Are you still on the fence about investing in content marketing? It’s high time to learn more about the benefits of content marketing then!
With the economy being what it is, small businesses are constantly on edge about how to find new customers and how to keep their current ones happy.
Scaling a small business online these days is not about having a beautiful website or a pretty logo or a good-looking feed on Instagram.
It’s all about content! It’s no wonder why big companies spend millions every month on their content marketing strategies.
The value of content marketing is definitely there and you don’t even need millions to reap its benefits.
To convince you of the merits of content marketing I’ve put together a list of 11 reasons why you should start building your content marketing strategy and promote your business through this powerful digital marketing channel.
What are the Benefits of Content Marketing for Small Businesses?
The benefits of content marketing are:
- Builds Trust, Credibility & Loyalty
- Increases Your Position in the SERPs
- Helps Attract the Right Customers
- Generates Fresh Business
- Improves Brand Awareness
- Helps Reach New Audiences
- Increases Website Traffic
- Reduces the Cost of Marketing Campaigns
- Nurtures Relationships
- Establishes You as An Authority
- Builds Your Own Community
The reason why content marketing works is that it helps you establish a reputation as an expert around a certain topic.
From this position of expert, things start to fall into place for your business. You get more traction on social media, your brand becomes known in the industry, etc…
All of this happens due to the fact that people see you as an authority in your market. People want to learn from experts right?!
Without any further ado, let’s dive into the many benefits of content marketing for your small business.
1. Builds Trust, Credibility & Loyalty
As a small business owner, I guess the most important thing you want is to build trust, credibility, and loyalty among your customers.
Content marketing is a powerful tool for building trust, credibility, and loyalty with your current and potential customers.
It’s all about creating a strong relationship with your target audience. To make them an advocate, you have to provide valuable, unique, and engaging content that solves their problems.
Once you build trust and credibility, it’s easier to form a relationship with them. Most importantly, once you earn their loyalty, there’s a high chance of earning their business in the future.
It’s about knowing how to get in touch with your potential customers and show them that you care about their needs and wants.
You can achieve this through a well-planned content marketing strategy. Building trust, credibility, and loyalty is critical in today’s business environment.
As a small business, it will be hard to rely on advertisements because paid advertising like Google Ads is so expensive.
And if you don’t how to set up, monitor, and optimize your ad campaigns, you might find yourself burning more money than you’re making.
2. Increases Your Position in the SERPs
Let’s talk briefly about the seo benefits of content marketing.
Another reason why you should add content marketing to your marketing strategies is because of its remarkable effect on your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
Content marketing is a great way to attract links to your website and increase its authority in the eyes of search engines.
The more powerful content you publish, the more backlinks you get from other authority sites, the more trusted your site becomes, and that’s what search engines are looking for when it comes to ranking a site.
With a solid content marketing strategy paired with good SEO practices, you can be sure to get your keywords at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs).
A good SEO strategy will make sure that your content is found by prospective customers who are desperately searching for your products and services.
And that’s one of the best things about content marketing. Create great content and earn backlinks from authoritative websites in your industry and you’ll be able to reap the benefits when search engines find your content relevant enough to bring potential customers your way.
Losing out on potential leads because your website doesn’t rank is something you cannot afford anymore in this digital age.
3. Helps Attract the Right Customers
Still asking yourself why content marketing? Let’s move on to the most attractive benefits of content marketing; getting the right customers to your business.
It’s no secret that internet users are bombarded with millions of marketing messages every day.
With billions of products to choose from and thousands of businesses competing for their attention, it’s not surprising why it’s so difficult to attract customers today.
But what if you could use a strategy where you’re not the one chasing clients but they are the ones coming to you? That’s one of the benefits of content marketing.
Whether your keywords are ranking on Google, your content is being to millions of users on Instagram or TikTok or your YouTube videos are ranking for highly competitive keywords, the fact is that the visitors you can attract will be more qualified.
Why? It’s because they are the ones putting in the search query, and in order for them to do that, they must already be interested in buying your products or services.
And this makes customer acquisition and retention easier than it is for other types of marketing online.
Instead of resorting to traditional ads, you should focus on creating engaging content that attracts those who are looking for what you have.
In short, you should be able to position yourself in front of your target audience.
4. Generates Fresh Business
Are you looking for fresh business? Then it’s high time you implement a content marketing strategy that will help you build and nurture relationships with your potential customers.
That can only be done if you know your target audience’s wants and needs.
The first step to achieving this is by creating well-researched content that is relevant to your niche and industry.
According to research, companies that use content marketing generate 67% more leads than those that rely on traditional ads.
I’ve already mentioned how expensive it is to constantly promote your brand and products through paid ads.
The best way to get rid of traditional ads is by making your content more relevant to your target audience’s needs.
Not only will you be able to generate fresh leads but you’ll also be able to move them through the sales funnel more quickly than if you were using traditional methods.
5. Improves Brand Awareness
When it comes to building your business and getting the right potential customers, it all starts with brand awareness.
Without it, no web traffic, no leads, no business, and no money!
