A McKinsey survey of 27,000 consumers found that consistency is the key to customer satisfaction. Do all customer touchpoints feature a consistent brand voice, messaging, and helpfulness? Does the brand’s quality and value persist over time? Is the brand visible to the customer? Is there a solution available every time a customer asks a question or has a concern?
Content marketing is the best way to demonstrate consistency for the world’s best brands.
Why Content Marketing is Important
Hubspot reports that content marketers who prioritize blogging efforts are 13X more likely to see positive ROI. It has been found that businesses that engage in content marketing capture 7.8X more organic traffic than those that don’t. According to Demand Metric, content marketing generates 3X the leads while costing 62% less than other digital marketing channels.
Content marketing isn’t just about opening up a dialogue with your audience. It also keeps that conversation fresh, helpful and engaging. It should not be fleeting and transactional, but should build relationships and engagement instead. In addition, content marketing does not interfere with the user’s activity, rather it extends it. Brands that invest in full-funnel content marketing tend to dominate search more effectively.
So, What Are the Benefits of Content Marketing?
Boost your SEO and Traffic
When you address technical SEO issues on your website, do you sit back and wait for the results? No, of course not. You produce high-quality, engaging content continuously. If you produce useful content that answers searchers’ questions, Google will reward you with higher rankings.
Also, backlinks from high-authority websites and blogs increase Google’s trust in your website. Do not expect the most credible websites in your industry to cite generic, watered-down articles. Unique, data-driven content that engages, intrigues, informs, inspires, and entertains them is what they are looking for.
Every piece of content you produce will add keywords to your arsenal, strengthening your long-tail keyword results. As you create more content, those keywords accumulate, bringing in a wide variety of hungry, targeted traffic. As a result, your SEO strategy will generate long-term and compounded returns.
Establishing Expertise Authority and Trust
One neat acronym sums up what Google expects from websites: E-A-T, or Expertise, Authority, Trust. Establishing these qualities is one of the benefits of content marketing.
You can watch a brand land this one by searching any beginner-related ecommerce topic (for instance, “ways to increase your ecommerce sales” or “what should I sell online”). Look at the search engine results page. You can bet that Shopify will appear on page one for at least one of those queries.
It’s Shopify’s goal to provide an easy-to-use platform that’s friendly to beginners. Their expert-written evergreen content solves pain points and builds relationships with their target audience.
For ecommerce websites, content marketing extends beyond transactional pages, as Shopify demonstrates. Trustworthy brand mentions can be earned from data-driven blog posts. This enhances E-A-T, which strengthens SEO.
Since Shopify has established expertise and authority through every step of the customer’s journey, when the aspiring entrepreneur finally stops planning and starts doing, Shopify will be their platform of choice.
Neither authority nor relevance are siloed in the SERPs. When your brand is recognized as a credible, authority source of information by a trusted industry site, everyone who reads the article will trust your brand.
It Creates Brand Awareness
Brand awareness can be built through different types of content, as Mazda has demonstrated. In the automobile industry, Zoom-Zoom Magazine is one of the best examples of content marketing. This magazine provides insider looks into Mazda vehicle testing, fun stories about driving through many states in a day, and employee highlights. By asking readers to share their Mazda experiences on social media using #ZoomZoomMazda, the magazine celebrates the Mazda community.
That’s the very definition of brand awareness. People are exposed to your company and products whether they find it in the SERPs, in an industry resource, or from a friend’s link. Before you know it, you have a new army of brand advocates.
Your Brands Personality Can Shine Through
Content marketing has another benefit – showing your brands personality.
Branding experts will tell you that a brand is much more than a logo and color scheme. A successful brand goes deep into its values to paint a complete picture of who it is, what drives it, what it promises to its customers, how it differentiates itself, and what it stands for.
This point is perfectly illustrated by beauty brand content marketing.
Take a look at Sephora. Their massive content hub isn’t just run by biased employees – it’s also driven by customers.
Furthermore, Sephora’s blog is filled with recommendations, tips, and advice from their own customers, in addition to their effective marketing campaigns that promote inclusivity and body positivity.
In addition to creating great products and keeping employees happy, how do brands demonstrate these values? It is their voice. Your brand voice sets the tone for your story, whether it’s upbeat, energetic, authoritative, or straightforward. You may not have a lot of opportunities to show off your brand personality on a category page or product page. Content, on the other hand, gives you that platform in spades.
It Helps Build Brand Affinity and Loyalty
Isn’t it nice when you’re so close that you can finish each other’s sandwiches?
Is there a time when your brand provides exactly the content your customers need at exactly the right time? This is similar to having a relationship with your customer. Sometimes you provide additional information that customers didn’t even realize they needed to finish their sentences (or sandwiches). As your visitor navigates their interest or pain point, your valuable content gives them tools to use. It can even provide them with a story to tell.
What if you combined that with an interesting (or hilarious, or entertaining, or sassy) brand personality? People will soon become emotionally invested in your brand as well. Consider MoonPie’s witty Twitter banter. MoonPie fans are devoted not just to the product, but also to the brand.
Why Are These Benefits Important?
As a result of all these content marketing benefits, you become 1) the brand that your audience turns to when they need information relating to your area of expertise, and 2) the one that people are eager to tell others about. Trust sparks loyalty. This makes a brand a force to be reckoned with.
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