Don’t like reading? Listen to the audio version instead.
If you listened to the audio, you may want to Click Here.
Otherwise, read on.
Many small business owners see content marketing as a waste of time. It takes too long, and it costs time/effort or money – or both – to engage in it.
They prefer to focus on paid advertising, which (if done correctly) can yield results much sooner. When done correctly, the results are also more predictable. While you do have to compete against other advertisers in the same space, you don’t have to deal with regular algorithm updates.
That being said…
Content marketing, done right, is a valuable investment in the future of your brand.
Side note: When we talk about content, we talk about any content that provides value. It can be an article or blog post, a Youtube video, an infographic, a document on a document sharing website, etc. Any content item that provides value, even on social media, can be indexed in Google.
Why content marketing is key to long term growth:
1. Content marketing builds trust.
The concept of “know, like and trust” is very old. In fact, its roots can be traced back to our tribal days, when people wanted to know who in the tribe – or outside of it – could be considered a threat, and who could be a potential friend and ally.
As the internet evolved, and scammers and fake gurus popped up like mushrooms after rain, the proverbial bar for gaining trust online was raised quite high.
In fact, if you sell anything of value, you now need – according to research – the following content to have a constant stream of clients or customers:
(According to Daniel Priestley – in his book “Oversubscribed”. Yes, it is likely to vary between niches, but these are the averages for reaching a tipping point.)
a. 7 Hours worth of content. Fair enough, this includes everything – website content, blog posts, social media content, videos, emails, webinars, books, etc.
b. 11 different touch points. Once again, these are all of your content touch points out there. These include blog posts, newsletters, emails, events (online or offline), social media, Videos, books, webinars, published articles, white papers, etc.
c. 4 Different platforms. Be visible in at least 4 places, including – of course – your website or blog.
You will be able to attract clients or customers with far less than this, but by the time you achieve these numbers, you should have a steady stream of leads and sales.
2. Content attracts organic traffic.
While search traffic will probably reduce over time – due to AI search – the reality remains that the more content you have, the more visitors you will attract.
Fair enough, the number of visitors you attract from search will depend on many things, including the quality of your content.
However, what many people fail to realize, is this:
a. While the algorithms differ from actual search engines like Google, all social media platforms also have their own internal search engines.
And the more specific and unique your social media content is, the more likely it is to show up in a social network’s search, even if it is old.
b. Social media posts often get indexed on Google. Aside from Youtube videos which are easy to rank in Google, just think of how many times you have done a search for something very specific, only to be taken to a Facebook post or a Pinterest board.
3. Content marketing nurtures relationships.
Over time, sharing helpful content will establish your intent to help people. Sharing helpful content time and again will systematically earn you the trust of more and more of the people exposed to your content.
Some of those social media followers will become fans, who in turn will share your content with their own networks, dramatically expanding your reach.
This is not something you can do by advertising. You can only do it by showing up regularly, and providing value.
4. Your content eventually positions you as an expert.
This works in two ways:
a. The combination of sheer volume, combined with your intent to provide helpful content, will let people see you (or your brand) as the go-to expert for the services or products you provide.
b. Once you have covered a wide enough range of topics on your blog, Google will label you as “a topical authority” – even without many backlinks to your website or blog. At this point in time, your blog traffic will see a marked increase, even though (apart from being consistent), you didn’t do anything specific to attract that traffic.
5. The effects of content marketing are long-lasting.
Fair enough, there is a caveat: If you stop being active on social media, you shouldn’t expect your followers to remember you.
However, as far as your website, blog and Youtube channel is concerned, you can keep getting traffic for a very long time after you stopped publishing.
Yes, that traffic number will slowly reduce over time (because Google favors regularly updated websites, and Youtube favors channels that keep publishing new videos), but it will keep coming.
The same also goes for articles you published on authority content sites like Medium.com.
To some lesser extent, this is also true for your content on Pinterest.
6. Content marketing can carry you through hard times.
Hard times happen. The economy takes a knock every now and then, or the landscape in your industry changes. When your cash flow takes a dive, you need to do marketing more than ever…
But you may not have the money to advertise.
This has seen the demise of many, many businesses in the past.
However, if you do content marketing, you can still get some traffic – even if it was outsourced, and you cannot continue to pay for it.
Your blog content, Youtube videos, published articles, guest posts and syndicated documents can all still keep sending traffic to your offers.
Yes, the traffic will be less – unless you resort to keeping the content schedule yourself. But it will still be there.
Unlike paid traffic, which stops dead without any money, you will still have SOME traffic – and business – coming in.
The bottom line is this:
Content marketing is an investment. Yes, it takes time before it starts showing results. It takes effort and/or money to implement.
However, you may want to think of it like this:
The person doing paid advertising is a hunter. They want results today.
The person doing content marketing is a farmer.
The hunter has to keep chasing the prey. If they stop chasing, there is no catch.
If the farmer falls ill and stops working, the crops will still grow. There may be some weeds growing along with it, and the crop may not be as good, but it will still be there.
It makes sense that you have to hunt when you start out. But it also makes sense that being a farmer makes much more sense in the long run.