Modern customers want real, valuable information. That’s where content marketing comes in. But what is it, exactly, and why is content marketing important for your business?
If you’re throwing money into PPC ads, social media, or email threads but haven’t invested in the content you’re still leaving money on the table. Because time after time, content marketing has proven to offer a great return on investment for YEARS.
Just think about it: an Instagram post you shared a month ago probably isn’t still generating interest in your business, and an ad only works for as long as you are feeding dollars into the machine.
A well-written SEO blog will keep working without permission, for as long as you keep it online.
But that’s not the only reason why content marketing is important for your success, no matter the size of your business. Increased brand awareness, improved customer relationships, more site traffic, and more qualified leads – these are all side effects of great content marketing.
But don’t just take my word for it. I have some data and content marketing case studies to help you truly see what a difference a little content can make.
Before we dive deep into answering the question: “Why is content marketing important?”, let’s make sure you have a clear understanding of what content marketing is, and how it differs from traditional advertising.
What is content marketing?
Content marketing is a marketing approach where you create valuable, high-quality, and consistent content for your customer base.
The key word here is VALUABLE.
Especially as marketers the world over are poising themselves to mass-produce content with AI in 2023 and beyond.
Moving forward, smart, well-written content will be a prerequisite to break through.
And remember, content marketing doesn’t just mean pushing your product or service on the reader. Instead, you’re providing them with the information they actually want and the answers they are searching for online.
We need to offer a helping hand online.
But it’s not just a one-way street.
The content you create on your blog is one of the most effective ways to drive more traffic to your website. And no, blogging is not dead. Just think about how much content (in the form of blogs) you’re consuming regularly.
Say you are looking for a new blender. You might type in “best mid-range blenders” and come across a blog comparing the pros and cons of 20 different products.
That same blog might contain links to other blog posts on troubleshooting blenders, fun recipes to try in your blender, and even workouts to do with your newly blended protein shake!
If the content is helpful, fun to read, and speaks to your needs, you’re going to consider their blender – or at the very least return to their site in the future for more information.
While the blogs you read didn’t specifically promote the company’s product, you were given enough information to gain interest in their products or services and to trust them as a brand.
This is a content marketing win.
The content has not only brought you to the company’s site, but it has also given you awareness of a new brand. An initial touchpoint. It helped you see them as an authority in their field, potentially got you to sign up for their email list for more content (and more touchpoints), and maybe even inspired an “add to cart.”
But content marketing can do so much more.
You’re getting an elementary understanding of why content marketing is important? But content – especially SEO (what is it?) content – can do so much more.
17 reasons why content marketing is important
Here’s why content marketing is important, and honestly should be a no-brainer, when it comes to allocating marketing resources in your business.
1. It’s the perfect trust-building introduction to your business
In the world of modern marketing, trust is everything. And content can help you achieve that trust, which is a huge reason why content marketing is important!
You can build that trust by making sure that the content is valuable and helpful to your audience. Relevancy is key.
And you also need to make sure the people you’re creating the content for actually SEE it.
You can find the queries and exact phrases your customers are looking for by doing keyword research. Then, you must optimize your SEO content to give it the best chance of showing up #1 on google when your customers go searching.
That content should address the query and allow the reader to get to know who you are as a company (or even as a person!), so they can start to form an emotional connection with you.
You give them help, you give them advice, and maybe you even give them a few laughs. And, most importantly, you do all of this before plugging a product or service. All you want to do is be helpful and informative.
Once the potential customer sees you as an authority in your space, they will be much more receptive to seeing sales messaging in the future. And the cost of converting them from a lead into a customer might even decrease since it’s not the first time they’re hearing from you!
All because you gave them some fun and helpful blogs, videos, or infographics! That’s not so hard, right?
2. It supports every other piece of marketing
Why is content marketing important?
As mentioned, SEO content is not only a very viable inbound marketing channel in and of itself, but it also supports your other online marketing strategies. Content touches every part of a business – from ad copy and email funnel copy to product descriptions and blog posts. And without having holistic content marketing for your business, it’s all too easy for your other digital strategies to become siloed efforts that don’t convert the way they could.
Content marketing is what connects and supports every element of your digital marketing. Each piece of content is part of a closed loop, sending customers onward to another piece of content and always bringing it back to your business.
3. It provides a great Return on Investment (ROI)
Content marketing generates over three times as many leads as traditional marketing methods. And, best yet, it costs about 62% less than traditional advertising, too. That is why content marketing is important for big and small businesses alike.
In fact, I’d argue it’s even MORE valuable for small businesses because the attainable cost lets them level the playing against corporations with millions of marketing dollars backing their ad spend.
