However, content marketing has been around for a lot longer than the internet. In fact, it predates words written on paper, carved into stone, chiselled as hieroglyphics on walls, and scrawled as drawings inside caves.
Because at its heart content marketing is storytelling.
And ever since humans learned to speak, we’ve been telling stories. We love them because they allow us to connect, educate and inspire.
Which is why content marketing works, even in an age when people spend more time scrolling social media than chatting face-to-face.
Here are 3 reasons content marketing will work for you:
Great stories spread far and wide.
Forget trying to create content that appeals to absolutely everyone, and ease back on the pressure to deliver rollicking entertainment in your content.
Instead, just be real. Tell your story in your voice. Create content that focuses on you, your team, what you deliver, and the how and why of your business.
Content that’s authentic is often the easiest to build. It’s also much more likely to connect with and pique the interest of your ideal customer, and deliver ongoing leads for your business.
And just like a good story relies on a few common rules, so too are there content strategy principles you can follow which will ensure you deliver the biggest bang for your writing buck. By following a great strategy, you can engage your audience and cut through the daily sea of content they have thrown at them.
If you want to gain more eyeballs on your website, you need to reach the top rank on Google searches. To secure a top rank on Google, you need SEO (search engine optimisation).
And content marketing and SEO go hand-in-hand.
When content and SEO are in harmony, the quality and quantity of traffic to your site are maximised.
Not only are you attracting a high volume of visitors, it’s also made up of the right type of audience – people who are interested, engaged, and ready to connect with you.
To achieve this, your content should:
- Meet your audience where they are – the terms and phrases in your content should match what they’re searching for online
- Address your business needs – the words on your website should reflect your story in an engaging and SEO-friendly way, and match what you deliver
- Highlight your point of difference – the tone of your content should match your brand, and help you stand apart from your competition. By showcasing your unique values and capabilities, you’ll appeal more strongly to your audience
There are many ways to compare content marketing vs paid advertising. In terms of long-term return on investment, content marketing wins. Hands-down.
This is because paid adverts return only as long as you run them, and as long as you keep money flowing out to sustain them.
Content marketing however is evergreen. As long as you choose to keep it on your website it can stay there at zero cost, bringing in potential customers again and again.
Not only that, content marketing also builds trust and engagement with your brand. Your audience doesn’t see you as someone who’s simply pitching ad after ad, only there to sell, sell, sell. Instead, they look to you for meaningful content, useful information, and ongoing value.
And once you’ve managed to engage with your audience, they’ll keep coming back to you.
Does content marketing still work in an online world full of ads, social media, and digital noise? Yes, absolutely.
Because content marketing meets the basic human need for connection – something that’s in every one of us, and holds a power over us to this day.
Our brains are fickle, and they easily lose focus. We daydream thousands of times a day, and with so much information at our fingertips it’s easier than ever for our minds to wander and get distracted.
But when we read or hear stories, our brains light up. We become engrossed, we cling to every word, and the facts we pick up just stick.
The greatest stories, those which have lived on through the ages, all have a strategy behind them – a reason for being told.
With content marketing, you can do the same. If your story meets the human desire for connection, and contains the keywords that satisfy Google’s algorithms, your content will work for you. For ages.
That’s how content marketing can build your traffic.
