About 80% B2B marketers use content marketing in their marketing strategy, according to a well researched report. Did you know this?
Contrary to it, I have a different take on this. I believe that 100% of marketers whether they belong to B2B, B2C or D2C businesses, use content marketing (less or more) to grow their business.
Marketing is that pillar on which every successful company is standing. And for marketing what do you need? Any guesses?
Well, for marketing your services and products you might need a marketing copy (words), you might need irresistible visuals (images), and you might need a video sales letter (videos). Aren’t all these what you call content?
Back in the 1970s when Gary Halbert started writing advertisements for companies, he used word-play (content) to bring on a minimum of $1000 sales for his clients. During that period, a thousand was a ten thousand.
Fast forward to 2022, only the channels of marketing have changed, the rest being the same. Therefore, if you think that content is something developed in the age of millennials, I am sorry but you are absolutely wrong.
For the last few years, there has been a never-ending debate about whether content marketing is good or bad or is it even viable to invest time in? The answer to this question varies from person to person.
To help you out on this, I am writing this article that will clear all your doubts related to content marketing and how to leverage it to generate business worth millions.
Before diving deep into the concept of content marketing and understanding how it could make you thousands of dollars. Let us first understand the basics of the concept.
What is Content Marketing?
Assuming that you have used your thumb at least once if not ten times a day to scroll on Instagram. The thing that moves on the screen is called content.
To be precise, the term content marketing is made up of two words.
Content Creation + Its Marketing
Have you heard that before?
Content Creation: It is creating something relevant to your business or the industry. It could be anything from images that appeal to the human mind, advertisement copies that spark a desire in people or informational videos, articles, and stories that provide some value to people.
Its Marketing: So, when you finally have a piece of content ready with you, you just need to market it at the right place and to the right set of people. You can use various social media platforms or could create your own educational blog. It will help you put the word out about your company which further will help you win a loyal readership.
You don’t have to be a content creator always to actually do it. You could be an entrepreneur or a business owner too. And if you don’t know how to do that, it’s better to build up a team who could do it for you.
Why is Content Marketing Important in 2022?
I hope, by now, you know what exactly content marketing is. Moving forward, let us understand why it is important for scaling your business in 2022.
The online marketplace is extremely huge and likewise, the competition is severe. If you want to stand out in the crowd of hundreds of marketers you should do something different that makes you unique. Most probably, something which others are not even doing.
Your compassion towards the betterment of your target audience will define how successful you will become and within what duration.
Content marketing is the starting of everything in marketing. Without it, you won’t be able to tap on the pain points of your audience. Taping on their pain, providing them a solution and bringing them to the bottom of the funnel should be your prime objective.
And content marketing is the most effective weapon you have to get this process accomplished.
I have discussed below, 5 Reasons that Explains Why Content Marketing is Important in the now:
Content Marketing Helps You Become Addiction of Your Target Audience
When two people get into a relationship, they invest their time, compassion and care for each other. Sooner, they develop the habit of each other. A habit that is nothing less than an addiction.
Similarly, your focus should be on transforming your business into a habit for people that consume your content. Again, the weapon would be content marketing.
Content Marketing Helps You Get Huge Number on Social Media
It is a fact that businesses take social media lightly. Most of them don’t understand how powerful social media could be for growing their business. And when they actually know it, it’s already too late.
Also, social media is all about numbers. The more the numbers you have on the top of your profile, yes, right there. The more the algorithms push your content organically.
Content Marketing Helps Create a Trustworthy Online Relationship
Relationships made online don’t last long, you might already know that, I don’t want to be a philosopher here.
Likewise, when you do business online without winning the trust of your people. Even paid advertisements won’t get you an audience that resonates with you. Yes, you will drive huge engagement with paid ads on your business social handles. But that alone won’t help you sustain in the market for long.
