You probably have been hearing quite a bit about “content marketing,” or a form of online marketing that involves the use of content–video, images, and written text–in order to draw in leads and sales for a business. It has become especially popular because of Google’s stance on quality content and enforcing it with algorithm tweaks and changes in their search engine that benefits good content and penalizes bad content.
But what makes good content so great? And what is its true importance in Internet Marketing? Let’s start with what makes good content stand out from all of the bad content first.
Creating great content for Your Internet Marketing Campaign
When you want to attract more customers, followers, and views you’re going to need to have great, compelling content. Whether it is blog posts, videos, or infographics (or 
preferably all three), it needs to be engaging, original, and offers insight to the user. This may seem like a challenge but once you start getting into a content marketing groove it becomes much easier to know your the type of content that resonates with your target audience.
Here are some big brands that all have good examples of great content:
- The retailer Sears has a website that offers exercise and healthy living tips to its users called FitStudio. Sears can promote their own products within the content and the content is being organically shared by users through social media.
- Coca-Cola has been revolving their Internet Marketing and beyond almost entirely on content marketing. If you haven’t seen their Content 2020 videos, then you need to do so immediately! You may find some inspiration for your own content efforts.
- General Electric is very active on Tumblr, Vine, Instagram, and other social networks with original content such as images, infographics, quick videos, and traditional online articles. They also created the “Six Second Science Fair” on Vine that went wildly viral last year.
The importance of content
So, why does all of this matter? Why should you include content marketing into your own Internet Marketing? Here are some very compelling numbers on the importance of content in today’s online marketing.
- A whopping 70% of users say content makes them feel closer to the company, according to Content Marketing Institute. This is especially true with sponsored content when it provides value and isn’t a gimmicky sales pitch.
- From statistics by McMurry/TMG, 90% of consumers actually do find original content useful and believe that the company with custom content is actually interested in their customers and building up their brand, making that person much more compelled to try out the company’s services or products.
- Research by Kapost and Eloqua discovered that the ROI of content marketing far outlasts and outweighs the ROI of paid search marketing. In fact, the study found out that original content can generate over 31 leads compared to paid search’s nine leads.
- Google and other search engines positively reward great content, which means a higher search rank for your business and more traffic to your website, landing pages, and social media channels. This is, in essence, free advertising for your business.
As other forms of Internet Marketing don’t perform as much as they used to in the future, content marketing is still knocking numbers out of the park and providing true value to businesses. Its importance shouldn’t be ignored and the best part is that a professional agency can help you achieve high ROI and engagement with a robust content marketing strategy tailored for your brand. What’s stopping you from better ROI and engagement?
CIDD Web Design offers a variety of services including Internet Marketing for small businesses in Miami and Fort Lauderdale. You can learn more about our services or contact us for a personal interview.
