of headlines for you. That comes to 100 amazing article titles to intrigue your audience and get them to click.
Track results: We benchmark and track your SEO progress and organic traffic monthly. We also send you a monthly report full of new findings and the progress your business is making, along with quarterly business reviews.
In a nutshell, your business gets two expertly written articles every week with progress updates and reviews – all for the price of one conference sponsorship.
We’ve only scratched the surface on what content marketing offers and the results you could start to see for yourself. If you’d like to learn more, we’d love to set up a consultation with you. Our Content Marketing Services will bring businesses like yours more traffic by publishing strategic content consistently. Our packages will help you reach, engage, and win new customers.
Michael Brenner is an international keynote speaker, author of
"Mean People Suck" and
"The Content Formula",
and Founder of
Marketing Insider Group.
Recognized as a Top Content Marketing expert and Digital Marketing Leader, Michael leverages his experience from roles in sales and marketing for global brands like SAP and Nielsen, as well as his leadership in leading teams and driving growth for thriving startups.
Today, Michael delivers empowering keynotes on marketing and leadership, and facilitates actionable workshops on content marketing strategy.
Connect with Michael today.
