Covering any and all aspects of content marketing has been the rage for months, but is it REALLY that crucial to your online business success?
Well, that depends…
…Do you want to prove to your target audience that you’re an expert?
If you want people to spend their hard-earned money on YOUR products and services, you need to prove that you’re worthy of it. Insightful blog posts, informative articles, and compelling videos all prove that you really do know what you’re talking about.
…Do you want to set yourself apart from the competition?
There are thousands (or even millions!) of people on the web who do what you do. If you want to succeed, you’ve got to show people what makes you different — and the only way you can do that is through killer pieces of content. After all, you can’t talk to people online like you would in a brick and mortar store. All of your “talking” has to be done through carefully-crafted content!
…Do you want to boost your web traffic and sales?
Designing the best website in the world does you no good if no one knows it exists! The only way you’re going to make any money is to come up with a way to drive traffic to your website. Luckily, that’s easy to do if you publish high-quality guest posts on authoritative websites in your niche. Impress people with your guest posts, and they’ll come running over to your website to see what else you have to offer!
…Do you want to make the search engines happy?
Even if you don’t rely on Google for all of your traffic (and you shouldn’t!), it doesn’t hurt to get a little search engine lovin’. After all, there are 100 BILLION Google searches done every single month, so it’s to your benefit to rank as high in the search results as you can. Google freely admits that it loves websites that publish high-quality content on a frequent basis, so every time you update your blog, you’re making Google happy!
And, in addition to all the important points you raise, the most successful companies are now effectively using content, reflective of the fact that a) consumers, who are active information seekers, are almost completely in control of the purchase decision and b) studies now show that under 5% of consumers consider traditional push advertising and promotion as a lever of trust in their decision processes: http://customerthink.com/the_meteoric_rise_of_content_especially_video_what_does_it_mean_for_marketers/
Excellent points, Michael! And thanks for the stat… I hadn’t seen that one before. It makes perfect sense, though. In today’s world, people want *legitimate* answers/solutions, and they want them now. They’re also smart enough to tell an ad from a legitimately helpful piece of content. Thanks for chiming in!