While every marketer is quite happy following the traditional path of advertising, sampling and selling, in today’s world where no single person moves without a portable device, it’s important to understand that “Content” is indispensable to marketing. Marketing without content is like the Earth without water. While there is oxygen to survive, without water, there is no sustenance.
So, why is it so important to use content marketing? And what is the significant buzz surrounding it?
What is Content Marketing?
It is the type of marketing that doesn’t explicitly advertise a brand but inspires enough curiosity within the consumer to know more about the brand. It is a personalised form of marketing where the brand is promoted without being completely in-the-face.
Hike in Ad-Blocking
Well, a lot of marketers don’t realise that as of December 2016, Asia Pacific is the largest driver of ad-blocking tools (Mobile Segment), with about 94{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} using ad-blockers on mobile/ portable devices. While the advertisement is one of the major drivers of sales, one can’t overlook the increase in Ad-blocking apps and tools that consumers put to use.
More Traffic
According to stats, a Content marketing leader attracts almosteight times higher website traffic compared to non-leaders. While charisma, networks and good values become the backbone of thebusiness, you can’t overlook the fact that personalised content is always more attractive to the consumer than generalised content.
Higher Engagement
About 56{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of marketers believe that customised content arouses higher engagement rate, according to IBM Digital Experience Survey 2015. It builds better brand recall as the brand connects with the consumer at a personal level and the consumer tends to remember the brand because of a higher engagement score.
Lower Costs
Despite charging around 60{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} less than traditional marketing, Content Marketingcan generate more than triple the leads. This means that there is more output than traditional marketing methods and that too at a lower cost. Content marketing leads to higher savings and bigger margins.
Higher Conversion Rates
About 88{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} of B2B marketers use content marketing because of their underlying confidence in it. That’s because content marketing drives higher conversion rates regarding sales via impression and it is about six times as much as their competitors. Content Marketing adopters feel that it is value for money with more leads than traditional platforms.
Increased usage
Content marketing has become so indispensable for major organisations that now about 73{ed162fdde9fdc472551df9f31f04601345edf7e4eff6ea93114402690d8fa616} organisations hire employees or outsource their content marketing strategy to generate leads and sales.
The Key Take-Away
While traditional marketing efforts are important for business, one needs to understand the importance of content marketing in a world filled with busy lifestyles and short attention spans. The median time that a person now spends on an article online is about 37 seconds. Therefore to make those 37 seconds worthwhile, an effective content marketing strategy shall be employed.
Primary Keyword
Content Marketing