With a good content marketing strategy and high-quality content, you’ll be able to make your brand known in a noisy digital world and also build an authority in your industry that will help you stand out from other businesses in your niche.
By creating high-quality content that is relevant to your target audience, you’ll be able to improve your brand awareness among internet users who are already looking for what you have.
Not only will they be more likely to remember your name but they will also recommend you to their friends, family, and followers on social media.
6. Helps Reach New Audiences
Being in a position of getting in front of more people on a daily basis is critical to the success of your business.
If you don’t reach as many people as you can, then you’re missing out on an opportunity to grow your brand and improve your chances of winning more customers in the future.
According to Content Marketing Institute, potential customers who are using search engines are 10 times more likely to become loyal customers than those who are only relying on word of mouth.
A good content marketing strategy will help you reach more people through search engines and social media.
And with more people seeing and interacting with your brand, you’ll be able to grow your customer base, close more deals, and build a strong reputation as an industry leader.
7. Increases Website Traffic
Another reason why should start content marketing for your small business is simply that it has the power to drive tons of traffic to your website.
There are an infinite number of businesses, freelancers, bloggers, and entrepreneurs who receive millions of monthly visits to their websites.
And they have been able to achieve this through content marketing only.
Many successful businesses have never run any advertising campaigns, yet are able to engage with millions on a monthly basis. Talk about the power of content marketing!
When you rank high in the search engines, you basically receive tons of organic traffic without spending a dime.
That is why it’s important to create high-quality content that is relevant to the needs of your target audience.
By implementing a good content marketing strategy, you’ll be able to bring in more leads and opportunities for your business.
8. Reduces the Cost of Marketing Campaigns
As I said earlier, many businesses out there are getting millions of eyeballs on their content every month without having to spend money on paid marketing alternatives like PPC ads, print media, radio ads, etc.
By increasing your visibility and targeting customers who are already looking for what you have to offer, you’ll be able to reduce the cost of your marketing campaigns and increase your profit margins.
As you can see, the benefits of having a content marketing strategy go beyond generating leads and increasing traffic to your website.
A good content marketing strategy can actually help you avoid spending your money on expensive offline and online ads.
It’s a smart way to avoid wasting money on business ads that will increase your overall expenses.
9. Nurtures Business Relationships
Keep in mind that when you’re starting to rank high on Google, not only you’ll be seen by people looking for your products and services but also by other business people; your competitors as well.
Believe it or not, having a relationship with your competitors can play a huge role in your business growth.
By creating outstanding content, you’ll be able to establish a relationship with your competitors that will open doors for future collaborations and partnerships.
y being helpful to the industry and leading it through your content, you’ll be able to solidify your business relationships and build a community that will help you grow your business in the future.
10. Establishes You as An Authority
Content marketing is not just a way to get your business more leads and increase traffic to your website.
By being an authority in your niche, you’ll be able to establish a name for yourself in the industry.
Many successful companies are known today because of their great content marketing strategies.
For example, Neil Patel has been one of the top digital marketers over the past decade and has built his entire career around content marketing.
Tell the world that you’re an expert in your industry is one of the most rewarding benefits of content marketing.
Lending credibility to your brand will help you establish an online presence that will make people trust you.
This will give you the ability to negotiate better deals from clients, receive more referrals from existing customers, and ultimately create a brand that is well-recognized in the industry.
11. Builds Your Own Community
Ok, let’s say your content is shining on the search engines and a few social media channels and you’ve successfully captured a handful of leads.
The next wise step is to focus on growing your own community for more business. This can happen via email marketing, social media marketing, and even paid advertising.
Once you build your community and start growing your business through email marketing, you’ll be able to engage with your audience on a regular basis.
You’ll be able to establish trust and credibility with your audience over time due to the fact that they know you and your brand.
Maintaining a real relationship with these customers will lead to more opportunities as well as word-of-mouth recommendations.
Nurturing your audience and building a content strategy will help you build your business faster.
The thing about content marketing is that it requires a significant amount of time to be successful.
For instance, Google will not rank your content in a few weeks, or a few months when your domain has no authority whatsoever.
It can take a minimum of 3-6 months to start getting some traction on Google. Content marketing does take time before yielding the results!
But when you think about the amount of business people get from just doing social media once in a while, you’ll understand the power behind this strategy.
Final Thoughts
What are the benefits of content marketing? Well, limitless I must although we’ve covered just a handful of them.
No matter what industry you’re in, content marketing can be helpful. Even if it is your first time with content marketing and you aren’t 100% sure what to do, don’t worry.
Focus on creating relevant, helpful, and actionable content and applying some of the best SEO practices if you want to shine through on Google.
Hope this article has opened your eyes up to the power of content marketing and its multiple benefits.
It’s a strategy that is not only about publishing blog posts and photos on social media but a lot more.
Are you going to start content marketing to promote your small business? Are you gonna double down on content marketing if you’ve been doing it lightly? Convinced about the benefits of content marketing? How are you planning to implement a successful content marketing strategy in your business?
Let me know in the comments below.