Again, content marketing will help you build a trustworthy relationship with the audience you are targeting. It is something every business needs today. Without it, there would be no customers, no purchases and no ROI. The downfall will start in the absence of content marketing. I know that you will never want that to happen!
Content Marketing Helps to Generate Quality Inbound Leads
Content marketing helps you book a space in your ideal customer’s mind. They constantly consume your content, relate to it and remember it. Your ideal prospects know what you do, why you do and how well you do it!
So, whenever they would need something that you are already selling online. They would reach out to you without a second thought in the back of their mind. It will bring you inbound leads from people who know you and importantly, trust you.
If you have a great sales team sitting in the office, it won’t take them even 30 minutes to convert those leads. This is how sturdy a well-planned content marketing strategy could look over time.
Search Engines will Love Your Business Too
You might be amazed to know that 78% of B2B buyers browse through Google search when they need something for their business. It could alone bring you an amount of business that might turn out to be overwhelming at times.
If you publish content on search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo with consistency at the center. It will not only serve your target audience members but will also impress the search engines enough, making your content rank on their top pages.
Most people might not know it but being consistent on Google sends its bots a signal that you care for its readers. However, your content should be informative, well-researched and keywords-targeted. You can’t write what people usually write in their personal diaries and expect Google to give you a ranking.
Content Marketing Helps You Develop Authority
If you want to build your authority online, the best way to start doing it is through content marketing. Do you think without showcasing yourself as an industry expert people will trust your content?
Some might trust you, but the majority of people won’t. Also, you cannot be an expert in your industry when you are just starting. What to do?
So, the simplest way is to learn yourself first about the industry and start creating content when you think you could do it. When you already know about a subject it becomes easy to generate quality content around that.
Content Marketing Helps Create Brand Awareness
Content marketing helps you drive awareness for your business in a uniquely organic way. Through a blog that is meant to solve the issues that your potential customers are facing, you are actually helping them.
When you give people no reason to forget you, why would they not remember you? They will and recommend your blog to others.
Do you know Amazon – the Ecommerce Giant? They too create content about their industry & platform to reach out to an audience that isn’t loyal to them yet. Amazon is already at its peak, and still, they focus on content marketing strategy because they want to keep their customers loyal to them apart from acquiring new ones.
Content Marketing Makes Loyal Brand Fans
If your content is helping your readers, regardless of the platform you are publishing it on. Your readers will develop feelings with your great content and will become your brand advocates.
Today, if you want to succeed online. Your brand must have advocates who constantly speak positively about your brand. These advocates will organically promote your content and your brand’s name. Provided, your content is solving the glitches in their life.
Content Marketing Helps in Business Growth
Finally, when you are able to serve your target audience well with an exceptional content strategy in place. They would be thankful to you. People would want you to keep up the good work by producing more such pieces of content in the future.
Remember: Content marketing strategy should never revolve around pitching for sales. It should always be around zeal to help people. Sales will come automatically!
How Content Marketing Can Help You Make Millions for Your Business?
I have discussed some points below, following which you will be able to make a good amount of money, provided you put your all into it.
Start a Blog
Starting a blog is not easy but it is not tough either.
If you already have a blog, you are on the right track. Keep going! Just focus on the industry-specific keywords and avoid thin content (less than 600 words).
But, if you don’t have an active blog. You can start fresh by creating a blog about your industry and rolling out pieces of content on questions that your target audience is already searching on the search engines.
Initially, your focus should be on creating long-form articles as the big guns including Google loves it. The ideal length of the articles should not be less than 1000 words. Try keeping it informative, no need to overpopulate your content and sound relevant.
If your articles are well-researched, keyword-targeted and unique, Google and other search engines can even rank them on the first page. Also, you need to take SEO (search engine optimization) into consideration while writing anything for the search engines.
According to the top executives of Google, there are collectively more than 200 factors that determine whether you will rank on the first page or not. Obviously, no one can pamper all of these factors but the more you do it the more the chances that the search engine will push your article on its platform.
