It’s undeniable that content marketing is an extremely valuable skill to have in your marketing toolkit, especially as an SME. Our Content Creator Lizzie explains why.
It drives more traffic to your site
Creating engaging and valuable content for your target audience will help drive more traffic to your site in lots of different ways. Publishing blog posts on your website and then sharing them on social media is a great way of doing this, or you could get a guest blogger to write an article about your business and include a link back to your site. Plus the more engaging your content is on social media, the more eager people will be to visit your website. And we have the stats to prove it: organisations who use content marketing typically get 6 times higher website conversions than those who don’t (Content Marketing Institute, 2017).
It builds brand loyalty, helping you to create long lasting relationships
Take Innocent or Waterstones, for example; their carefully crafted social media content shows the ‘human’ side to their brand. Speaking directly to your customers, providing commentary on current affairs or topical issues and communicating your values with ‘team and culture’ content will help you create long lasting relationships with your customers. It’s important not to simply churn out sales messages on your social media channels, but instead, publish a rich variety of messages which engage your audience. Whilst the brands mentioned above are more on the ‘out-there’ side in terms of their tone of voice, their approach definitely showcases content marketing at its best!
It positions you as an industry expert
By creating content that discusses common issues your customers face or topics they’ll be interested in, you’re able to stand out from your competitors and establish your business as an expert within your industry. This helps build trust and affinity with your brand and positions your business as a reliable information base amongst a sea of eclectic information.
It improves your Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) ratings
Writing engaging content on your website and including relevant keywords will help your content perform better in search and therefore improve your Google rankings. You should always try to be as specific as you can with your keyword selection (so you have less content to compete with) and then ensure your blog post or article regularly references the word or phrase. As an SME this is so valuable as it means your content will be seen by a wider audience, and in turn, build brand awareness.
It expands your customer pool, giving you loads more opportunities to target your customers
Content marketing allows you to reach more people – fast. Using popular and relevant hashtags, getting involved in meaningful conversations with your audience and creating engaging content that people want to share, all help you increase your brand exposure. Plus, due to the nature of social media you have access to a huge pool of potential customers who can be learning about your brand and benefiting from your content at any time and in any place across the globe.
It’s relatively low-cost
Content marketing is by far one of the most cost-effective marketing methods out there, as all you need to budget for is time. The top social media accounts are all free to join and you don’t need any specialist equipment to write thought-provoking blog posts, just the expert knowledge of your business area. Even if you decide to experiment with running social media ads or remarketing techniques, you can reach thousands, even millions of people for a fraction of the price of a billboard or TV ad. Plus if you choose to outsource your content marketing you don’t need to hire a professional in-house and can benefit from an outside perspective on your SME.
It will work regardless of your product, industry or organisation!
You don’t need to have a life-changing product or be a household name to succeed with content marketing. Regardless of your product, industry or positioning, every business can reap the rewards. As long as you’re providing your audience with engaging, relevant and beneficial content across the channels they use, then you’re on to a winner!
Here at Magpie, we create an overall strategy for executing and delivering content creation that attracts, engages and captivates audiences.
Interested in seeing how content marketing could help you reach your business goals? Just email myles@wearemagpie.com for more information or to book a Discovery Meeting.
