Content Boosts Conversion
Digital marketing makes it cheaper and easier to reach your audience, but it also makes it easier for them to ignore you. Approximately one-third of internet users employ online ad blockers now, according to the Content Marketing Institute, and of those remaining, many have gone blind to traditional banner advertising. But why do they come to the website they’re browsing? Content!
As keynoter Andrew Davis said regarding content marketing: “Content builds relationships. Relationships are build on trust. Trust drives revenue.” Which is what you want, right? The primary goals of content marketing are typically, lead generation, thought leadership and engagement. Well, 78% of B2B buyers use case studies when researching purchases, 77% use white papers, 76% use webinars, and 67% use eBooks. Content marketing draws in a boatload of buying power.
The good news is that content marketing actually is significantly less expensive and generates more leads. According to Marketo, 51% of marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets. 74% of marketers who use it say it increases the quality of the leads, too! Conversion rates jump to 3X for companies employing a content marketing strategy versus those that do not, Hubspot reported. That’ll make everyone from your CFO right down to the sales people in the trenches happy.
Most (80%) of business decision makers prefer to get company information through informational series rather than advertising. The proof is that long-form blog posts earn 9X the lead generation of shorter pieces. Readers value the educational aspect of more in-depth content, which builds greater trust and eventual leads. The average blog post is now 1,142 words, but top-ranking content can reach more than 2,400 words. (But grab attention quickly as the average reader only spends 37 seconds reading an article or blog post.)
Here’s the rub: 60% of B2B content marketers named producing engaging content as their biggest challenge. Marketing guru Neil Patel wrote on his blog that 60% of marketers create at least one piece of content each day, and 78% of CMOs believe custom content is the future of marketing. Writing original content outranked visuals and videos as the most important type of content among marketers. (Don’t discount visuals, though; they’re the most liked and shared content on social media.) But it doesn’t have to be all brand new content. Sometimes you just need to spruce up an older, evergreen post that performed well in the past with new statistics and more information.
Content marketing can range anywhere from a regularly updated blog that aligns with brand talking points to client case studies to white papers covering topics relative to your primary audience. Your best case scenario includes all of it. Paid content promotion, or native advertising, is also a strong use of content marketing. Native advertising usage is up 5X the 2014 levels, so grab attention while the getting’s good!
And don’t neglect your distribution points for your educational content. Email remains a primary driver of traffic to most websites, which is why 80% of marketers still use eNewsletters, and the right social media outlets, like LinkedIn for B2B distribution, is a growing source of site traffic. Marketers found (81% of them!) that six hours of social media work translated to an increase in website traffic. Get the right people to your site, get them interested with engaging content, and then get them buying!
More than half, 64%, of marketers outsource content marketing writing. Contact Cooke Consulting Solutions at sarah@cookeconsultingsolutions.com or 443-472-6276.