Once you get ranked on the first page, you can’t even imagine the amount of traffic you could get!
For example, if you get traffic of 10k after ranking on the first page. A thousand people out of them will become your regular readers. Also, there are chances that you drive at least 100 quality inbound leads from that single piece of article.
Isn’t that amazing?
Then what are you waiting for? Start a new blog today!
Mark Your Presence on Social Networking Sites
I have already talked about it that most businesses underestimate the power of social media networking sites. Many entrepreneurs use social media only to promote their products or services through visuals. But this is actually a wrong practice. You should refrain from adopting it!
Treat your social media handles like your mini blogs. Provide value to your audience, interact with them through content, ask questions, reply to their comments, create a poll and drive engagement. All social media platforms like when you do these things!
And when you have an audience that trusts you and reacts well to your posts, it is the time when you can roll out a soft pitch in the form of a post.
For example, if you have 100k followers on Instagram, a handful of them will see your posts, a more narrow audience will engage with them and a few out of them will actually flow down into your sales funnel. This is how marketing strategies should be for social media channels.
Start an Email Newsletter
An email newsletter can help you get the most out of your blogs. When you showcase yourself as an industry expert through your content, people like you. If your readership finds your content valuable, they subscribe to your email newsletter.
You can use newsletters to send timely updates about the industry that will help your subscribers. Also, it is a great way of expanding your email list. In the future, whenever you have a new product launch or an update about your business, you can leverage this list to a great extent.
Create a Variety of Content
You should not restrict content creation only to a certain type of content. There are varieties of content types and you should try experimenting with all of them. There are short-form and long-form content, you can make a content calendar for the entire month, and it will make the process simple for you.
When you create different kinds of posts, the social media algorithm gives you an organic boost that you can leverage for weeks to come. Different readers engage with different forms of content. So, when you do experiments with your content, it shows that you care for all segments of your audience.
Create Content Around the Testimonials
Testimonials are very powerful, they tell people that you are capable of doing what you do. Testimonials help to prove your authority in the subject you are claiming to have expertise in. When you create content, either for your blog or any other digital platform around the testimonials, you create a psychological impact on your potential customers that you could do the same for them.
For example, a client of yours has given you a 5-star rating along with a few lines of appreciation. You can use that to write an entire article on – what were the expectations of your, how you met those expectations and how did you encounter the challenges that made a positive impact on your client’s business. Also, you can write a social media post (on LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook) taking the same into consideration.
When your other prospects will read such content, they will get impressed and might become one of your high-paying clients moving forward!
Position Your Business with Good Content
One of the areas where most companies fail is the positioning of the business. In order to position yourself as a brand, you need to write a concise statement that tells what you exactly do to help other businesses or individuals.
Figure out your ideal market and tell them how you are unique and have a solution to the problem. If you are able to explain to your prospects how you are different from your competitors they will be intrigued to take an action. The action won’t give you a sale on the go, but a quality lead will fall into your kitty.
For example, if you are selling SEO Services, you should position your business like this – We Help Businesses to Rank on the First Page of Google ASAP!
If you get your positioning right that creates a psychological impact on the readers you will get good business too soon.
Write Your Content Like a Marketing Copy
During all these years of my experience in digital marketing, I have learned one thing that content if not written like a marketing copy will not help you achieve your sales target. And even if it does, the sales will be negligible. For your business to sustain itself in the long run you need to depend on copywriting, no matter what.
Copywriting is the wordplay through which you sell a service or product without actually selling them. Whenever you are writing a blog, an article, a social media post, an email or a newsletter, always think in the back of your mind that you are writing a copy.
To Conclude:
Making money is longer tough in the world today. If you have got skills to write engaging content that hundreds of people relate to, you are about to get filthy rich!
Content marketing is a part of the media marketing model which a lot many companies are already leveraging in the present. You could also do it for your business and can even make millions in the future which is not far away!
