Why is content marketing important?
That’s a loaded question, but worth considering, because the benefits of content marketing are almost too numerous to count.
To sum it up, content marketing is important because it’s a cost-effective, sustainable marketing method that nurtures your audience, answers their questions, and builds their trust – all of which helps your business generate better leads, more conversions, and more sales.
Content marketing is all about magnetizing ideal customers to your brand. It isn’t about pushing your products or services in front of their noses and hoping they’ll bite.
Most importantly, a whopping 97% of brands use content marketing because it’s the way modern consumers prefer to interact with and learn about businesses.
What are some other reasons content marketing is important? Why should you use it? Let’s explore.
1. Content marketing builds authority on your own platform – not rented land
As a whole, content marketing’s main focus is building your brand’s authority and establishing relationships with your potential customers.
Where does this all happen? On your website, through the content you publish there.
Unlike social media marketing, where the platforms of focus are distantly owned by large corporations (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc.), content marketing’s platform is one you own.
Publishing on your website means you own all the content that lives there (these are your content assets).
That isn’t true for social media – you don’t technically own anything you post or send from those channels. If, one day, a social media company goes up in smoke, boom! Your content goes with it.
That means focusing on those channels is like building a house on rented land. If your account gets hacked, shadowbanned, or taken down arbitrarily, not just your content vanishes. Your audience and your means of communicating with them will disappear, too.
Not to mention, social media platforms seem to be constantly changing the rules about which posts are prioritized in their feeds. Your visibility there is largely dependent on the whims of company headsand the wiles of algorithms.
That’s why content marketing is a better bet – and a more sustainable option for growth.
2. It grows trust with your audience like no other
65% of consumers immediately feel a brand is both positive and trustworthy after reading a piece of that brand’s educational content.
Content like that, created for a specific audience, tailored to their questions and pain points, and aimed at their perspective, is an incredible trust-builder. And a key tenant of content marketing is researching to understand your ideal customers deeply enough to accomplish all of the above.
Even further, content marketing isn’t about selling, but rather helping. Consistently helping your audience with useful, personalized content showcases not just the brand’s expertise, but also its empathy.
And, ultimately, empathy shows your potential customers that you care, that you hear and understand their problems. The fact that you also have solutions for them (read: your products/services) is the cherry on top.
3. Content marketing brings in higher-quality leads
By definition, high-quality leads are people coming to your brand and content who have a high chance of converting into customers.
These people may fall into two categories:
- They know your brand, are familiar with your expertise and what you sell, and are ready to buy.
- Or, they know they have a problem, they understand the solution they need, and are ready to find the best option.
How does content marketing help pull this type of lead to you?
Through targeted SEO.
Search engine optimization and content are a powerful combination. Targeting keywords with the right search intent in your content will bring in leads looking for the answers or solutions you provide.
Different types of keywords will bring in leads at different stages of the buyer’s journey.
- Awareness stage: They become aware that they have a problem and want more information.
- Consideration stage: They understand what the problem is and are ready to find the best solution.
- Decision stage: They know the possible solutions and are ready to choose the right one.
In their searches, people use certain terms or wording that give major clues as to how close (or far away) they are from making a purchase. People who fall into the “decision” stage are much closer to buying than people in the “awareness” stage.
Here are examples of keywords a buyer looking for a solution to stress might use at different stages of their journey.
