Self-proclaimed “social media gurus” will tell you to post as much as humanly possible. Others might advise you to share content two or three times a week. With the rise of influencers and the almost surreal growth of short-form video platforms, you might be asking yourself – what is the real value of content marketing? Is it even worth writing well-researched, keyword-optimised articles when a grown man dressed as a gnome is garnering twenty-million+ views on Reels?
The short answer is… yes. Of course, the answer will change depending on what type of business you’re in. Not everybody can be Ryanair, creating content that consists primarily of the social media manager berating themself and wishing they weren’t at work.
On the other end of the spectrum, nobody wants to be the boring B2B IT company talking about their newest ‘service offering.’
What is content marketing?
In order to make sense of content marketing, we first have to discern between inbound and outbound marketing. Outbound marketing involves proactively reaching out to potential clients. Think cold calls, trade shows, or paid social media adverts. Inbound marketing is more about drawing people in by providing valuable, informative, or entertaining content.
Modern consumers are averse to intrusive content. (Which is typically associated with outbound campaigns.) Content marketing is inherently inbound which means any potential clients are a lot more receptive to your message. This makes it easier to generate leads, retain customers, and educate your audience.
Content marketing takes on a variety of formats. Although you will want to consider a myriad of platforms to create convergence, here are some examples of content marketing:
- Social media posts
- Videos
- Blogs
- eBooks
- Websites
Proving the Value of Content Marketing to C-Suite
With a whopping 67.1% of the global population (5.44 billion people) using the internet, there’s no doubt that content is absolutely abundant. The secret to succeeding in content marketing and swaying executives to give you that sweet, sweet budget is to create content that breaks through the noise. This involves identifying your target audience and creating content that actually speaks to them in a language that they understand. This is why you should start with a fleshed-out marketing strategy! So that by the time you get to creating content, you know exactly who you’re talking to and how to grab their valuable attention.
A well-researched, measurable, content marketing campaign with a ‘small’ budget is the best tool you can use to prove the value of this type of marketing. Content marketing is inherently scalable. Once you’ve found your target audience and understand the language they speak, it’s all about optimising and expanding on what you’ve proven works.
6 Benefits of Content Marketing
Whether you’re in B2C, B2B, or B&Bs, all marketers know that content is the foundation of any marketing strategy. Here are 6 benefits of content marketing:
- Establishes Trust and Reputability
When your brand steps into the light and makes an active effort to provide information or content that is valuable and non-invasive, you indirectly build a relationship with every customer who sees your message.
Over time, this can translate into thought leadership and in-turn generate leads for your business – depending on your execution and goals.
- Drives Organic Reach and Leads
Customers like to take the wheel. When they make the first move and approach your company, the chances of closing a deal are significantly higher. Consider the type of client who you randomly called on a Thursday afternoon compared to someone who read a blog article, found it useful, and signed up to your newsletter.
This positive connotation (or lack of a negative one) gives your brand a solid foundation to develop the customer journey and drive further marketing objectives.
- Increases Brand Engagement and Traffic
Content is to your SEO what coffee is to a marketing agency. The more valuable content you produce, the better it will perform across digital platforms such as your website or social pages. Every day you will wake up to wrestle the beast that is algorithms, but every day you get one step closer to gaining the upper hand. At least until they change the damn algorithm, and you have to start all over again.
- Develops User-Generated Content
User-generated content is the modern-day equivalent of word-of-mouth marketing. Customers that put aside their valuable time to talk about your business are a phenomenal value add to any content marketing strategy. Not only do they expose their audience to your brand, but they also give you a base to build more content from.
Consider the power of a platform such as LinkedIn. When Monzo Bank started dispensing Greggs Sausage Rolls from their ATMs, LinkedIn Influencers took to their feeds to rave about the campaign. Alongside their actual campaign, user-generated content contributed a significant amount of traffic to their channels.
- Educates Your Audience on Your Offering
A common mistake many marketers make is not being actively aware of the fact that your target audience knows next to nothing about your business. Content marketing is a valuable tool for teaching your target audience about your product. Does your competitor have a well-known pain point that you’ve addressed? Why not create a video highlighting the solution while teaching customers how to use it?
Content that is perceived as informative without being desperate to make a sale has ‘shareability,’ further driving your brand’s awareness and growth potential.
- Cost-Effective
The price of content marketing is a double-edged sword. You can spend as little or as much as you want, depending on your capacity as a brand and the efficacy of your content. Since content marketing is organic by nature, (and outbound) the only real costs are those associated with the production of the content.
Most of your costs are already absorbed when you create content. The phone you film on, the laptop you write an article on, the website you publish from. Content marketing in combination with a sound strategy can be an incredibly cost-effective way to market your business.
Potential Drawbacks of Content Marketing
If you search “Freelancer” on LinkedIn and spend 10 minutes browsing public posts, you’d have a pretty good idea of the problems you might face with content marketing. The most obvious being the difficulty. Creating high-quality, consistent content that aligns with your brand, strategy, goals, and objectives is no easy feat. Your efforts can also take upwards of six months to come to fruition. Not to mention that if your website isn’t up to scratch, everything will be in vain.
Sure, you can expedite the process by outsourcing, but seeing content marketing as anything other than a medium to long-term investment would be a mistake. It takes time and consistency to get the most out of your content.
Now, we’re not saying that you need to dress as a mythical creature and harass retail workers. Do we believe that there is real value in content marketing? Absolutely. Do we also believe that it’s going to take a couple hundred cups of coffee to make it work? No doubt.
If all of this seems a bit overwhelming – you can reach out to us at IMS and we’ll sort out the rest. (Including the coffee)
