There’s a tremendous amount of content produced online, every single day. So much, in fact, that the influx can be a shock to digital marketers and businesses alike. We all know that you need to create good content to tell your brand’s story online, but to do so effectively requires a look at the bigger picture.
Here’s a snapshot of what happens on the internet at any given time. According to research by SmartInsights, every 60 seconds there are:
• 4.2 million Google searches,
• 3.47 million videos watched on YouTube,
• 694,000 videos watched on TikTok,
• 4,100 clicks on sponsored Instagram posts,
• 4,000 people reading reviews on Yelp,
• 1,300 product-rich pins clicked on in Pinterest.
These statistics can help businesses visualize the true reach of the internet and how different forms of content affect the audiences’ daily lives. With these staggering numbers also comes the realization that for a brand to stand out online, it is more important than ever to create quality content.
You may think that every piece of content you produce is quality content. This isn’t always true, so let us explain the competitive edge that true quality content can bring to your brand’s online visibility.
What Is Quality Content Marketing?
Content marketing is the process of creating, producing and distributing informational content to a business’s target market. It is an extremely valuable tool in digital marketing, as content not only helps inform your consumers; it can also improve your credibility and customer loyalty.
Quality content seeks to deliver value to the reader. This kind of content is not overly promotional and seeks to educate audiences. It may discuss relevant industry trends, feature news or address a client’s pain points. Content pieces of this kind are well-researched and provide key takeaways for the reader. High-quality editorial content builds trust with audiences and establishes your brand as a thought leader, which it is why it is a popular marketing strategy for companies.
According to HubSpot, 70% of marketers are actively investing in content marketing. Nearly 40% of all marketers say that content marketing is one of the most essential factors in their overall marketing strategy. However, not all content is created equally. To stand out from your competitors, you’ll need to know the difference between simply producing content and producing content of quality.
What Defines ‘Quality’ in the World of Content Marketing?
Quality content shows your audiences that you are listening to them and that you care. The word “quality” can seem subjective to many, so here are some factors that show your content is of excellent quality.
It Increases Brand Awareness
Think of the brands that you like. Chances are you like them for the products and services they provide and the information they produce. Brands always want to be seen as thought leaders in their industry, and content is a great way to do that. However, to achieve such status, you have to ensure your content is informative and nonpromotional.
It Engages Audiences
Consumers want to know that there are real humans behind the screens. Engaging audiences with your content can make all the difference between a conversion and a consumer choosing a competitor.
It Tells a Story and Is Memorable
Who are you, and why should consumers choose your brand for their needs? Content tells your story, which makes it easier to resonate with target audiences.
Brands should audit their content to gain an understanding of what they are communicating and how their customers perceive them. If content is not consistent with the brand message, the former should be updated or removed. Additionally, if there are content gaps, these can be addressed to help your company form a more cohesive narrative and deliver it to users traveling down the sales funnel.
It Strives to Educate and Establishes Your Brand as a Thought Leader
Quality content should go beyond product brochures and promotional content. While these materials have a place in the customer journey, prospects and clients are looking for the latest information on industry trends and how to stay ahead of cutting-edge technologies. Thought leadership means addressing your clients’ pain points and helping companies navigate changes in their industries. One way to achieve that is through a copyright license that allows you to add the voices of world class experts to your content marketing mix. For example, you could consider leveraging business articles from Harvard Business Review or financial news from Dealbook to supplement your current strategy.
It’s Successful
As mentioned before, content marketing can only be of quality if it works for you and your marketing goals. When done correctly, quality content drives leads down the sales funnel, boosts traffic to the content on your website and increases customer loyalty.
Why is Quality Content Important?
Quality content is important for organizations that want to create better relationships with their clients and prospects.
The Market is Oversaturated
According to most decision-makers (66%), the pandemic led to an influx in thought leadership. About 40% of business leaders surveyed acknowledge that there is more thought leadership in the market today than they can handle. Despite this influx, 71% of these decision-makers agree that less than 50% of what they read delivers value. In order to stand out from the crowd, companies need to develop high-quality material.
High-Quality Content Leads to Better Connections
In order to create better relationships with clients and prospects, companies must provide value to their database. Promotional materials have their place in the marketing funnel. However, teams need an educational marketing strategy to generate and nurture leads.
Good Thought Leadership Leads to More Business
54% of decision-makers have done business with an organization that was not on their radar after engaging with thought leadership. 53% gave more business to companies after reading their high-quality content.
How Does Content Marketing Interact With the Sales Funnel?
Applying content marketing down the sales funnel isn’t too complicated when broken down into its four most important steps.
Awareness
This step is all about learning about the brand. Successful content pieces at this stage will explain high-level concepts and avoid going into too much detail. If you need assistance with content, you can leverage high-quality journalism from publishers via content licensing. Doing so will increase post frequency and establish credibility.
Nurturing Interest
Once your audience starts interacting with your brand on a more regular basis, you can take the opportunity to educate them further on the issues your company tackles. For example, content that addresses your targets’ pain points or content that features thought leaders is a good match for those at this stage.
Conversion
This is the stage where prospects become clients. You’ll want to incorporate customer testimonials, case studies and concise data to show your audience what your current clients think of your products and solutions.
Building Loyalty
It is essential not to forget your existing clientele. They have chosen you to answer their questions and provide a solution to their problems, and they are looking for the kind of industry expertise that your team can provide. Content from thought leaders and outside experts is a great option to supplement your content strategy for those at this stage.
What Is the Difference Between Successful and Unsuccessful Content?
There are a few key factors that differentiate successful content from unsuccessful attempts. The following statistics come from a report by the Content Marketing Institute on business-to-business marketing trends.
