5 Reasons Why You Should Use Content Marketing

Imagine you're browsing a news site. As soon as you click on the first article, a window pops up that wants to lure you into the online shop with a cereal in a new flavour. Advertising annoys, right? Why should your customers be different? Content marketing is the alternative to classic advertising! There are certainly 1000 reasons for using a content marketing strategy - I discuss the five that matter to you.

The classic advertising is losing its appeal, but at the same time new ways are opening up to reach your customers.

Before the Internet, businesses had only two ways to make themselves heard by the masses:

1. Through paid advertising on TV, newspapers and magazines.

2. Through good PR and publication in journals.

Do not look at content marketing as a challenge, but as an opportunity!

Content marketing offers the decisive advantage of being able to enter into dialogue with the customer at an early stage and thus of indirectly influencing his purchasing behaviour.

But what do companies actually have to gain from a content marketing strategy?

1. Content Marketing increases your reach

Above all, your content should provide users with added value and help with a specific problem. If your products and services allow it, you can also put emotions into your

content. All of these factors invite them to share. With social sharing, your content spreads like wildfire! Use these multiplier effects.

In the future you will no longer search for customers, but will be found!

If you use your content properly, you do not have to make huge investments to be found. The magic word is "Organic Traffic".

For Google to rate your page as relevant and rank higher in search results, the following criteria are critical, among others:

• The more precisely you assign your content to a specific subject area, the better it will be found for related search terms.

• With useful content, you make your site an authority website, which is rated very positively in the Google rankings. This requires linking several links from high-ranking websites to your own. Certainly a long way, but worth it to go.

• Useful information also increases the time visitors spend, which in turn has a positive effect on your findability on the Web.

More useful tips on how to increase traffic to your site can be found in my blog post : "Website Traffic: 4 Tips To Increase It"!

2. Content Marketing increases awareness and confidence in your brand

A. Brand awareness

Is your brand recognized by a majority of people or not? The bill is simple: anyone who has never heard of a brand will not fall back on it - especially not if the product is not significantly cheaper than the competition.

Therefore, it is often the goal of young and unknown companies to gain brand awareness. But even established companies need to rethink their brand awareness strategy with every new product launch. Content marketing is at the heart of this strategy. Content must reflect the image of the company and provide the customer with useful information.

B. Brands loyalty

The best you can achieve as a brand is that your customer has a personal obligation to use your product over and over again. Customers are quite willing to pay more for a product if they know the brand. Conversely, companies that fail to build brand loyalty are subject to tough price competition.

How can brand confidence be built up? The answer is again: Content Marketing! As a result, the customer comes into contact with the brand even before the purchase, without the brand being in the foreground. Rather, it is a concrete problem to which helpful answers are delivered. Which company ultimately provides assistance in the form of suitable products or services is of secondary importance. And that is precisely what creates trust among the users.

C. Customer loyalty

For too long, marketers have only one-dimensionally operated their channels. The customer was nothing more than a passive recipient. As a consequence, classical advertising lost its effect.

Content Marketing specifically seeks interaction with the reader. Whether the content is offered through social media, a blog or e-mail - through customer engagement, there is a constant exchange and the consumer feels taken seriously.

3. Content Marketing tells you more about your target audience

A rule in content marketing is: Do not just write without knowing the audience you're publishing for. On the other hand, the profile of your Buyer Persona at the beginning may

still be a bit vague.

The more you produce content, the more you learn about the audience. No matter what format you choose - whether it's a video, blog article or website - it will provide you with valuable data that will tell you a lot about your readers. The direct interactions via social media should also be used for a consideration. This allows you to tailor content to customers' needs.

4. High quality content marketing is sustainable

A Paid Media campaign works only as long as money is pumped into the promotion. After that it loses its effect. A Google ad will no longer be found once you've stopped paying.

And hardly anyone will remember an ad that ran on TV two years ago.

Content marketing does not stop. Being up to date is an important factor in the success of your campaign, but content that is consistently relevant is constantly being sought and consumed by your audience.

Always remember how much time you have invested in creating the content. Many make the mistake of hardly allocating resources for the distribution of content. If possible, allocate about 40% of the time it takes to create the content to the distribution efforts. Share the content on all social networks - even more often, if it makes sense.

5. Good content marketing is cost effective!

It takes time and well-trained staff to produce high-quality content.

But if you compare it to classic advertising measures, you soon realize that in the long term, content marketing is the better alternative because it achieves sustainable effects without high running costs.

Besides, you do not have to worry about your content being hidden. Neither from technical aids such as Adblocker nor in the mind of the consumer, who specifically searches for helpful content. If you use your own channels (eg website), you decide on your own whether contents are to be seen.

Here's a little tip: Do not overstate expectations. The introduction of a content marketing strategy is an ongoing process. Your first blog article will probably not end up at # 1 on search engine results, and the first social post will not mutate into Internet hype.

Nevertheless, stay on the ball, because the first successes will not be long in coming.

To better define the goals, budget should play a role in the design phase. Therefore, set an exact target return on investment (ROI) for the campaign.

Summary

With Content Marketing you achieve much less wastage compared to classic advertising!

Content marketing not only helps you find new customers, but also binds them to the business.

Content can also be perfectly tailored to the decision-making phase of the consumer. So he always finds exactly the information he needs right now and will ideally not only become a new customer, but a valuable brand ambassador by recommending your website to family members and friends.