The ROI of content marketing isn’t just measured in sales, though.
It can boost the visibility of your brand, improve your public image, increase your social following, encourage email sign-ups, and pull in more website traffic.
But when you create SEO content that’s designed to address a specific need of your customer (we find this via keyword research) and aligned with the bottom-of-funnel customer journey (queries that show intent to buy), it also becomes an important part of converting customers.
4. It can boost your conversion rates (for less)
Content marketing is important because you can optimize your blogs and website copy for higher conversion rates.
The key is buyer intent. Or, finding keywords and queries with your keyword research that indicates a desire to purchase a product.
You are meeting people at the exact point they are ready to buy.\
Look at these two examples:
- collagen protein
- best places to buy collagen protein online
Which one shows buyer intent?
Thinking like a conversion-minded content marketer, which one would you put your content marketing dollars toward?
There are a few things you need to include to encourage the sale beyond just delivering a valuable piece of content, a clear call to action being one.
Another option, if you’re not confident in their readiness to buy based on a keyword search term, is to push them toward an email list that’s tagged with a pre-made nurture and sales funnel specific to the content they discovered you with.
5. It improves your SEO, putting you #1 on Google searches
With a smart content strategy, you can greatly enhance your SEO efforts. If you’re learning how to get started with SEO, then content marketing is important.
In fact, content creation is the most effective SEO strategy – but it absolutely has to be quality content.
We’re not negotiating on that in 2023, okay?
But since we’re talking about SEO: what is it, exactly?
SEO stands for “search engine optimization,” and it’s a strategy that helps you rank higher on search engine results pages.
Search engines crawl your website’s content to determine where they want to rank you on results pages, and great content will convince Google crawlers to rank you higher. This will give your company more visibility and increase your website traffic.
Websites that post new content consistently on their blogs have an average of 434% more pages indexed by search engines than those without blogs.
But you should bear in mind that search engine algorithms change on a regular basis, and you need to keep your content up-to-date. To best improve your SEO strategy, you need to do targeted refreshes of your old content on top of creating new content.
Just remember that it can take a little time to see results. I’ve seen client accounts go from flatlining to hockey-puck growth, but they did spend a few months in that plateau stage.
So before you ditch your blogging efforts and say content marketing or SEO doesn’t work, give it a bit more time.
6. It lets you own (instead of rent) your traffic and leads
In the world of digital marketing, social media, and paid ads are renting, while websites, blogging, and your email list are akin to homeownership.
Here’s what I mean:
We all know PPC is pay-to-play. No explanation is needed there. She’s honest about what she does and effective at doing it – as long as you bring the cash.
Also, the cost of acquisition or bidding on a keyword is out of your control. So what might have been $.30 an acquisition a year ago, might now be $1.50. You’ll need to constantly be raising your rates to adjust for this, or take a hit on profitability.
You are at the mercy of the TikTok and Meta gods when posting a new video on one of their platforms, never knowing if it will go viral or be thrown to a dusty corner of the internet with 2 views. Neither being your ideal audience.
What’s more, an account lockout or change on the platform’s side and your entire business could be wiped off of the internet in mere seconds.
Unless you have a website with good traffic and an email list to match.
This last one happened to me.
My Instagram account got deactivated for 10 months. I simply HAD to use other methods to bring in clients.
7. It is cost-effective and attainable for all budgets
For the past decade, content marketing has remained the most cost-effective marketing strategy available. People often say it’s free, but that’s not technically correct.
At a minimum, it costs your time to produce the content.
That’s why content marketing is so important for bloggers, affiliate markets, and if you have a business with a smaller budget. You can start scrappy and scale up as the content generates leads, and sales, and increases your marketing budget.
Many businesses and entrepreneurs opt to outsource or hire a content marketing agency.
While there are upfront costs involved with an agency, it’s often lower than video marketing and/or paid advertising.
8. It’s a full-funnel marketing solution
Why is content marketing important to your marketing funnel? I already mentioned it supports all other channels.
But it also supports every stage of the customer journey, or funnel.
Here is how it works:
At the top of the funnel (TOFU), people are likely not even problem-aware. They’re just scrolling and searching based on general information or entertainment purposes. They might also be researching symptoms in order to identify a problem.
Content at this stage should be informational. It should help customers diagnose the problem.
At the middle of the funnel (MOFU), your potential customers are now probelm-aware. They are now looking for potential solutions.
Content marketing is important here, but it should look different. It’s “Why you need an evening sleep routine” (TOFU) vs. “Waking up tired? Here are X solutions.”
At the bottom of the funnel (BOFU), your customers are solution aware. And this phase is broken down even further into a). being aware of a general solution and b). being aware of specific companies or products.
