The era of traditional outbound marketing favored the creation of sales pitches that focused on persuading prospective customers to purchase a business’s products or services.
They had to be concise and catchy to hold the interest of prospects long enough to make a purchase. Although such strategies worked in the past, old sales tactics produce negligible results and negatively impacting conversion rates.
Businesses need to look for better and more effective strategies to grab the attention of potential customers.
Content marketing has a lot of advantages over traditional outbound marketing tactics and is far more effective. Over 90% of B2B companies favor content marketing over traditional marketing strategies because it generates more leads.
When used properly and integrated as part of an overall marketing strategy, content marketing has the power to pull more traffic to your website, improve conversion rates and significantly boost your business’ revenue. It is indispensable to every advertising, marketing or brand promotion campaign, no matter the industry or vertical. Let’s take a look at some of the little-known benefits of content marketing.
Decreases churn
Churn refers to the category of customers who made one-time purchases or stopped using your product or service altogether. Research by Emmet Murphy and Mark Murphy show that reducing churn by 5% can increase your profitability by as much as 125% and one of the most effective ways of doing this is by providing customer-focused content. Such content will answer pertinent questions, provide solutions to customers’ problems, drive service or product adoption, help in the creation of brand advocates and ultimately reduce churn.
Since the acquisition of new customers costs 6x as much as retaining existing ones, reducing churn using content marketing will ensure effective utilization of your marketing budget and increase conversion rates thereby generating more revenue.
Boosts employee morale
One of the side benefits of content marketing is the impact it has on the morale of your employees. Apart from building credibility and authority in the minds of potential and existing clients, a piece of content marketing can positively impact the author’s mind and morale.
The knowledge acquired when your executives and employees take time to perform in-depth research on a given subject and organize the information into comprehensive content briefs is invaluable. Content marketing thoroughly engages them in their work and makes them more confident about their abilities, thereby boosting their morale and making them more productive in the long run.
Expands your retargeting audience
Statistics show that 96% of visitors to your website leave without making a purchase and 70% of those that add products to their shopping cart usually abandon them before completing the purchase. This amounts to a significant loss of revenue.
Deploying an effective content marketing strategy enables you to capture and re-engage these potential customers through retargeting. Retargeting is a marketing strategy where potential customers who have shown some interest in your website are remarketed to using social media or search ads. When a lead hits a piece of content on your website, retargeting allows you to identify these visitors and show them relevant ads after they have left your website.
Speeds up the sales cycle
Over the years, the length of the average sales cycle has increased by 22% due to slow economic growth and more decision-makers in the purchasing process. The more time it takes for a customer to move down the sales funnel, the more resources you use up. This means that a shorter sales cycle is desirable for improved revenue generation and profitability.
The solution to this problem lies in the effective use of content marketing. A recent study shows that 57% of the purchasing decision is made before any contact with the supplier. This means that over half of the buying decision happens as a result of your brand’s reputation, thought leadership in the industry, information posted on your website, social media awareness, etc., all of which can be improved through content marketing. Expediting the buying process requires the creation of relevant and targeted content for each stage of your sales cycle.
Provides more opportunities to engage leads
Publishing more content on your website and social media platforms increases the number of opportunities you have to engage your target audience. As the volume of content increases, so also does the chances of converting leads into customers.
More content on your website creates more opportunities and touch points to engage leads, move them further down the conversion path, build trust and relationships and eventually turn them into paying customers.
Improves referrals
Unlike traditional outbound marketing tactics, content has the added benefit of being shareable. Getting your customers to share your content increases your business’ online visibility, enables others to benefit from the information it contains and enhances your reputation as an industry leader.
Since your customers already trust your brand, you can leverage their influence to turn their friends, colleagues and family members into prospective customers.
Improves credibility and customer loyalty
Reports show that over 50% of digital marketers view the creation of blog content as their No. 1 inbound marketing strategy. This is due to the effectiveness of blog content in attracting, engaging and retaining the attention of website visitors and customers.
Publishing high-quality content positions you as an industry leader, increases your credibility and ensures that you have a competitive edge over rivals in the online marketplace. Being seen as a credible source of information in your chosen industry increases the trust customers have in your brand, allowing you to build a loyal customer base.
These are just some of the benefits of investing in content marketing. Compared to traditional outbound marketing strategies, content marketing is cost-effective and much better at generating sales. No matter your objective, whether it’s higher conversion rates, an increased customer base, better relationships with existing customers, or the generation of more revenue, content marketing is just the thing for you.
