Content marketing has risen in popularity to stay recently. It is now one of the most effective forms of marketing you can use to promote your business or yourself as a freelancer. NewsVarsity is a best example. Here are 9 reasons why:
1. Making you look good!
First and foremost, content marketing makes your business look really good. Think about it like this; for years people have been searching for businesses (and products) that will help them solve their problems. Learning SEO, using social media marketing, or buying an email list is not going to make someone trust you overnight – they may never trust you at all. Content marketing allows you to showcase what you know, on your blog or on other high authority sites around the web making it easier for people who have a similar interest to come across your work. This is a much better way of potentially finding a customer who will be inclined to purchase from you – especially if the content is useful and tailored around their needs, which brings me onto my next point…
2. Content marketing solves problems
As discussed in the previous section, people are looking for businesses that solve their problems . So, why not create content that shows them how they can do it themselves? This is exactly what content marketing allows you to do; write articles on how you can help with social media or SEO , host webinars on how to use certain software or simply answer common questions about a product or service . Remember: the only person qualified enough to fix a problem with a certain software may not have the time to do it themselves, so rather than spending hours on the phone explaining how to fix it – they can read your article and figure it out for themselves .
3. Content marketing is cheaper than other forms of marketing
How many times do you see a Facebook ad or a Google Adwords advert and think: “I’ve seen that already” ? There’s nothing wrong with using paid advertising – but try innovating and mix up your approach. By creating content that people will want to share, you’re essentially getting free advertising as well as directing traffic towards your site! Not bad, right? Even better; you’re reaching an audience who are truly interested in what your company has to say about specific products, which is a much better way of converting viewers into customers than paid advertising which is just throwing money out the window.
4. Content marketing can be more engaging than other forms of marketing
I’ve always believed that social media and SEO were the best ways of promoting your business, but content marketing takes it to another level, check The Indian Jurist. People love reading interesting articles, watching fun videos or listening to podcasts about topics they follow/are interested in. What you’re essentially doing with content marketing is giving them what they want – therefore creating a closer (and potentially stronger) relationship between yourself and your client.
5. It’s easier to measure engagement with content marketing than other forms of digital marketing
With paid advertising on Facebook or Google, you may end up getting loads of likes or shares on your posts, but who are they really? It’s quite difficult to find out who the person behind that like is. With content marketing, however; you can see exactly how many people have viewed your article, watched your video/listened to your podcast and even how far into it they got (by using analytical tools provided by Google Analytics). This gives you a much better insight into what articles/posts are working well for you – allowing you to write/create more of the same in the future.
6. Content marketing attracts links & social media signals
One of the most important things any webmaster must do these days is try their best to get high quality links pointing towards their site . When creating content, keep in mind that this is when someone with a high domain authority will come across your article – and potentially link to it with their own website. This means that they either share similar interest in the topic of the post or you’ve managed to solve an issue for them .
Not only does content marketing allow you to create useful articles which may attract links, but it also creates social media signals; if your content is engaging enough, people are more likely to share it on Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest etc., therefore increasing visibility of your site. You can’t actually buy likes or shares (which is what people think when using paid advertising), all you’re doing is creating good quality content – everything else will follow suit.
7. Content marketing helps build trust
Ever wondered why some sites rank high in search engines for specific topics/keywords? Well, it’s because they’ve built up trust with their audience over the years. If you think about it; when was the last time you searched for something on Google and clicked an ad? No, right? Now think of all the times you’ve clicked on a result that has come from a site which you trust – allowing them to gain more traffic to their website.
8. Content marketing can be less competitive than other forms of marketing
There are so many people creating content online these days that sometimes it’s difficult to stand out from the crowd. However, keep in mind everything I have mentioned above regarding social media signals & links – if your articles are good enough, your content will be shared – therefore increasing traffic to your website. Waterfall Magazine could be a best example for you.
9. Content marketing can take several forms
As I mentioned at the beginning, there are many ways to create content for your business; videos, podcasts, info graphics & articles are just a few examples. By implementing at least one or more of these methods into your strategy, you should start seeing a rise in site traffic and ultimately conversions.
