When you use Twitter for work, you find yourself hit with a lot of statistics. Twitter is a great place to share content and statistics are a great way to illustrate an argument. So business, Twitter and statistics tend to go hand in hand (in hand). Usually, when statistics about content marketing or social media marketing appear in my timeline, I nod along and think ‘makes sense’.
But there was a statistic that appeared last week, that didn’t get a nod. According to eConsultancy, just 38% of companies have a content marketing strategy. That figure sounded very low to me, so I had a look at the article and discovered another shocking figure. The same research found that 29% of agencies say that they or their clients aren’t planning a content marketing strategy.
It’s difficult to wrap your head around a figure like that. Online content marketing is something that 90% of the respondents to that same survey said will become important over the next 12 months. It’s a facet of marketing that’s starting to hit the mainstream at the moment. It involves the production of content that draws potential customers to your website and helps generate sales once they get there.
Considering how much of business is done online today, it’s hard to think of a reason companies wouldn’t be at least considering investing in online content marketing. After a bit of head scratching, I managed to come up with three reasons you might not be considering a content marketing strategy.
Your Customers Don’t Research Purchases
Online content marketing is built on the premise that customers research their purchases online these days. Many studies have found various statistics to back this up. Most agree on figures of 85% and above for the percentage of large purchases (technology, cars, hotel bookings, B2B acquisitions etc.) that are researched online beforehand. Google also found that people use an average of 10 research sources to make their decision.
The idea with content marketing is to create content that places your brand within that research and encourages the customer to choose your product. In the unlikely event that no one in your market does any online research then maybe you don’t need online content marketing. The question is, will no one ever research your product?
You Don’t Rely on Your Website for Business
It’s also possible that you don’t rely on your website for your business. You might have built your website a while ago, and it’s just sat there since. It’s never done much for you, so why would you invest in it now? If that’s how you view your website, you’re actually an ideal candidate for online content marketing. If your business is successful without a successful website, imagine how much growth a successful website could create for you.
Online content marketing works because quality of content is becoming more and more important online. Search engines like Google are becoming more quality focused than ever and social media has always treated all content equally. If influential people on social media share your content, you can access just as many people as a much larger company shared by the same people. The important thing is creating quality content.
You’re Happy with Your Current Marketing Strategy
Of course, it may just be that you’re happy with your current marketing schemes. You may be getting plenty of business and your sales may have a vast lead list to work through. You probably don’t think you need to change your business model. The question there, is what is your competition doing? And is your market going to change?
You may still be generating leads now but if the trends towards online research continue, will your competitors’ content marketing take some of them away? It’s important to keep looking at new avenues for generating leads. As mentioned above, 90% of marketers agree that content marketing is getting more important. Do you really think you’ll never need it?
Sometimes statistics can surprise you when you first see them, but lose their shock value over time. In this case, the opposite is true. The idea that so many companies are ignoring online content marketing was a surprise at first glance. Thinking about it further, and trying to rationalize it with these reasons, just made it even more surprising.
