Storytelling is human nature. Centuries ago, before there was even writing and printing, people sat around the campfire and exchanged stories and information. So it is hardly surprising that content marketing – the promotion of products and services through “stories” – is so incredibly successful. After we have devoted ourselves to the origins of content marketing in the first article of this series and clarified how content marketing essentially works, in this second part, we will deal with the question of why. Why should you be using content marketing to promote your products and services? We have listed and explained 7 excellent reasons for you.
Contents
# 1 Content Marketing doesn’t require any seed capital
First things first. Many marketing strategies require start-up capital – possibly not too little. Placing a television advertisement, an advertisement in a newspaper, or even a Facebook ad costs money. However, content marketing offers the unbeatable advantage that all you need is time and creativity – but no additional capital. Uploading a podcast, creating a blog, and operating a YouTube channel are completely free of charge.
Certainly, “classic” forms of marketing such as television advertising or advertisements bring faster success. However, the wastage is also much higher here, so that large parts of your investment will always come to nothing. Content marketing needs a little more patience, the successes are all the more sustainable because you will only reach those people who are really interested in your company.
# 2 Growing brand awareness
The more content you publish (regularly), the more you can be found. It goes without saying that this increases your brand awareness.
At the same time, of course, you have the opportunity to convey your company values in your content. The more regularly you do this, the clearer the picture of what your company stands for. So, content marketing is an excellent way to draw attention to your brand in a big way and to communicate your company values.
# 3 More credibility
At the same time, of course, you make yourself more believable with every single “content.” Think of yourself: If you visit the website of a company you have never heard of before, and they say “We are the best!”, You will always be somewhat skeptical. However, if this company proves its technical expertise and authority with well-founded blog posts, for example, you are more likely to believe the company. If you do the same, you no longer just pretend you have expertise, you prove it. Content marketing is the ideal marketing strategy to position yourself as an industry expert.
# 4 More trust and stronger customer loyalty
In this way, you will gradually get more trust from your (potential) customers and thus also strengthen the bond with them. Because in content marketing, the more and better you solve your customers’ problems and help them, the more your customers will give you back in the form of trust and loyalty. Again, ask yourself: If you want to buy a pair of hiking boots, who are you going to? To the unknown online retailer or to the outdoor shop you trust that has given you good advice so often?
Another advantage that you have “incidentally” is the higher rankings on Google. Google loves in-depth, high-quality content. Google indexes every single piece of content you post. The math is simple: the more great content you have, the more great rankings result from it. This has the nice side effect that you will be found on Google, and you will no longer be embarrassed to invest huge amounts of money in advertising. So instead of imposing your products and services on people, you come to you all by yourself.
# 6 Increased traffic
It follows that the more you appear in various Google searches, the more often you will be found. For you, this also means more traffic to your website – regardless of whether it is a blog that is integrated directly into your website, or the traffic comes from YouTube or a podcast platform. Of course, this effect is still small at the beginning. But once you have built up a content archive, visitors will come to your website in flocks. If the visitors like what you see there, they will also be happy to share the content via social networks. The effect will increase if you only have enough patience at the beginning.
# 7 More conversions
Of course, as a marketer, you also know that more traffic usually means more conversions. No matter what your goals are – whether you want to subscribe to the newsletter, booking a service, or purchasing a product: the more visitors come to your website, the more will sign up, book, or buy. Provided your content is good. Another advantage is that in this way, you can obtain the contact details (email address) of these people, and they no longer haunt your website as unknown visitors, but become known (potential) customers. With the appropriate consent, you can now contact these people by email and introduce them to your sales funnel in this way. The entire magical world of email marketing is open to you.