Does Content Marketing Matter? Here’s How Content Can Increase Sales

The phrase “content is king” exists for a reason. Content marketing has become an essential pillar of success for all modern brands – no matter the industry or sector. In other words, behind every great brand is a successful digital marketing campaign with an effective content marketing strategy at its heart.

Put simply, by having a wealth of valuable and relevant content that truly connects with your company’s audience, you can reap the endless benefits that it provides. Today, we explore why content marketing matters and how it can increase sales for your business.

First, Why is Content Marketing Important?

Before jumping into the top advantages of content marketing, it pays to properly understand what this concept is before building your own strategy. Content marketing is important because it offers answers to any questions your audience might have, thereby building trust, developing relationships, improving conversions and generating leads.

Where other marketing practices focus on pitching products and services, content marketing aims to provide relevant and useful content that helps solve the issues your prospects and customers are facing. This then positions your company’s offerings as a viable solution to their problems, which, in turn, will drive profitable customer action.

Research shows that 70% of the buyer’s journey is completed before they speak with a salesperson. This means that the purchase process is over way before sales have any hope of influencing it. Hence why content marketing is an integral aspect of any sales enablement solution.

There are various types of content you can create, and each one has a major effect on the number of sales that you close. Some of the content you should consider creating are:

• Informative blog posts
• Case studies
• Customer testimonials
• Interactive content
• Print materials
• Email campaigns

With that in mind, here are the ways content marketing can increase profits for your business.

The Pros of Content Marketing

1. Builds brand awareness and thought leadership

Content marketing builds brand awareness in a unique way. Because your content will be distributed across multiple platforms, this enhances your company’s value to your target audience and keeps them coming back when they need the information to stay updated.

Improving SEO and ranking on the first page of Google is just the tip of the iceberg of advantages that a solid content marketing strategy can provide. Beyond that, creating quality content that specifically provides answers and solutions to your target audience’s problems will ensure that your content – and by association, your brand – will appear everywhere potential customers are looking for your product.

Furthermore, by writing about topics that your customers are interested in, they will start to associate your great content with your brand, thereby establishing your company as a thought leader in your industry. People will begin to specifically seek your organisation out for information.

2. Reduces the need for paid advertising

Upfront costs for creating content might appear steep at first, but since HubSpot first assessed the cost of content marketing ten years ago, they found that the practice has remained the most cost-effective marketing strategy available.

Providing a wealth of quality content in the form of blogs, resources, newsletters, videos and even podcasts, will keep consumers hooked and coming back without the need for constant paid advertising.

In other words, content marketing can drive sales by establishing a strong flow of organic traffic by pumping out a steady, reliable flow of information that attracts your target audience.

Choosing to invest money in a well-written article that is relevant and interesting can generate more quality leads than any form of paid advertising. This is because your content can provide high-quality, informative knowledge that invites readers to spend more time on your website and dive into more of your material.

In conclusion, when compared to paid advertisements, video marketing and traditional marketing, content marketing is the most cost-effective method, thereby improving your bottom line.

3. Provides relevant and informative information

Communication is key in most areas of life, but particularly when it comes to content marketing. Producing quality content demonstrates professionalism in your field and establishes an active online presence through social media and blogs, providing considerable value to your target audience.

You would be surprised at how many websites do not have content marketing strategies in place or try to do all their content management on their own. As a result, they have a few garnished illustrations and headings but lack interesting content that keeps readers engaged, offering irrelevant information that doesn’t solve any problems, leaving a bad impression on potential customers.

When your content communicates with readers in an engaging way and evokes an emotional response, you can actually speed up the buying process. When people are on the journey to make a purchase, having the right content marketing strategy can shorten the decision-making process considerably. Furthermore, clear and concise communication all but guarantees your company reaches new perspectives.

Track and monitor your progress with tools like Google Analytics, Facebook Page Insights and Twitter Analytics to see if your content marketing strategies are effective. You can also use the data from these tools to inform and improve your strategies throughout the various platforms to better communicate to your target audience and build focused relationships.

4. Engages your audience for longer

The more engaged and interested your readers are, the better the experience they have on your website, and the better the customer experience, the more likely they’ll come back for more and eventually purchase your product or service.

Quality content plays an important role in creating positive experiences for your potential customers. A good content marketing strategy can capture your audience’s attention and continually reinforce a positive brand impression. And a good brand impression generates leads that can translate into conversions.

5. Improves social media traction

Having thousands and thousands of followers on social media means nothing if you can’t convert them into sales. This is where having a solid content media strategy comes in.

Quality content can aid your business in gaining traction on social media, providing your followers with interesting and engaging content that positions your product or service as the solution to all their problems.

6. Gain trust from the audience

Building a relationship with your audience is the best way to drive sales. And to do this, you need to ensure trust between your brand and potential customers. By answering their questions and interacting with customers through the content you provide, you create value without asking or taking anything in return. As a result, your audience is more likely to trust your advice and recommendations.

When your content shows up at the right place and at the right time with the right audience, it improves your brand reputation. In other words, the more quality customers see from your brand, the more likely they’ll develop a positive association with your company.

7. Generate higher quality leads

As you already know, not every lead is a quality lead. You want to ensure that the leads you’re generating will convert to actual sales. Naturally, this can be achieved through a good content marketing strategy.

When your audience views your quality content and it resonates with their needs and provides helpful solutions to their issues, they’ll be more likely to purchase from you in the future. Furthermore, by adding calls-to-actions (CTAs) strategically to your content, you can generate new leads for your sales team.

8. Original content improves conversions

As we mentioned previously, having a large amount of traffics or leads means nothing if they don’t convert to sales. Posting quality content can influence your conversions by helping you connect with your audience and providing them with the information they need to make educated purchases.

Be sure that all your content always includes a CTA and guides the reader on what they should do next.

9. Better SEO means more visibility

Producing more consistent, high-quality content will be better for your SEO efforts and make sure your business becomes more visible to your target audience. The goal of creating content should be to increase your business’s online visibility and build trust and authority with your audience.

Furthermore, with a well-developed content marketing strategy in place, your content should help your company rank higher in search engines.

10. Positions you as an authority in your industry

The best way to drive sales is to build your authority online. You want to establish your business as a credible place to get information, which, in turn, will ensure you rank higher in search engines.

If your customers view you as an industry expert, they are more likely to trust you and therefore purchase your product or service. To achieve this, your content needs to demonstrate your expertise in your field and provide valuable answers to your audience’s questions.

Related: Content Marketing for the Education Industry

Take the Next Step Towards Improving Your Content Marketing Strategy

Take the first step to a better content marketing strategy and speak with us at Nexa. We are a diamond-tiered HubSpot partner that specialises in HubSpot for Content Marketing and Lead Generation, providing a range of content marketing solutions that can help your business reach new levels of success.