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Many businesses in various industries have driven results with content marketing, but some leaders out there remain skeptical. Why is content marketing important, they ask? I just need sales. We all do, but they don’t just happen because we tell people we are ready for their money!
But what exactly is content marketing nowadays, and why does it matter so much to help companies become and stay relevant?
In essence, content marketing refers to creating and distributing valuable, relevant information to attract and engage a clearly defined audience. The goal is to drive profitable action, whether a purchase, a download, a share, or any other conversion that benefits your business or moves people down the purchase funnel.
Unlike disruptive advertising, content marketing aims to provide something useful. It seeks to inform, educate, entertain, and inspire. Done right, it builds trust and nurtures relationships between brands and customers.
Read next: Bringing Results with Strategic Writing & Strategic Content
The Importance of Adding Value
At its core, content marketing revolves around consistently delivering value. It gives people a reason to pay attention amid endless digital noise.
Smartphones equip modern consumers to research anything imaginable in seconds. Content marketing succeeds by recognizing this reality and embracing it.
Rather than interrupting people’s lives, it adds value by answering their questions and providing solutions. It guides them to brands organically.
Even B2B companies have incredible opportunities to create content their audience finds valuable. Software firms can produce help guides, ebooks, and blog posts explaining how technology solves specific business problems.
The more practical value you provide, the more likely your content will capture attention and drive action.
Read next: Why Embracing Modern B2B Marketing is Essential for Business Success
It Builds Authority and Trust
Consumers today crave authenticity. In an economy saturated with advertising, disruptive promotional messages breed skepticism. Content marketing breaks through the noise by taking an educational, helpful approach.
Sharing genuinely useful information over time demonstrates real authority and expertise. As your organization creates consistently great content, you organically build trust and credibility.
That content gives potential customers a transparent view of who you are as a company and why you do what you do. It shows tangible proof you can deliver on promises and truly understand customer needs.
Done well, content marketing, therefore, becomes a powerful driver of preference. It primes the pump for conversions by nurturing an audience inclined to view your brand favorably compared to alternatives.
Get started with content marketing today!
Reaching Customers Where They Are
Digital channels have fragmented media consumption dramatically compared to the days of network television. Audiences now inhabit social platforms, streaming services, websites, podcasts, and more.
This fragmentation means marketers must diversify exposure across multiple outlets to reach people. Content marketing provides the information fuel driving that omnichannel distribution.
“The term that I’ve used in the past is you need to be ubiquitous, you need to be everywhere as much as possible without being too splintered and also the use of automation as much as you possibly can,” said content marketing guru Jeff Bullas on “The Business Storytelling Show.”
In essence, content marketing hands the storytelling reins to audiences, empowering them to interact with and spread brand messages. It pulls people in rather than intruding through traditional advertisements.
The Key Role of Search Engines
Content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) are tied at the hip. Google and other search engines exist to connect people with valuable information related to their queries. Building authority sites rich in optimized content directly serves this goal.
Ranking prominently for relevant topics showcases your brand as an expert information resource. Higher visibility in organic search results generates more qualified website traffic over the long term at little or no cost.
SEO and content marketing, therefore, fuel scalable, sustainable digital growth. They allow you to exponentially expand exposure by creating information people find useful. When search engines recognize your content’s value through engagement and links, you earn placement in front of highly targeted audiences.
As a simple example, an educational blog post about your product niche can drive organic search traffic for months or even years. An ad might generate a spike of temporary interest but disappear immediately after the spending stops. Optimized content keeps working 24/7 to your benefit, though, without requiring further budgets.
The Sales Impact
So, what’s the tangible business impact of investing in content marketing? Research reveals powerful effects on multiple fronts:
- Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing, on average, generating about 3 times as many leads.
- In B2B, decision-makers who consume more content from a vendor are 67% more likely to select that vendor’s products or services.
- Companies with blogs generate more leads.
- 54% of companies that use content marketing have seen increased traffic over the past 12 months.
The data clearly shows content marketing delivers significant ROI across critical conversion metrics. It nurtures relationships with clearly defined audiences by providing a steady stream of valuable information.
That content serves both promotional and customer service functions. It attracts profitable new business while also supporting existing customers. The combination of efficient reach, trust building, and customer education drives tangible financial returns.
Read next: Why an emotional marketing strategy matters in B2B
The Output
Grabbing customer mindshare for more than a fleeting instant requires an omnichannel content marketing strategy.
Useful, engaging information helps inform purchase decisions and build authority. It keeps brands top of mind while fueling critical business objectives, including:
- Lead generation– Content like ebooks, whitepapers, and email nurturing campaigns prompt site traffic and conversions.
- Customer education – Websites, videos, visual guides, and more explain how products or services solve needs.
- Retention and loyalty – Ongoing value beyond the transaction cultivates lasting relationships and referrals.
- Talent recruitment – Insightful content spotlights organizations as appealing places to build careers.
- Reputation management – Addressing customer pain points through content builds goodwill and positive buzz.
- Inbound links – Good content marketing earns inbound links – those links can drive more relevant traffic and signal to search engines that, yes, you are an expert on a particular topic.
- Thought leadership – Content elevates expert status, helping brands shape dialogues in their space.
Given these expansive benefits, every modern company must get serious about content marketing. Those failing to tell their stories across all relevant channels chance to surrender their share of voice. They’ll also miss the immense value of owning communication channels to speak directly with audiences.
Content marketing in B2B and B2C
While content marketing is critical for B2B (business-to-business) and B2C (business-to-consumer) companies, there are notable strategic differences.
B2B buyers are focused on researching solutions to complex problems, so B2B content often centers on establishing thought leadership and showcasing expertise to build trust.
Since B2B sales cycles are longer on average, the goal is to provide value during each stage to guide buyers through education-heavy journeys.
B2C content marketing allows brands to forge emotional connections with consumers through compelling stories and shared values. The path from awareness to conversion is faster, so B2C content aims to captivate audiences rather than overwhelm them with too many specifics. B2C content may focus more on visual formats like viral videos, behind-the-scenes photos, and UGC.
While both B2B and B2C content should resonate with target audiences, B2B content shows expertise, while B2C builds relationships through creative storytelling that explains why someone should care.
Where to Build Your Content Powerhouse
Unlike social media marketing, which relies on rented digital real estate like Facebook and Instagram, content marketing focuses on owned platforms like company blogs and websites as a starting point.
This gives brands far more control over their content assets and distribution channels. Rather than building authority on social platforms that can algorithmically bury posts or delete accounts at any time, savvy content marketers are cultivating audiences directly through owned properties.
Brands retain full ownership of assets published on their platforms, and the content continues working for them over the long run. Evergreen blog posts can drive organic traffic indefinitely, depending on relevance and optimization
Therefore, content marketing centered on owned platforms is much more sustainable than social media marketing. Marketers may still amplify or repurpose content through social networks and email, but the home base for distribution should be the content displayed on brands’ own digital properties to ensure stability and longevity.
Invest in Capturing Customer Mindshare
Market competition today comes down to who tells the best stories paired with great products. Content marketing offers an authentic way to cut through while providing actual utility to customers.
Consistency matters most. Building authority requires steadily supplying audiences with helpful information that moves the needle. But making content marketing a priority generates immense dividends over time through efficient reach, trust and relationship building.
So, the answer to why content marketing is important is that it drives results when it’s done well and correctly.