- Content is the most powerful, flexible marketing tool you have, and it has the power to change the trajectory of your business.
- It provides interesting and useful information to your customers, which positions you as a go-to resource for your brand community.
- Content marketer Cat Johnson shares 10 benefits of content marketing for your business.
Content creation may be just another to-do on your already-overloaded to-do list, but it deserves to be given high priority.
Content is the most powerful, flexible marketing tool you have and, bonus, content that’s created on your own real estate (your blog, website, podcast etc.) doesn’t hinge on algorithms or gatekeepers. You are free to create and publish content that can be shared with the world, whenever you like.
I can’t overstate the power of content marketing. It has the power to change the trajectory of your business or project. If you’re not giving content some of your best attention and energy, start now.
Content Marketing Defined
So what is content marketing, anyway?
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The Content Marketing Institute defines it like this:
“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”
If we strip away the jargon, content marketing can be described as a way to provide interesting and useful information to your customers and leads. This positions you as a resource and hub for your brand community.
When it comes time to buy, your company is top-of-mind.
Benefits of Content Marketing
Beyond positioning, the benefits of content marketing are many. Here are 10 trajectory-changing benefits of content marketing for your business.
- Search engine optimization (SEO): Quality content that answers Google search queries is SEO gold. Create content strategically and with an evergreen slant and your content can serve you now and well into the future.
- Traffic: Hand-in-hand with SEO is the traffic it drives. Create content around relevant keyword phrases for your market and industry and you can create a steady stream of traffic to your website, landing pages, blog posts, lead magnets, sales pages etc.
- Industry Positioning: There is no more flexible and resilient way to position yourself or your business in your industry than to consistently create timely, relevant, valuable content week after week, month after month, year after year. It’s not easy, but it’s simple—and well worth it.
- Differentiation: In positioning yourself with content, you also differentiate from your competitors, collaborators and aligned organizations. You can demonstrate your values, share your mission, spotlight your team and community and attract like-minded (and otherwise) people who can benefit from what you have to say and offer.
- Thought Leadership: It doesn’t matter if you have smart, insightful ideas and perspectives if you’re not sharing them. Content gives you a vehicle to express yourself, share those ideas and perspectives, and facilitate interesting conversations.
- Resource Hub: You can churn out random content and hope for the best, but a better course is to create content that helps, informs, inspires, educates and entertains your target market. The more your community and market see you and your company as a valuable resource hub, the more trust they have in you and your services. When it comes time to spend some money, who do you think they’ll go with?
- Inbound Leads: Say someone does a Google search for “virtual coworking ideas.” The first post that pops up is a roundup of virtual coworking ideas I wrote as the pandemic lockdown was beginning and everyone was looking for virtual solutions. I don’t have to know the searcher to drive an inbound lead to my services and community. This piece of content, which I created more than a year ago, does the work for me.
- Social Media Remix: What are you posting on social media if you’re not creating content? Reposting memes and quotes? Sharing that tired old ad for an available office? When you have original content, you can remix it on social media into lists, graphics, Facebook or Instagram Live, your Stories and Reels, a LinkedIn poll, quotes, sliders etc. The sky’s the limit when it comes to creatively remixing content for other channels.
- Strengthen Your Brand: Content, which gives you 1:1 access to infinite people, including hot leads, is the best way (outside of your space) to strengthen your brand. What do you and your company stand for? What is your vision, your mission, your purpose? What about your brand aesthetic? Is it minimal? Timeless? Playful? Cheeky? Buttoned up? Forward-looking? Let your brand shine in your content to attract people who are a good fit for your space and community.
- Build a Brand Community: You don’t hear too much about building a brand community but, mark my words, within a few years, it will be the norm for companies to focus on building a brand community first, and serving that community with a variety of products and services second. Use your content to define who you serve, serving them well, and sharing the results as people and companies take off with your help.
The Content Catch
Content marketing is not a done-for-you affair, or a set-it-and-forget-it kind of thing. It is a long game that requires being hyper-aware of the needs and challenges of your community, course-correcting regularly, being timely and relevant, and being truly invested in supporting and serving your audience/market/community.
Be strategic, know and understand your audience, offerings and goals, create a content calendar to hold you and your team accountable, and step up your content game today.
Next Step
To learn how to turn your ideas into clear, strategic blog posts, join us Wednesday for Blog Post Blueprint, a one-hour group coaching session taught by yours truly.
