One of the best ways of improving conversion rates is with content marketing. Using it allows you to create a connection with leads and customers while educating them. You're creating trust and building relationships.
At the same time, you're also encouraging conversions. Each of these things happens when you provide your audience with the information they're craving. That information helps lead them to make educated purchasing decisions.
You must be strategic regarding your approach. The content you're presenting should have razor-sharp focus. Ultimately, the goal is distributing valuable and relevant content consistently. In doing so, you'll attract and retain an audience that's clearly defined as they are self-selecting to be in your segment.
Content development goes beyond targeting your audience. It's also about optimizing it for search engines and building relationships for businesses. Achieving this reach—to businesses, consumers, and search engines—is invaluable. Let's see why.
Using Content Marketing to Reach Businesses
Building customer relationships is a priority for businesses of all sizes. You can present your expertise and services when sharing content. Each time you highlight essential topics, it helps gain trust with prospects. Effective, expressive, and well-written content allows businesses to:
- Drive traffic to their websites
- Boost engagement with their social media accounts
- Achieve higher rankings on search results
- Encourage their audience to share content
According to the Content Marketing Institute, "90% of top-performing B2B content marketers put audience's informational needs first." In addition to developing a trusting relationship with your audience, you’re also building credibility.
Why Content Marketing is Essential for Reaching Consumers
Your audience, every audience, has a healthy appetite for excellent content. Before making purchasing decisions, corporate buyers and consumers alike are voraciously researching not just products and services, but on an even bigger scale, solutions to their problems. They may study features, compare prices, or look at an assortment of brands before making a decision. Before orders are placed, they may compare deals and rates using mobile devices. These are examples of where excellent content helps your audience make their decisions.
According to research conducted by Accenture, "Nearly two-thirds of consumers globally (63 percent) prefer to buy goods and services from companies that stand for a shared purpose that reflects their personal values and beliefs, and are ditching those that don’t." What does this mean for your company? If your company stands for something more significant than what you're selling, but a solution to a pain point, you'll attract more consumers. Your audience will see you demonstrating your commitment to that purpose when you communicate it through great content.
How Content Marketing is Beneficial to Search Engines
When your audience needs to solve a problem, they're turning to search engines. Therefore, this is an excellent opportunity for gaining traction with new customers. Each time they use a search engine, make sure you're showing up in the results.
The best way to do that is ensuring your content is up-to-date and relevant. Update your existing content in addition to publishing fresh content consistently. These efforts will help potential customers find you easier.
According to New York Times Bestselling author Neil Patel, "72% of marketers are producing significantly more content than they did a year ago." That means if your company isn't utilizing search engine optimization (SEO), the content you're presenting could get lost in the shuffle. Be sure your content is high-quality, original, and is helpful.
Final Thoughts
Your company will become a lead-generation machine as you produce more insightful, relevant, and valuable content. Adopting a customer-centric content marketing strategy will help improve your ROI. When you're delivering meaningful content, your target audience will see that you care about the decisions during every step of the buying journey.
Sitefinity is a web content management system that can help bring your content marketing strategy to life. Sign up here for a personalized demo of what it can do for you.
Jennifer McAdams
Jen McAdams was Vice President of Global Demand Generation and Field Marketing.