Research from the Pew Research Center shows that nearly one-third of all Americans are constantly online. This percentage is up from 21% in 2015, reflecting the growing popularity of smartphones and mobile devices.
This rise in smartphone usage has brought a change in consumer purchasing habits. Approximately 83% of a purchase decision is occurring before a buyer even reaches out to an organization. Additionally, between 70% and 80% of purchase interactions have entered the digital sphere, and many decision-makers are embracing this change. In the midst of the pandemic and hybrid work environments, it has become even more crucial for businesses in all industries, regardless of size, to invest in a digital content marketing strategy.
Is Content Marketing Valuable?
There are many digital content marketing initiatives that businesses can invest in. However, content marketing may be the most valuable of all, since it supports your entire digital strategy. Content marketing not only drives leads, but it also helps increase customer retention and educate audiences on key issues.
Content marketing is quickly becoming an industry standard practice, with 91% of B2B content marketers using content marketing to reach customers. Building a B2B content marketing strategy has continued to propel businesses forward. However, despite the popularity of this discipline, marketers are often presented with the challenge of proving its value to C-Suite and higher-level managers.
A number of questions may arise when a marketer presents their case for investing in content. It’s common to hear questions like, “Why is content marketing worth dedicating a portion of our budget to?” or, “What will be the ROI?” If you’ve been having trouble translating the value of content marketing to different stakeholders in your business, this blog will help.
Why is Content Marketing Important?
Content marketing can benefit your business in a number of ways. It can:
- Engage audiences longer
- Produce more traction on social media
- Build trust with your audience
- Generate more and higher quality leads
What is the Value of Content Marketing? The 7 Benefits of Creating a Content Strategy
Marketers know that content marketing is important in B2B and B2C. Below are the 7 benefits of a content marketing strategy.
1. Content Directly Speaks to Your Target Audience
There’s a ton of digital noise out there, and consumers are craving a deeper connection with the brands they choose to patronize. Since no two customers are the same, there’s a need to determine exactly whom you are speaking to and why. If you’re doing content marketing right, your goal will be to know your target audiences inside and out, which helps you create content that speaks directly to their pain points.
To that point, consumers don’t want to go searching for content that resonates with them. Marketers will need to create high-quality content that is well researched and thought provoking. It is no longer enough to create short posts with clever copy. Approximately 66% of decision makers notice an increase in thought leadership being produced in the wake of the pandemic; 38% of decision makers feel that the market for thought leadership content is oversaturated. However, the right thought leadership content marketing strategies still deliver value. About 51% of decision makers surveyed are engaging with more of this kind of content than before the pandemic.
Additionally, you’ll want to promote your content in the places where your consumers are, and position it in a way where your audience feels connected to you. Humans thrive on emotion and connection, and if a consumer comes across content that answers their questions before they even have a chance to ask, they will feel like they’ve struck gold.
2. Content Establishes Customer Trust and Brand Loyalty
Great content marketing works best when it creates a positive experience for customers. Although this may sound a bit obvious, a positive experience can be hard to come by. Without the proper insights into a customer’s pain points, it’s easy to make assumptions or create content that is too company focused. Content brings value in a way that a salesperson cannot, as you will be providing information without asking for anything immediately back in return.
By continuously creating content that is trustworthy and educational, readers will begin to recognize and trust your brand as a voice in the space and will keep coming back for new information. Plus, online content gives users an understanding of your business and what you are all about, which establishes trust, loyalty and credibility.
Credibility can be hard to come by and even harder to measure, especially because there is a digital screen between you and your customers. So this means that when the consumer is in the market for your products and services, they’ll already be thinking of you, making them more likely to convert. With this in mind, any business owner really needs to hone in on creating informational content for their consumers, as this provides an intangible ROI that will last for years to come.
3. Content Drives Traffic and Engagement
There are so many types of content you can experiment with when communicating your message to your audience. Each target audience will need content mediums, whether it is long-form blogs posted directly on your website, or short and sweet social media videos.
You may not know exactly what type of content format to start with, but that is more than OK. Exploring different content mediums provides you with more touchpoints for your audience to interact with you. This, in turn, ultimately drives leads and conversions.
Additionally, content gives a prospect the opportunity to learn more about your organizations. Since the majority of the sales cycle now happens before a prospect even engages with a salesperson, having these touchpoints in place is essential.
4. Content Educates
Whether it’s teaching you about a new product or talking about a current event in your industry, content is the perfect vessel of communication between your brand and potential customers. The internet makes information easily accessible. In fact, the majority of decision-makers do their research online before they buy, and 83% of the purchasing decision happens before a prospect directly engages with a company. For brands, looking to improve their content marketing ROI, investing in an educational content strategy is a must.
