Why is Content Marketing Important?

If you’ve paid attention to the world of marketing over the last 10 years or so, you’ve heard “content” a lot. “Content is king” is regularly thrown around, but what does that really mean? Why is content marketing, of all the digital marketing solutions available to your business, important for you to employ? Let’s dive into exactly why content marketing matters so much, and look at a few ways you can start to implement it into your digital strategy. 

What is the main benefit of content marketing? 

There is no one singular benefit of content marketing. Instead, it provides you with a wealth of benefits. Let’s look at a few of them. 

• Thought leadership: It’s another word that probably gets overused, but there’s something to it. If you’re considered a thought leader in your field, you’re pegged as an expert. In short, people prefer to do business with experts—they want to know they have someone highly capable on their team. When you’re creating content, you’re sharing industry insights and knowledge and how-to info that people find valuable. 
• Lead attraction: This one might be the most obvious benefit. Like any other type of marketing, the goal of content marketing is to attract potential customers into your sales funnel. Content is a lure; you provide a piece of information that a person’s interested in, and then if they’re satisfied or entertained by it, they’re more likely to look further into your business. 
• Cutting through the noise: Let’s be honest. These days, most consumers have been marketed to death. They’ve gotten really good at ignoring all of the emails and digital ads and everything else that’s thrown at them. Content marketing is an ideal way to get in front of them without coming off as directly salesy. 
• Providing value: While you certainly want to see some return on your marketing efforts, one of the best things you can do for your audience is to provide them the benefit. GIve them information they need. Make it entertaining. The more they trust you, the more likely they will be to do business with you.

What is the purpose of content?

The purpose of content marketing is the same as any traditional or digital marketing. It’s to get potential customers into your sales funnel. Sure, the above benefits all matter and have an impact on your business from a brand awareness perspective. But if you weren’t getting sales out of this somehow, you wouldn’t be doing it. Your content attracts people to your brand, helps them find the services they’re trying to learn more about, and puts you in prime position to close a sale and earn revenue.

Content marketing can also help with customer retention. If you have a business or service that doesn’t require regular, consistent purchases, it’s important to stay top-of-mind for those customers in between their purchases. Content that is released on a regular schedule is one of the best, easiest ways to maintain that spot. 

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What exactly is considered content? 

It’s important, but what is it? Content is made up of a vast variety of different kinds of marketing materials. If you can write or talk about it, deliver relevant and helpful information, and get it in front of your audience, you’re creating content. 

Let’s break it down even more simply with a kind of definition. Content is a part of your digital marketing strategy that delivers valuable content to your audience through several distinct media platforms. 

Consider a few examples. Blogs are one of the most common types of content marketing. It’s simple from a work point of view: write an article that delivers some kind of helpful information and post it. It provides SEO value for your site and can deliver value to your audience. 

Videos are another great example. Especially with the modern technology found in most of our smartphones these days, taking, editing, and uploading a video to the internet is a simple way to give your audience helpful information—while showing off a little bit of personality as well. 

Even emails are considered content. Don’t think about them as sales emails, where all you’re doing is asking someone to do something. Instead, make it an email that offers something helpful to your customers. Let them know about a video you just uploaded, or point out an interesting article. Think more like a newsletter than a sales letter. You can still include a CTA. 

The most important thing is to look at your content and see what’s working, and what’s not. When you can improve and focus on the parts that work—that is, which pieces of content are attracting customers and driving revenue—you can modify your content marketing strategy to be more successful. 

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