5 Amazing Side Effects of Successful Content Marketing

Successful Content Marketing Strategies Can Have Some Powerful Benefits

 

We all know that content marketing is a critical aspect of a smart digital marketing strategy. It’s all about providing valuable, timely and relevant content to a very targeted market. It’s not traditional marketing. It’s not sales. It’s not advertising. But, it has the potential to convert an engaged audience into loyal, profitable customers at some point in the future… if executed correctly.

That is the ultimate outcome of most content marketing strategies. Generate leads, nurture leads and drive more business in a subtle, non-aggressive way. But, when a company implements a successful content marketing strategy, there are a plethora of positive side effects that can come along with it.

Here are a few of the benefits we’ve seen from successful content marketing strategies:

1. Relevance: You truly understand your customers’ needs and wants

To be effective at content marketing, you need to provide value to your target audience. That value can take many different forms. It could be in the form of providing detailed “how-to” instructions regarding something your audience struggles with. It could be in the form of sharing an inspirational quote that pulls at the heart-strings of your audience. The most important factor in content marketing is that it provides value to your target audience in a relevant and timely manner.

Content can be educational, entertaining, interesting, informational, motivational, aspirational, etc. It’s up to you do figure out what resonates best with your audience. By researching your audience and finding out what their pain points are, you will be a better position to create content that is meaningful to them. Start by creating Buyer Personas which are an ideal representation of your target customers. Then, map your content to these buyer personas along the buyers journey.

The side benefit of this? Knowing your target audience on a much deeper level allows you to better serve them, not only with your content, but also with your products and services. This ensures you have content for each customer segment along the customer journey from the awareness and consideration stages through to the decision stage.

2. Consistency: You are consistent with publishing a variety of content

Great content is one thing. Consistently publishing great content is on a whole different level. But creating great content isn’t easy. It takes time, talent and motivation. Doing it regularly is even more taxing. There’s a huge benefit to sticking to a content marketing schedule though. When you deliver content on a regular drumbeat, your audience will begin to expect it of you.

When you think of the top publications in the world, you know that you can visit their website and have new content to peruse every day. You’ve come to expect it. The same can hold true for your business. Whether it’s daily, weekly or monthly content… being consistent will keep your audience engaged with you. The benefit of this? You publish content consistently and it becomes part of your culture and DNA. The more you become accustomed to producing content, the easier sticking to that schedule will be. As a result, you build a loyal audience that craves your content.

3. Thought Leadership: You boost your online reputation and credibility as a thought leader

Because you are committed to providing timely, valuable and relevant content to your audience, you will naturally become a thought leader in the areas of your expertise. This will only happen though, if you are relentlessly committed to providing value to your audience through your content.

Let’s face it, there’s a ton of content noise in our digital world… and unfortunately it’s jam packed with a lot of useless, low quality content. To stand out, you have to provide high quality, high value content that’s relevant and relatable to your audience each and every time. Not only will this draw your target audience in, but it will enhance your online reputation as a subject matter expert. Great content increases your likability, enhances your credibility and builds trust with your audience.

4. Engagement: You elevate your social media engagement

You’ve created great content that your audience loves. Bravo. Now go a step further and actually engage with your audience online. Talk about key elements of your latest blog post on Facebook or share snippets of a creative infographic on Instagram. Get people talking about your content instead of just consuming it. Respond to questions and comments you get in a relatable way. This humanizes your brand and makes you more likable.

When you create and/or participate in the conversation across various social channels, you inherently generate more exposure to that content. By engaging with your audience, they will perceive you as interested, authentic and engaged. It’s easy to broadcast content. It takes a human approach to talk about it. Successful content marketing isn’t about publishing content like a robot. Enjoy the conversations that arise and learn from them.

5. Education: You learn a ton

As mentioned above, content marketing isn’t easy. It is a lot of working pulling together a comprehensive content strategy and executing it flawlessly. One of the biggest side effects of engaging in content marketing is that you will learn a ton about yourself, your business, your industry, marketing and more.

You will learn to push your creativity to the max in order to stand out amongst the noise. You will learn to trust in testing new forms and formats and be willing to accept your successes as well as your failures. You will learn to think like a customer and take your sales hat off. You will learn to be accountable for holding to an editorial calendar to ensure your content is consistent. You will learn how to repurpose your content across multiple channels and in multiple formats, to leverage your best performing content. You will learn how to take advantage of content curation as part of your strategy.

As much as content marketing is about giving, it’s also about receiving. Learn from it and optimize your content marketing efforts at every step. While, successful content marketing is all about connecting with your audience, it also serves as an opportunity to learn and grow as an individual and a business.

Want more Content Marketing and Strategy tips and insights?  Download our free guide: How to Master Content Marketing and get tons of pro-tips, actionable insights, and recommendations on creating a successful content marketing strategy.