SEO content here should include those buyer intent keywords and help customers compare specific options.
“XX supplements that help you fall and stay asleep,” or “Melatonin vs. Option A: Why A is Better” or “where to buy Melatonin online.”
The conversion point is when they’ve decided they need your product and need a place to take action.
Again, content marketing is important here – but it should be in the form of a landing page, sales page, or product page, NOT a full-length piece of content.
9. It helps YOU understand your customers
Content marketing gives you the data points to make informed decisions.
Thanks to tools like Google Analytics and Semrush, it’s never been easier to understand your client base. You can get the exact demographics of your website visitors, see which topics bring them to your site, follow their path on your site, and learn precisely what terms they are searching for.
This, in turn, can inform your content, which will resonate even more strongly with your readers.
You or your content marketing agency should CONSTANTLY be analyzing which pieces of content are performing best (and giving you the most conversions), and which aren’t.
My advice? Mercilessly pivot away from anything not converting.
Content marketing is too important and valuable to waste it on dead-end efforts.
10. It helps you position yourself as an authority
When people are shopping for solutions to their problems, they want to know they are working with an expert. That’s another reason why content marketing is important – it allows you to show your vast knowledge in your field, provide proof of your product or solution working, or share the humanity behind a brand.
Every time you publish helpful information, you establish yourself as an expert in the subject. And, at the same time, you are providing knowledge that will help your potential customers get solutions to their problems.
That’s exactly what I’m doing by writing this article.
11. It sets you apart from your competitors
In the online world, it’s important to stand out. < Insert eye roll >
We know this.
But it’s SO true. There are hundreds of companies to choose from, and you want potential customers to choose you over your competitors. But you don’t need to take a radical stance or dress your social media manager up in an owl costume (I do love you though, Duo) to stand out.
Standing out can also mean showing up first.
Yes, I am talking about SEO and Google results.
Again, that’s why content marketing is important. A solid SEO content strategy gets you on page 1, and then you can show who you are as a company, letting your values, culture, and personality come across on screen.
The people that resonate will remember.
Are you professional or laid back? Quirky and funny or caring and informative? Do you cuss? Do you rely on data? Are you long-winded (*raises hand*) or succinct?
The people that resonate will remember.
12. It can be a PR play
I originally called this bullet point “the opportunity to go viral.”
But I changed it because I really, REALLY don’t want to feed into the idea of just creating content for the purpose of going viral.
At best, it’s unsustainable but garners some results.
At worst, it’s misguided, inauthentic, and a waste of resources.
However, when your content is really good – people want to share it. They’ll site it in their content (giving you the good kind of backlinks), share it on their websites, or post a link on social media.
And that, of course, increases your traffic even more.
13. It creates more repeat customers – and higher order values
I’m saying this from personal experience.
My clients see a higher order value and higher retention rate from customers acquired via SEO content than paid ads.
Honestly, that alone could have been the start, middle, and ending of the blog post here.
Many of these other bullet points are the reason for this.
The traffic is more relevant to your offering, they found you organically, you offered value, you invested in the relationship via content, and you sent them emails. In all those different interactions with your content, the customer became more loyal to you and likely learned more about your entire suite or catalog of offerings, not just the one product pushed to them via a Facebook ad.
14. It gives your customers what they want
Why is content marketing important? Your customers want it!
The majority of people spend time reading about the brands they find interesting online. More and more people are getting nearly all their information (including the news) online these days – so you want to have information for them to read!
Every time you interact with the internet – even via Siri – the interaction is being driven by content.
And I read somewhere once that the average person makes 20 Google searches a day.
What’s more, a recent study found that 80% of people prefer shopping with businesses that provide personalized content marketing and experiences.
So try telling me again that blogging is dead.
Give the people what they want!
Create custom, valuable content that connects deeply with your target audience. If you provide value, you’ll be rewarded.
15. It’s the gift that keeps on giving
When you put content out on the internet – it’s there to stay. And if that content performs well, it’s going to continue to deliver results for you in the background.
That means the more content you produce, the more leads you’ll have coming in, even if you don’t do a thing. And, your website authority will continue to climb and climb in the process.
For me, that might be the single most important reason why content marketing is so important.
My clients might pay me for a piece of content today that has the power to drive leads for years to come.
Okay, if you’ve read this far, you’re a real one.
I’ll wrap it up.
So, why is content marketing important?
It brings in qualified leads, improves conversions, has a compounding return on investment, and builds customer trust. It’s also often the most cost-effective way to market your business.
I could go on, but I won’t.
If you want to continue the conversation or learn about specific ways content could help you, send me a message, leave a comment, or share this post. We’ll be in touch.