When starting a new venture, it is common to stumble across the concept of investing in content marketing. It is a good idea to begin using content marketing. After all, well-done content marketing can boost a brand or business in a plethora of ways. Content marketing can increase brand visibility, create and solidify relationships with customers, and increase revenue. Unlike other forms of marketing, investing in content marketing can be a meager cost and has the potential to lead clients to your business for years to come.

However, many are still in the dark about just how useful it is. Additionally, many have been fed the false idea that measuring the return on investment (ROI) for this type of marketing is difficult, if not impossible. On the contrary, ROI can be monitored and measured for many forms of content marketing, similarly to other paid marketing strategies. If you are unsure about the ways that content marketing can benefit your business, read on!

The Basics of Content Marketing

Content marketing is the process of creating, publishing, and distributing helpful material to the desired audience. This distribution intends to inform the audience about a particular business or brand. Some examples of standard content used for this type of marketing include blogs, infographics, videos, and podcasts. To begin using content marketing effectively, you need to know what you hope to offer to your target audience and the intended goals of your marketing. Through discovering your goals, you will begin to determine who your target audience is, which is another necessary factor for effective content marketing. Knowing whom you are talking to and what they need from you will create a valuable relationship between business and client. 

Once you know who your target audience is, you can begin to create content that they’d find valuable. Content creation is a crucial element of content marketing because irrelevant and junk content are not likely to result in long-term growth or customer retention. So make sure that the content you produce offers value to your client. What is valuable will vary depending on your customer base and audience, but some examples of providing value to them are updating them about services, offering information about new products, or even creating useful templates and charts they can use to organize their personal lives. 

Whatever the case, it is essential to make sure you aren’t just pumping out content for the sake of doing so.  If you create natural, meaningful content of good quality, you will undeniably begin to see growth and return in many of the following areas.

The Benefits of Content Marketing + How to Measure ROI

CUSTOMER GROWTH

Attract new customers

When people need almost anything, the first thing they do is grab their phone and Google it. If you aren’t creating content to accompany your product or service, you miss out on an opportunity to have thousands of new eyes on your content every day. For instance, for a business that provides piano lessons, having a blog such as “Tips for Taking Up Piano” could drive new students to them if it’s well optimized for search engines. 

Reactivate previous conversions

Undoubtedly, no business will retain every customer forever. When money gets tight or schedules change, or tastes evolve, people’s needs for particular services or products may wane. Still, that doesn’t mean that all hope is lost. Change is constant, and just as your business provided value to them before, there is a chance that it will be needed again at some point. If things about your brand, company, or field have been altered or augmented (i.e., you are now providing new services or specific prices are going down), consistently providing updated content on those matters can draw previous customers back to your business.

Measuring ROI

ROI for customer growth through content marketing is highly measurable because you can easily monitor the number of customers you have before and after publishing your content. You could also ask new customers how they found your business in a quick survey to measure how many are coming in from search engines, other sites you may have been featured in, and more.

INCREASED AWARENESS

Heighten Brand Exposure

When you create content for your brand or business, you increase the likelihood of someone stumbling across it. Suppose a potential customer sees your brand featured in another article they are reading, for example. In that case they will have a positive mental association with your business, and the next time they see it or hear about it, this will be reinforced through what is known as the “mere exposure effect” The more valuable content you can produce, the more eyes and ears consuming it, the more positive associations made with you and what you offer. Exposure is an obvious benefit of content marketing because it introduces your value to people who may not otherwise have come across it. 

Be the Word on the Street

With more positive associations comes more conversation around your brand. Well done content marketing will lead more potential customers to discuss and even recommending your service to others. As the old saying goes, our thoughts become our words, and if the mere exposure effect gets people thinking about your brand more, eventually it will lead to them discussing it. A plumbing business, for instance, maybe recommended to a neighbor or friend months after one recalls using their youtube videos to fix a leaky pipe. Your content matters, and even when it does not immediately result in a conversion, it will still be directing new business your way over time.

Measuring ROI

To measure how much awareness our content is bringing to your business, you can track the traffic to your site, monitor the shares and other engagements on social media accounts, and briefly inquire about each client’s referral status following conversions.

LOYALTY DEVELOPMENT

Retain current customers

When you consistently publish helpful content for your business, your existing customers will find higher value in your service. The easier you make their lives, the more likely your customers will stay with you. Content ranging from educational blog posts and infographics to engaging videos and hilarious podcasts can improve your subscribers’ quality of life, which t is a difference they are bound to notice and continue to invest in. Using content marketing can make your business increasingly valuable and exciting, keeping current customers coming back time and time again.

Augment brand authority
Quality content makes you a trusted source in your field. No one can be an expert in everything, of course, but when you create content for your business, you are increasing your knowledge in your field, and that knowledgeability is of great use to your clients. People value having trusted sources for information, and again, increasing the value you provide in your clients’ lives is a significant benefit of content marketing.  

When you create an informative blog about how to jump a car, for instance, those who find and read that blog will associate your business with helpful information that got them out of a bind and will most likely return for additional content should they need in the future. You have established your business as a well-informed source for good information. As you continue to make more content, your expertise will only continue to grow and, when combined with good SEO, that will be hard for potential clients to miss. As a bonus, having tons of great content is bound to get you featured in other content, driving e more traffic back to your content and thus your business.

Measuring ROI

Tracking your retention rate is one way to track loyalty developed after content is published. Additionally, you can monitor the number of repeat customers and even extrapolate from the number of upsells you get for specific products or services after releasing content that promotes them. It’s essential to have patience when measuring things like authority and loyalty in general, as these things can take time to build and solidify.

Reap the Benefits of Content Marketing Today

There is no reason to hesitate when it comes to starting your journey into content marketing. If you have a brand or service to offer, you can benefit from content marketing today! With so many options for creating content, it can be overwhelming to decide on the specifics. At Online Optimism, content is king. We can be your one-stop shop for content development. From infographics to video shoots, Online Optimism has your content needs covered.  To get started cultivating the perfect content for your business, get in touch with Online Optimism today!