Online Content Marketing is a powerful channel for attracting qualified leads for your business. By sharing what you do, and why you do it, you build authority which leads tot trust. You won’t know all your readers, but they will feel as though they know you – what your values are, your competency, and much, much more.
1. Building Visibility
When you publish fresh content on a regular basis (at least weekly), search engines notice and pay attention. It really doesn’t matter how good you are at your core business if people who need your expertise can’t find you – or if they find you, but don’t understand what you can do to help them. If your content adds value to your audience so that they share it, that helps even more. There is a sound argument made for publishing longer content less frequently. I notice that it’s mostly made by people who already have a large following. If you are in an arcane area where there are only a few experts, are already a well-known figure online, or are on the cutting edge of a new and highly popular topic you may get away with this, but weekly publishing is a ‘safe’ option.
2. Building Trust
The internet has changed the sales process for many businesses. Both B2B and B2C businesses report that increasingly prospects contact them with the decision to purchase already made. If you want to attract customers and clients who are serious about purchasing from you, then publishing relevant, quality information that answers their questions is a very wise move:- it shows you are secure enough to share your ideas and expertise freely. If you think about it, who would you rather work with: The person who holds information tightly to their chest or the one who is willing to share freely? The world is full of people who succeeded because they chose to spend the time serving others while their competitors couldn’t be bothered.
3. Building Authority
Content Marketing uses the power and authority that publishing has always had to attract attention and establish your expertise. From Homer and Plato, to Virgil, Marx and Freud people who have published their ideas have been sought out and given publicity which has helped them achieve their goals. It worked in the days of scrolls and tablets, it worked when only the printing press was available and it works now that publishing is easier and cheaper than ever, and your work is easier to find. Google Authorship tracks and rewards your increasing authority by displaying your picture next to your results and by giving extra weight to regular publishers.
4. Building Audience
You no longer have to wait around to ‘be discovered’! You can make yourself discoverable. As you publish and share your work with clients and friends, and as they share your work with their network it gathers momentum. Among the advantages of building this sort of audience is that your marketing efforts become easier and more cost-effective, your sales process becomes shorter, and you can focus on the clients and customers you actually want to serve. People are searching for answers at all hours of the day and night, if you provide answers, they will discover them and want to work with you. You will be surprised at some of the calls you get from people whom you would never have met without your online content marketing.
5. Building Loyalty
The core of your successful business is not just attracting a customer the first time – it’s having them come back to you every time they need the same service. Investing your time and efforts in high quality content marketing helps enormously in this area. Often you attracted them for the first time with your willingness to share your expertise freely, so continuing to do this shows that you respect them, and are confident in your ability to solve their problems. Also, regularly communicating with customers in a more personal way (email, physical newsletter) helps you remain top-of-mind – and if the information you share is relevant and displays your knowledge it will cement their sense that you care about keeping them informed and are an authority.
There are so many reasons why creating and publishing regular content online is one of the best investments you can make in your business that I could keep writing for hours!
However, I’d like to leave you with an action step:-
Make sure your business website has a blog section, and start building it every week with content that answers your customers questions and adds value to them.