The secret sauce to successful digital marketing isn’t found in crazy SEO formulas or high-powered responsive design (although both are valuable). The real winning ticket to expanding your brand on the web is to create the best, most epic content you can for your audience and give it to them free of charge.
FREE?! I can’t run a business on free, you say.
But you can and you must.
It’s more important than ever to keep up in the content marketing game if you want to beat out your competitors for customer attention. So let’s take a look at why it’s so important to not only produce great information on the web, but to share it far and wide with as many people as possible.
Content Builds Brand Authority
You are what you say. Research shows that 45{13a4b24a1cf21b295551fb05ec2b4f838c09f4be2b40521ab3a1251850733e7a} of your reputation is based on what you say to your audience. That means that the information you contribute to the web must be the best resource on the topic, something that people will want to bookmark, share, and read again.
By creating and offering industry-leading information about your area of expertise, you become a resource of authority on the subject. A thought leader always commands more respect and trust than those who hide from public view and hoard their knowledge like a secret. If you want to be considered the best in the business, you have to prove yourself by teaching and leading your industry with premium information.
Your Content Generates Leads
You may not be charging people for the golden nuggets of wisdom you’re disseminating on your blog and social media channels but you can still get a great deal of value from the exchange. Most people understand the tacit agreement that by consuming your generously offered content resource free of charge, they will come back for more and may receive further communication from you (especially if that content inspires them to Like your page or Subscribe to your list).
Depending on your needs and business model, it’s perfectly acceptable to require people to sign up for an account or provide their contact info in order to access your words of wisdom. This helps you build an email contact list for future prospecting and promotions as well as a base of attentive readers for your future material.
Demonstrate Your Value
Let’s face it, the real purpose of any web content put forth by a business is the same as that of advertising; to demonstrate and communicate the value of your service offerings. Whereas in the old days you might rely on pricey television ads or yellow page blocks to inform your market just how amazing your widgets are or the high quality of your service, today it’s all about digital content to communicate this value message.
Today’s Channel 4, 6, and 10 are
Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat.
Today’s consumers (even in B2B) pay close attention to how deftly you play the digital game. A beautiful, functional website communicates a sense of efficiency and high standards from your business. People associate the quality of your web presence with the quality of your business. The same goes for content. By putting your expertise into writing, you demonstrate that you know your stuff, which builds trust and value in what you’re doing in the marketplace.
So Grow Your Brand with Content!
The point to all of this is that the content you put forth on the Internet (and give away for free) does more than just attract search engine traffic and populate your social media channels, it actively shapes your brand in the eyes of your target market. Content marketing is Branding in today’s ultra-digital world. It’s vital that your company embrace the growth potential of this relatively inexpensive and far-reaching marketing tactic.
Interested in learning how your company can
create valuable content to attract customers and build authority?
