How content marketing can increase your sales
Have you thought about content marketing but don’t know where to begin? Or maybe you’ve taken the plunge, but haven’t posted anything since November 2013?
As many businesses have discovered content marketing can establish you as a trusted source of information and this can lead to raising your profile and increasing your sales. Examples of content marketing are blogs, videos, e-books, whitepapers and infographics. The evidence that content marketing improves your return on investment is powerful.
Just take a look at these stats:
- In a study by Kapost and Eloqua only 9 leads were generated by paid search, while 31 leads were generated by content marketing
- 53% of consumers were somewhat or much more likely to buy a new product when they learned about it through an online article according to a study by Nielsen
- An article by the CMI says that 80 percent of business decision-makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement
So what exactly is content marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute defines it as “the marketing and business process for creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”
Two of the key words in that definition are relevant and valuable – these two words help you focus your content on your customer, not on your business. Nobody wants to spend their time reading a commercial about your company, they want answers to their questions.
Give them what they want!
As a business person you have your own unique expertise and you can provide answers. Perhaps you own a small power washing company. You want to be able to make yourself stand out in a sea of competitors, not to mention do-it-yourselfers. This is a great opportunity to publish a blog about different topics related to your business. You might publish one article on how to power wash a deck, or what features to look for when purchasing a power washer, or maybe you can have a video showing how to power wash around windows without breaking them.
Offering engaging, interesting and informative content can help establish you as a trusted source. Successful content marketers don’t sell or push in their blogs or videos; they share and engage. And what happens when you position your business and website as a source of information that is useful and engaging? That’s right, people go back to your website to visit. Often.
And when it’s time for a potential customer to power wash their deck, they may decide it’s too much work and want to hire a professional they can trust. A relationship builds trust. And you’ve already started that relationship with your awesome content.
Check back over the next few weeks as we explore different kinds of content marketing and how to spread the word with social media.