A well-thought-out content marketing strategy is your stairway to the top of the SERP and to the bottom of your customer’s heart.
We’ll show why today.
The influence of content marketing on your company and business
Nowadays, more than 5 billion people have access to the Internet. That’s why content automation is so popular. It’s easy and cost-effective to schedule and publish material on the web resource instead of having it printed.
According to research done in 2017 by the Content Marketing Institute, 89% of B2B and 86% of B2C marketers are using content marketing now. 70% and 73%, respectively, expect to generate bigger amounts of original content than they had generated in 2016. Concerning budget, 39% of B2B and 42% of B2C companies are planning to increase their expenses on this activity over the next 2018 year. So, as you can see, the art and science of attracting prospects is effective and has grown in popularity.
What benefits will the companies get? Why are they using content marketing? And why should you fill your web resource with different blog posts, news pieces, interviews, quotes, stories, testimonials, product reviews, showcases, tutorials, how-tos, FAQs, illustrations, surveys, reports, spreadsheets, polls, e-books, webinars, video broadcasts, podcasts, photo galleries and so on? According to the survey, the top three goals of content marketing are: to generate more leads (59%), to provide thought leadership/market education (43%) and to create and establish brand awareness (40%).
The influence of content marketing on your prospective audience
Users have an opportunity to consume online content when it is convenient for them, because it is accessibly round-the-clock. A blog post is the most widespread type. The average time that users spend reading one article on a blog is 37 seconds. So take into consideration this statistics and try to structure your text, highlight the main information with color, bold or italic fonts, etc. in order to help your site visitors catch your central idea while scanning through the page.
Additionally, there are ways to meet web accessibility standards and make your content easier to perceive for users with disabilities. Also, it can be customized and personalized according to each user’s interests and preferences. For example, if you apply location data, browsing history data or data about purchasing history from online shops, your users can see recommendations about similar information, spend less time on searching, and feel cared for.
Your consumers can reread, re-watch or replay your content as many times as they want. This especially relates to so-called “evergreen content” that remains continually relevant. Furthermore, users can share it and, in this way, popularize it, helping you reach a wider audience. Drupal modules for social networks integration allow your site visitors to bookmark, like, quote, cross-post and share your content across different social media platforms. You can set up auto posting from your site to Facebook or post directly in your FB business page, profiles in LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, G+ etc. to represent your business alongside with an official site. SMM tools help schedule, publish and analyze your posts and engage more prospects.
Content has proved to be an effective way to advertise. 70% of people prefer to learn about a company through articles rather than through adverts, 86% skip TV ads and 44% ignore direct mailings. This happens because people don’t want to feel like they are being sold something. Nevertheless, all of us have to buy products and services to satisfy everyday needs. When old-school “hard sales” tactics cause resistance, users want to get informative and meaningful, high quality content to base their purchasing decisions on. 60% of people are inspired to search a product after reading content about it.
The influence of content marketing on search engines
Most of the consumers are used to doing a little investigation online before making a purchase. They turn to search engines to find out more information about the assortment of goods currently existing on the market and to compare prices. Your content is a way to attract more visitors to your site and turn them into your clients. That’s why you should try your best to make Google’s algorithms appreciate the material you have posted on the Internet and rank it highly. It’s not so easy, because Google ranking factors are constantly adding and changing in order to improve user experience.
Produce fresh, interesting, unique content and avoid duplicating. Beware of over-optimization and use keywords wisely to get both SEO-friendly and user-friendly texts that are pleasant to read. Apply web analytic tools, for example, Google Analytics, to identify the most popular content and make it targeted. Remember that a great content marketing strategy is your way to the top of the search engine results page.
We hope this article was useful for you and that your content marketing will bring success to your business. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to contact our website development services company.