Content marketing is not a new approach. Even Benjamin Franklin used it in 1732 to promote his printing business. He did so by publishing in the Poor Richard’s Almanack. But it comes off as new because now there’s a term for educating the customer by using content.
Because the notion of content marketing appeared only recently, it makes many clients hesitant about giving it a try. Fortunately, there are countless studies that show how effective content marketing is, why it’s actually cheaper than traditional marketing approaches, and what makes content marketing successful.
If you want to convince your clients about how beneficial content marketing can be, you have to bring to the table case studies, reports, and a few clearly-outlined practices on what a successful content marketing campaign looks like.
Once you can prove content marketing has a higher ROI, costs less in the long-term, and helps build their brand, you’ve got them!
The ROI of content marketing vs traditional marketing
With outbound marketing, you get traffic and leads only when you pay for the exposure. Once you stop paying, you won’t attract potential clients. However, this is not the case with content marketing.
People will always have questions about how they can solve their problems, and once you publish a piece of content that focuses on their pain point and highlights your product or service as the solution, you’ll have an engaged reader.
This theory was put to test by Kapost, who published a white paper on the ROI of content marketing. The research revealed that content marketing produced three times more leads when compared to outbound marketing.
Websites with excellent content grow 7.8x faster
Companies that invest in content marketing are leaders in the marketplace when it comes to attracting free traffic from social media platforms and search engines.
Not only does content help websites build a larger following but their audience also becomes more engaged. Visitors don’t just browse through their products and services; they also get to know who’s behind the company, what their values are, etc.
If your clients are still hesitant about it, let’s move on to the next point: reputation management.
Social media can make or break your company’s reputation
Social media is another part of content marketing. Most business owners don’t see social media through this lense, but it’s worth mentioning to your clients that consumers express both their negative and positive experiences on social media.
According to Bob Design, there are 2.1 million negative social mentions about brands every single day.
But on social media you don’t only have to address only the negative reviews, you can also play an active role and engage with your potential customers. Over 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from brands they follow on social media.
To summarize, people talk about brands on social media all the time, and if you aren’t there to create engaging content and build a following, you’re missing out.
Why content marketing works- and why it doesn’t work in some cases
Success stories like Marcus Sheridan, the owner of River Pools, saved his business by blogging after the recession hit his business hard, are plentiful. However, your clients may want to know how to avoid failure.
What are the “rules” of content marketing? Are there any studies that shed light on what works in content marketing and what doesn’t?
Fortunately, there’s plenty of research that shows why some companies thrive and why others fail.
Here’s a comparison between the route most successful content marketers took and the one taken by the least successful marketers.
One of the key takeaways from this study is that a documented strategy not only makes it easier to create engaging content but it also leads to having more tactics in your toolbox as well.
If your clients want to stay away from failure, they have to follow the following rules:
- Invest in researching which strategies and tactics work best
- Don’t neglect social media platforms
- Invest enough money to hire professionals (either in-house or outsource)
Wrapping up
It’s normal for your clients to be hesitant in front of a novel marketing approach, but once you have case studies and reports that prove the effectiveness of content marketing, you’re more likely to be heard.
In the end, what all business owners want is reassurance that they’re doing the best they can to help their business grow. And with the examples shown above, you can easily explain why content marketing is cheaper in the long-term and has a higher ROI compared to most outbound marketing tactics.