But the term “educational” can be subjective. It can be hard to adequately educate your audience base if they are all coming from different stages of the marketing funnel. So to educate your customers effectively, it’s best to focus on common questions, objections and challenges that you face in your business. Think about what problems a consumer would be facing, and how your products and/or services can offer the proper solution. Personas can be a great tool to answer these questions. Each persona should have a name, their title and challenges associated with their role. The more in-depth these personas are, the easier it will be to create and promote content.
Educational content allows brands to teach their audience something new about the subject they are interested in. Think of content as an opportunity to show consumers how you can make their lives easier!
5. Content Is the Backbone of Search Engine Optimization
To promote your brand’s visibility within the search engine result pages, it is crucial to invest in search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is a marketing tactic that improves the quality and quantity of both your website and its traffic. Without content, this would be an impossible task.
When a user heads to a search engine, they’ll start their online search by typing keywords into the search bar. Google ranks all websites on the internet by reading what keywords are prevalent on each website page. You will want your pages to include and highlight these keywords your audience may be searching for. Content is the best way to capture these keywords through marketing copy, a comprehensive blog strategy, and informational videos and graphics.
6. Content is Cost-Effective
When comparing content marketing and traditional advertising, content marketing is more cost-effective than traditional advertising, as you can easily create a blog post or white paper at a fraction of the cost of promoting a newspaper or radio advertisement. For many companies, this is also a more effective strategy at gathering leads and driving brand awareness.
While you may not always see immediate results with your digital marketing content, consistency and experimentation are key. Try out different formats and types of content to understand what truly resonates. A comprehensive content strategy is a great way to nurture long-term relationships and bring in truly qualified leads.
7. Content Establishes Your Brand as a Thought Leader
Again, first impressions count in the world of content. High-quality content establishes credibility and expertise in your field and industry. There are many ways to demonstrate thought leadership, whether that be by outsourcing content or content licensing solutions.
Licensed content is created by someone else, but promoted by you. It is a fantastic way to leverage content from renowned publications like The New York Times to speak to your target audience while meeting your content marketing goals. Licensed content allows for brands to harness the power of world-class journalism without having to invest in additional content development resources.
How Do You Prove the Value of Content Marketing?
If your manager would like something tangible to see the value of content marketing, consider the following:
1. Establish Clear Goals
Before beginning any content marketing program, it’s important to understand the goals of each piece of content, so you can accurately measure success. Email open rates, website visits, engagement on social platforms and brand awareness metrics are great goals to start with. Align with your management team before beginning the program. It is easier to demonstrate value if your team has a clear definition of what success looks like.
2. Track Progress
Update your management team on progress made toward the established goals. By tracking progress at regular intervals, you can also better investigate what is performing well and which initiatives are not.
3. Use Case Studies to Show Value
Leverage case studies that demonstrate the ROI of a successful content marketing strategy. Be sure to also use examples from your own efforts. Showcase posts that drive engagements, that are performing well in search, or white papers that have generated leads.
4. Create Content for Specific Stages of the Sales Funnel
Content should target specific personas at different parts of their journey. When creating your editorial calendar, be sure to include content that addresses all of these stages: top of the funnel, middle of the funnel, end of the funnel, customer and upsell opportunities. When discussing the value of a particular asset, showcasing how it helps guide consumers along the funnel can be a big help.
5. Align With Sales and Product Teams
Get in the room with the business development, sales, product and content creation teams to collaborate and create a cross-team strategy. You’ll want to show how content marketing is beneficial to more than just the marketing team, and sometimes managers just need to get into the thick of things to gain perspective.
How to Know If Your Content Is Successful
As noted above, each content piece needs to be tied to specific goals and specific stages of the buyer’s journey. The success of a particular piece of content will depend on what it was intended to do. Email newsletters targeting customers can be measured through their open rates and click-through rates. White papers can usually be measured by the amount of leads generated. When it is clear what the goal of each asset is and how that is measured, it is relatively simple to determine if that piece of content was successful or not.
Final Thoughts
Content marketing is a surefire method to promoting your business online, gaining traction in a world of digital noise, improving brand awareness, increasing conversions and ultimately growing your business. With some consistency and a comprehensive strategy, your content marketing efforts will really work to transform and power your brand.
If you are interested in investing in content marketing, but you aren’t sure where to start, The New York Times Licensing Group can help you. We provide a wide array of content licensing options that can help you speak to your customers and inspire conversions without having to produce the content in-house. With our content licensing options, both you and your readers can benefit from the world-class journalism of The New York Times, while meeting your marketing goals concurrently.
Learn more about our content licensing packages today.
