Have you heard of content marketing but are wondering if you should jump on the band wagon and develop a content marketing strategy?

Do you understand the significant benefits content marketing can provide for your small business?

In this article we take you through seven of the most important content marketing benefits for small businesses.

Seven content marketing benefits

One – Content marketing increases sales, brings in new leads and makes you more money

Content marketing can increase traffic to your website, increase your number of leads and increase your sales through allowing your potential customers to consume more content about your products and services.

Marcus Sheridan found a magic number – 30. This is the number of pages a potential lead views before getting in contact with his business and becoming a prospect and an eventual customer. What Marcus suggests is that you find your optimal number of pages for your customers to become a sale.

Contently found that 67% of Twitter users are more likely to buy from brands that they follow and blogs are 63% more likely to influence purchase decisions than magazines, just proving that in this digital age traditional marketing is falling far behind content marketing in turns of sales generation.

By utilising content marketing, you can increase your potential for sales and leads, which ultimately leads you to increase your revenue and your ROI due to the limited investment required with content marketing (see benefit six). Content marketing has the power to reach customers at every stage of the buying process and gently nudge them in the right direction, which is towards your becoming a life long and loyal customer.

Two – Content marketing builds your brand and enhances your brand image

As a small business your brand is important in communicating who you are. Content marketing is a great way to build your brand in a controlled and staged manner. Starting with one type of content (blog, podcast, ebook) or one social media platform (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) you can build your knowledge and experience of one platform before tackling another, gradually managing all places your target audience are likely to see your content.

As a small business owner it is likely you will be running a marketing department of one – you. Content marketing gives you complete control to communicate what you want about your business and the brand you are trying to create. You can also control the quality of the content that is shared about your business, and along with some consistency, you can enhance your brands image.

Three – Content marketing builds long term relationships, engages customers and develops a higher level of trust

Over the longer term, as you produce blogs, podcasts, webinars etc., the easier and more likely it will be for people to get to know you as a person and business owner. As your content strategy matures and develops people will engage with your content and subscribe to receiving weekly or even daily emails and updates about what you have to share.

Content marketing is great for engaging with customers, asking them questions, asking for feedback, starting discussions and having a real conversation with those who have made your business a success.

Customers enjoy the personal touch and content marketing offers that opportunity to customise your content to your target audience, engage with them in real time, develop a high level of trust, which in turn leads to loyal and repeat customers and thus forming a strong foundation for your business.

Four – Content marketing drives traffic and increases visibility

Due to most content marketing efforts being so shareable, you can garner mass exposure in your industry and increase the visibility of your brand around the world. As previously mentioned, content marketing can drive traffic to your website as you share new content and create curiousity within existing and new customers. A great statistic that demonstrates the power of content marketing is that companies with blogs get 97% more inbound links than other companies without blogs.

Five – Content marketing establishes you as a thought leader, builds authority and positions you as a helpful resource

You are already very knowledgeable about your business and your industry, otherwise the chances are that your business would not be doing very well. Content marketing allows you to share your expertise and establish yourself as a thought leader; someone who is recognised as a source of expertise on a particular topic. The more you share, the more you will be regarded as a helpful resource and source of authority in your industry. When a customer decides to purchase a product or service they usually go online to look for the answers to their questions, and content marketing allows you to become the go to source for the answers.

To find out more about the thought leaders in content marketing click here

Six – Content marketing is low cost (compared to other marketing efforts)

Starting a blog, recording a podcast, posting on Facebook or Twitter, can all be totally free with great returns. Compared to traditional channels such as TV advertising, magazine/print advertising and radio spots, costing anywhere from a few hundreds to thousands to millions of pounds. Content marketing provides a more affordable alternative and is perfect for small businesses who have a limited marketing budget but want to make a huge impact on their target audience.

However, while content marketing might not cost you a lot of money it will cost a bit of time and effort to make it work effectively for your business, but with a solid content schedule, that shouldn’t be a problem.

Seven – Content marketing is more about education than promotion

To take advantage of all the benefits that content marketing can bring to you and your business, it is important to note the difference between content marketing and traditional marketing . In the long term, the educational nature of content marketing will provide a greater return on investment than the promotional nature of traditional marketing.

Consumers, and people in general, are constantly seeking to expand their knowledge. Whether it’s about a product, service, or topic of interest, content marketing when executed correctly can place your company as the ultimate source of knowledge on your industry in the eyes of the consumer.

Understanding that content marketing is about becoming an educator and advisor means that you can develop your content marketing philosophy to help build your brand, build long term relationships with your customers, drive traffic to your website, increase your sales and establish yourself as a thought leader.

Your Turn

Now that you know that content marketing holds huge potential for your business, why not start implementing a content marketing strategy today? To help you get started click here to check out our ultimate guide to getting started with content marketing. Also check out our article on the challenges of content marketing (with solutions)

1. How has content marketing benefited your business?
2. What have you found to be the biggest benefit of content marketing?
3. What content marketing benefits would you add to this list?

Let us know your response in the comment section below.