Overall, 80% of surveyed organizations in 2020 used metrics and data to measure, analyze and optimize their content performance. What is more, 95% of organizations that characterized their content marketing approach as extremely successful did so, as opposed to 62% of those that described their approach as unsuccessful. This means that measuring your content performance monthly or even weekly is crucial. After all, how else will you know if your content is working for or against you?
It Uses Content to Build Loyalty With Customers
Eighty-four percent of the organizations that characterize their content marketing as most successful use content to build loyalty with customers, compared to 39% of those that describe their strategy as least successful. Your content is usually the first thing a consumer finds about you; making a first impression truly counts.
It Nurtures Subscribers and Audiences/Leads
Eighty-three percent of the organizations that describe their content marketing as successful nurture subscribers, audiences and leads compared to 29% of organizations that characterize their strategy as poor. Ensure your content marketing entices, speaks to and listens to your target audience for the best results.
It Prioritizes the Audience's Informational Needs Over Promotional Messaging
Content marketing needs to deliver value in order to be successful. Eighty-eight percent of the successful organizations prioritize informational needs over promotional messages, compared to 50% of unsuccessful organizations. Consumers don’t need to be swayed to choose your brand; your content should speak for itself.
How to Create Quality Content
Teams that are seeking to create quality content should engage in the following content marketing best practices:
1. Create Personas
Having a good understanding of the target audience will help teams create better content. Content marketers need to know customer pain points and be able to address these via different assets.
2. Leverage Insights Across Departments
Content should not be created in siloes. Marketers should leverage insights from sales, business development, and product. These departments will have direct communication with clients and prospects, which can be valuable in a content marketing calendar.
3. Focus on Educational Content
Educational content seeks to provide value to customers outside of the products offered. Consider curating news, conducting interviews with clients or showcasing thought leadership content to provide new perspectives.
4. License Content from World-Renowned Publishers
It's no secret that quality content matters. However, in a world where content can be a differentiator between a sale won or a sale lost, quantity also matters. By leveraging licensed third-party content, your team can supplement your in-house content strategy with high-quality editorial pieces from publications like The New York Times and Harvard Business Review. However, it's important to ensure you have the right copyright permissions before sharing or reposting articles. For example: Your team may have rights to legally share specific news content to your website. However, you will need additional permissions to showcase these articles in a curated newsletter.
Where to Distribute Quality Content
Quality content can be distributed over a wide range of places, including:
- Newsletters: Consider curated newsletters and emails featuring content from third parties as well as in-house articles.
- Blog posts: Teams can connect with prospects and appear in search results for relevant terms. Learn how to increase engagement on your blog for better engagement and traffic
- Relevant Industry Publications: Many publications offer an opportunity to showcase thought leadership on their websites.
- Social Media: Be sure to post regularly on social channels with relevant information and insights.
Examples of Content Marketing Done Right
In order to create your quality content, it can be helpful to see examples of why content marketing works.
AdvisorStream Leverages Licensed Content from High-Quality Publications
AdvisorStream is a marketing platform that helps financial advisers grow their practices. The company came to NYTLicensing with the hopes of curating specialized content for its target audience and was looking for personal and engaging pieces. After delivering licensed editorial content to its base, AdvisorStream experienced a boost in both conversions and revenue. From January to June 2020, it noticed a 200% increase in views from content and a 260% lead capture on its platform.
Cisco Publishes Authentic Content to Improve Brand Awareness
Cisco, a computer networking company, was looking to publish more authentic content online. It chose to branch out of its traditional marketing tactics and create content on social media platforms to improve its brand awareness and authority within a younger crowd. By appointing a team tasked with posting content for Snapchat, Cisco has successfully grown its reach, boasting a 600% follower increase week over week, with a 70-80% rate of story completion.
New Philosopher Collaborates with NYTLicensing to Improve Engagement
New Philosopher is a quarterly magazine based in Australia that was seeking a way to create innovative content to diversify its offerings and appeal to consumers. It collaborated with NYTLicensing to promote engagement through social media debates about global challenges. As a result, the organization’s engagement and social media interactions skyrocketed. New Philosopher obtained 166 comments throughout the week on just five social media posts and grew its New York Times Australia Facebook Group by 122 members.
Estadão Brazil Summit Uses Quality Content to Increase Event Attendance
Estadão is a daily newspaper distributed throughout Brazil; it wanted to work with NYTLicensing to grow interest and attendance of its live events. Back in October 2019, Estadão hosted its Brazil Summit, with a series of 10 panel discussions and three presentations inspired by The Big Ideas, a series by The New York Times Licensing Group. By leveraging this content, the organization met its key performance indicators of engagement, ticket sales and sponsorships by selling 493 tickets to the event, securing premium sponsors and involving the U.S. Embassy.
Which is Better?: Quality or Quantity in Content Marketing?
76% of marketers note that quality matters more to them in their content strategy than quantity. However, both factors matter when creating relationships with clients and prospects. Companies need to develop high-quality information and produce pieces with valuable insights at regular intervals to reap the most benefits from a content marketing strategy. The challenge for companies is how to produce quality content and improve content marketing efforts while developing pieces on a consistent basis.
Final Thoughts
With quality content comes quality conversions. Taking the time to develop content that is informative, trustworthy and innovative can mean all the difference between a successful content marketing strategy and one that flops. The New York Times Licensing Group can help you bring your content to new heights, as our content can be curated for your brand, no matter your needs. Additionally, by outsourcing part of your content development via a copyright license, you can create editorial content with more assets and touchpoints for clients and prospects. You can cultivate better relationships and improve brand credibility by showcasing high-quality material at consistent intervals.
