Yes, Your Website Needs a Blog! Why Content Marketing is the Way to Go

If you opened the article by reading the title, then that was content marketing in action. Content marketing is the way to go, and it is important for every marketing strategy. Today, it is the centre point of any digital marketing campaign because it allows you to communicate and connect with your readers, who could be potential clients or subscribers. To do this, blogs are one of the most powerful tools for using content for marketing.

What is Content Marketing?

Remember Red Bull's famous slogan, 'Gives you wings'? That is an example of using content to market the product.

Remember that everything is online today, and 100% of the online world is made of up of content. Content that includes texts, photos, podcasts, ebooks, videos and more. There is a massive ocean of content online. How do you make sure that your content stands out like a lighthouse? Through content marketing, especially through blogs. That is demystifying content marketing for you.

Content marketing is a creative form of marketing where you build valuable content consistently that is SEO friendly, crisp, and offers something to the readers. The ultimate aim is to drive conversions and to generate leads.

When Numbers Speak Louder Than Words

• There are 4.48 billion internet users across the globe. They are all potential subscribers, readers and clients.
• 91% of B2B marketers used content marketing in 2018, while 86% of B2C marketers think content marketing is an important strategy. What about you?
• 95% of web users look at the results only on the first page of the search results on a search engine. Are you on the first page?
• Small businesses with a blog get 126% more leads than the business that have no blogs at all.
• Companies that use a content marketing strategy like blogging get 50% more traffic, 97% more inbound links and 434% more indexed pages in search engines.

Why Is Content Marketing Important?

If you have come this far in this article, that's proof that content marketing truly works. It offers a plethora of benefits. Here are some:

1. Builds Brand Awareness

They will know you!

Blogs, social media posts etc. are ways to build awareness for your brand. Content lets you build a presence online.

2. Improves Ranking On Search Engines

Thanks to SEO.

SEO friendly content indexes your blogs and other content on search engines like Google, which brings more hits.

3. Understanding the Audience 

Who is your audience?

Insights through the content you have posted will tell you all about the demographics of your audience. Where are they from? What is the age group? So on.

4. Beat the Competition

Your competitors are already doing it.

Don't miss out on the competition. People have understood the impact of content marketing and are creating excellent campaigns. Brands like Coke, Burberry, Nike, among others are doing it.

5. Educates, Entertains or Informs

Giving them what they are looking for.

A good blog or visual content either teaches something new, talks about something entertaining or informs about what is happening. Everyone wants to know more, and that's what content marketing can do.

6. Higher Discoverability

Get found.

Building awareness means that your brand will have higher discoverability than before. More blogs means higher chances of being found through search engines and social media platforms.

7. Better Engagement

Who doesn't want that?

When you curate content about what your target audience cares about, there will be comments, questions and shares which will improve engagement. 

8. Bridges the Communication Gap 

Build an emotional connect.

The success of a marketing strategy of any brand or company lies in striking the right chords with its audience. Good content does that.

9.  Generates Leads

You wanted to hear this, didn't you?

Backed by statistics, having blogs on your website, and consistent posts on your social media handles can generate more leads.

10. It Lasts Forever

It is always there. No expiration date.

The article or video you created today can generate leads for you ten years later too because it will always be there. 

Content Marketing Lifecycle

Good strategies come from this content marketing lifecycle. Here's how impactful content is created:

Tips to Follow

Follow these tips to stand out in the digital clutter when it comes to using content for digital marketing:

• Write about things that no one is talking about.
• Pick up on trends and present an out of the box view.
• Avoid using complicated words.
• A good content strategy is always judged by how strong is the emotional connection created through it. Touch the right cords.
• Do not use fluff. Come to the point.

Incorporate content marketing in your marketing strategy if you haven't done that already. This strategy has survived the test of time. Many say that the first content marketing strategy was adopted by John Deere in 1895 for the launch of 'The Furrow'. That means content marketing has been around for about 125 years! We are already quite late ☺.

That's all folks! (Yeah you remember that don't you? Powerful words last for a long time!)