WTBWY TV Video: Why is Content Marketing So Important?

Here’s the second in a series of brief instructional videos covering some basics about content marketing.  Enjoy!

Transcript:

Hi everyone, it’s Justin P Lambert again from Words That Begin With You, customer-focused content marketing.

If you watched my first video, it was on the question of “what is content marketing”?  This time I’m going to talk about a slightly different question: “why is content marketing so important”?

You’ve probably noticed in the last several months, if you’ve been doing any sort of research at all about marketing, that content marketing has really grown in popularity.

In some cases, it’s just the terminology that’s become more popular because people have been doing content marketing for years.  But the entire concept of content marketing has become a lot more popular and there are a few good reasons for that.

First of all, as we know, the economy has changed and marketing has to change with it.  So content marketing, back say 10, 15, 20 years ago, was a fairly expensive way to market your business because producing content, which was generally in printed form, was very expensive.  Then you would need to print it, have it shipped, then mailed out if you weren’t going to distribute it personally.  All of this contributed to the cost of content marketing as it existed 20 years ago.

These days, of course, content marketing is nearly free, at least to those who do it on a small scale, because if you can set up a blog online, at a free site such as wordpress.com, or get the free wordpress software to put on your own site, for a couple of dollars a year for a domain name, you’ve got a content marketing vehicle that’s highly effective at next to no cost.

You can, of course, expand from there.  But that’s one of the major reasons that it’s so popular now, and of course one of the reasons why it’s so important as well.

Now, there’s a few things, specifically three things I’m going to touch on as very important aspects of why content marketing is so effective, and therefore so important, especially for smaller businesses looking to compete in today’s economy.

First of all, an effective content marketing campaign is going to give you excellent search engine rankings.  Now we all know that these days the phone book is hardly ever used.  If somebody wants to look up goods, services or products, they’re probably going to turn to Google.

Now, if you have a website out there, and you’re putting plenty of good quality information that your target audience is going to be looking for, and that’s written in such a way that the terms that they use in Google are highlighted in your text, or your videos, or whatever content you’re using, then there’s a very good chance that they’re going to find your site when they’re looking for something.

And when they find your site, especially if it’s in the top 10 list of Google, there’s a very good possibility they’re going to choose you over your competitors

Secondly, a quality content marketing campaign is going to make you look like an expert to those that are looking for the information you’re providing.  As I just mentioned, if you have high search engine rankings, that’s equivalent to walking from backstage on Oprah to the studio audience while she says, “here’s the guy who wrote the book on…” whatever subject she’s discussing.

That’s a huge boon.  Because if you look like the expert, and people are valuing the information you’re providing, especially since you’re providing it on a consistent basis, which a good content marketing campaign requires, then you become the goto person for that information.

So if you happen to be a consultant, or someone who makes a living providing information, a content marketing campaign is going to make you the goto person for exactly what you sell.  Similarly, if you provide some sort of service or product that is in direct relation to the content you’re providing, then of course you’re going to be top-of-mind when someone decides to go forward and purchase whatever you’re selling.

Your competitors are going to be behind you in your customers’ minds.  And that’s exactly what you want to do as far as positioning goes.  So again, content marketing is very important because it puts you in that expert position.

Finally, the third reason that it’s so important, especially these days, is that content marketing is an excellent component of an inbound marketing campaign.

Now, those terms are not exactly synonymous but inbound marketing requires that content marketing be included.  Basically, inbound marketing means the opposite of what for decades has been the standard for marketing, which is basically interruptive, or outbound, marketing: advertisements, such as commercials during a TV show, or those little ads that are on the side of a website.

Now generally, these days, we’re bombarded with so much of that, and have been all our lives, that we pretty much ignore them all.  Inbound marketing, on the other hand, draws people to a company, and generally they’ll do so by providing some sort of valuable content, whether it be actual information such as “how-to” articles and so forth, or in some cases companies have used interactive games and things like that that bring their audience to them.

And then, once the audience is warmed up, and they know, like and trust the people providing that information, then selling to that audience is a much easier transition.

So there’s three main reasons why a quality content marketing campaign can really be important to your business.  It provides search engine rankings, it provides expert status that’s so valuable, and it’s part of a valuable inbound marketing campaign.

That’s it for this video, thanks very much for watching, and tune in for more.  Have a great day.

Related articles

• Inbound Marketing Is About Much More Than Getting Found (hubspot.com)
• Copywriter or content marketing writer? Who bangs the drums for you? (contentmarketingtoday.com)
• 20 Women Who Rock Content Marketing (contentmarketinginstitute.com)
• Setting Content Marketing Guidelines: 5 Templates to Drive the Process (junta42.com)

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