Content marketing is king for one main reason: it works. Several studies and surveys have found that consumers like and are influenced by content marketing, that it increases organic traffic and conversion rates, that it improves sales, and that it also has a better ROI than other, more traditional modes of marketing.
Don't believe it? Check out these facts.
Consumers Like Engaging With Custom Content.
As reported by Business2Community.com, half of all consumers' time online (50%) is spent reading onsite blogs, watching videos, viewing infographics, checking out press releases, or engaging with custom content in some other way. Of the overwhelming amount of people who are engaging with custom content, 90% find it to be useful.
What's more, it also influences both business and consumer decisions. B2C also reported that 61% of consumers said they felt better about companies that delivered custom content, making them more likely to do business with the company, while 80% of business decision makers preferred to get their info from articles rather than from ads. This means your content marketing strategy is influencing whether or not people do business with you.
It Increases Organic Traffic and Search Engine Ranking.
Posting blogs and other pieces of web content directly influences how much traffic your site gets, and how well you rank on search engines like Google. Sites that blog have about 434% more indexed pages, and about 97% more indexed links, which puts them in a much better position to rank well on SERPs.
Quality Content Leads to Quality Sales.
Content marketing doesn't necessarily clinch a ton of sales, but it does have a heavy, indirect influence on sales. Businesses and consumers, as previously mentioned, will research a product online before buying, thusly influencing their decision. These nurtured leads produce an average increase of 20% in sales opportunities in comparison with non-nurtured leads. What's more, companies who nurture their leads have a 9.3% higher sales quota achievement, rate, too.
All things considered, it's no surprise why 86% of business-to-consumer marketers use content marketing, and why 91% of business-to-business marketers use it, too, as reported by NewsCred. The numbers don't lie -- content marketing influences customers, improves web traffic, and increases sales.
If you have any questions about content marketing's efficacy, feel free to ask in the comments.
By: Andrew Lindsay