A couple weeks ago, I published part one of a three-part series sharing some of my favorite statistics supporting social media marketing and how it can change the way you market and share your business.

Today, I want to talk about a concept that’s challenging to understand, and sometimes even more challenging to implement: content marketing.

Perhaps you’ve:

1. Never thought about content marketing.
2. Have thought about it, but don’t know how it applies to your brand or how it can help generate sales.
3. Attempted to implement it in your marketing strategy, but aren’t really sure how to execute, feel stuck, or simply don’t have time.

IMPORTANT NOTE: “Content marketing” doesn’t have to mean blogs, though that is the primary tool for most businesses. It can also mean social media posts, video, photos, memes, emails, whitepapers, ebooks, podcasts, and more. The options are endless, and chances are you can find a form of content that works for you and your business.

If you’ve never thought about it, or think I’m crazy to suggest content marketing can help improve customer retention and drive sales, here are a few stats that may convince you otherwise.

• 77% of internet users read blogs. However, nearly 30% of users block advertising on their connected devices.
• Content marketing gets 3x the leads per dollar spent when compared to paid search tactics. It also costs an average of 41% less.
• It generates more than 3x as many leads and costs 62% less than other outbound marketing tactics.
• Small businesses with blogs get 126% more lead growth than small businesses without.
• 61% of online consumers make a purchase after reading recommendations on a blog.
• Content marketing conversion rates are 6x higher than other traditional marketing methods.
• Websites with blogs have 434% more search engine-indexed pages than those without blogs, meaning significantly more traffic to your website.
• 70% of people would rather get information about or learn something from a company from an article or blog post rather than traditional advertising tactics.

I could get into stats about individual forms of content and how they can push your business to the next level, but I won’t here because that could be a 10,000 word whitepaper. The point is, content marketing is important, cheap, and can help boost your business and retain your customers.

Plus, the good news is you don’t have to be an “expert” to do content marketing. With today’s technology, building a website, editing a video, posting a photo, or even recording a podcast can be as simple as clicking a few buttons. And while you don’t want to put out bad content that could hurt your brand or business, attempting something can many times be better than nothing.

It can feel overwhelming to get started. But remember – no one knows your business, brand and products/services better than you. Think about what you can share with others regarding your brand. What’s your story? What are the questions your customers are asking? How can you be a solution? What do your customers like, and how can you engage and entertain them through different forms of content?

Check out some of these posts on how to develop a content strategy and get started.

If you want to talk further about how content marketing can help your business, need help getting started, or would like assistance with ongoing support, send me a message today.