3 Ways an Optimized Content Marketing Strategy Can 10X Your Company’s Online Reach, Brand Awareness, Leads & Revenue
If you’re a small or medium business owner or marketing manager eager to scale your company’s online reach, your best bet is creating and distributing relevant, timely, and useful content. After reading this post, you’ll have a clear idea of the benefits of content marketing for SMBs, and how content marketing can help 10X your qualified leads, sales, and revenue.
TABLE OF CONTENTS:
- What is content marketing (& why your business needs it to scale)
- 7 incredible stats on the power of content marketing for small businesses
- Importance of content marketing for SMBs
- 3 common — and misguided — myths about content marketing
- How to leverage content quickly… without writing a word yourself
If you’re ready to peer under the hood of content marketing — and find out how your business can start reaping the benefits from it as early as next month — keep on reading. We’re going to give you 3 powerful reasons small & medium businesses need a content marketing strategy.
What is Content Marketing (& Why is It Important for SMBs)?
Content marketing definitions are a dime a dozen, but here’s one that encapsulates what it’s all about… and how much invisible work your content does for your business:
“Content marketing is a cost-effective, documented, and goal-driven process of creating and distributing content — blog posts, reviews, whitepapers, case studies, and more — to attract new and retain (and re-sell) existing customers, so you can scale your business and increase your revenue. This long-term strategy outperforms traditional advertising because its primary goal isn’t to make an immediate sale — it’s providing value, growing website traffic, and building brand awareness.”
It’s still a mouthful, isn’t it?
In that case, think of it like this — content marketing is a way for you to create so many online touchpoints with your potential customer that, in their mind, your company name becomes ubiquitous with the type of service or product you offer.
Every blog post they read, every white paper, every how-to YouTube video with your logo on it they watch… you earn a bit more trust and a bit more goodwill.
This ‘seed planting’ is especially important for SMBs now that the internet is so cluttered with (expensive) paid marketing strategies. It gives you a way to demonstrate your expertise and forge connections by providing valuable information upfront so you’re top of mind when prospects are ready to buy.
Recommended reading: Why is Content Marketing Important for SMBs?
7 Stats That PROVE Your SMB Needs an Effective Content Marketing Strategy
#1. While only 57% of small businesses reported doing any content marketing in 2022, a whopping 84% note that their efforts helped them grow their bottom line.
#2. Both B2C and B2B customers say that having high-quality blog content lends credibility to a brand. 30% of customers tag quality writing as the #1 credibility factor.
#3. Close to 70% of all online buyer journeys start with a simple Google search. 71% of those searches are unbranded, meaning that users are not yet sure where they’re going to spend their money. Savvy businesses use this opportunity to get their foot in the door so they can build a relationship with the prospect.
#4. An average internet user watches 18 hours of video content per week. This means short video content — such as Facebook Reels, YouTube Shorts, and Tik-Toks — is a great opportunity for SMBs to get in front of millennial and Gen Z audiences.
#5. Business websites that publish optimized content see 3.5X more organic internet traffic than those that don’t. Also, those sites have 434% more indexed pages that search engines can choose to show in the SERPs. And have 97% more indexed backlinks, which strengthens their organic ranking game.
#6. Close to 60% of podcast listeners search for a product after hearing about it on a podcast. This gives SMB and B2B marketers yet another — currently underutilized — marketing channel to reach prospective buyers.
#7. 67% of respondents to a survey said they need to trust the company behind a product or a service to stay a customer. High-quality content can help you earn that trust.
Recommended reading: Content Marketing Growth Statistics
Why is Content Marketing Important for Your Small Business?
In the years I’ve been working with small businesses, helping them leverage the major benefits of content marketing, I’ve noticed one thing: most owners and senior SMB marketers struggle with the why behind content marketing campaigns.
After all, there are so many traditional marketing avenues to pursue.
So why is this one online type of marketing so important?
There are three main reasons — organic traffic, relationship-building, and the compounding nature of the return on investment.
Let’s dig into them a bit more.
#1. Content Marketing Grows Organic Traffic & Brand Awareness
Your website is like a podiatrist’s waiting room.
Chuckle all you want, but it’s true.
Similar to a podiatrist’s office, the only people who are visiting it are the people who need to be there. This is especially true if you’ve published only your core page (homepage, service pages, about us.
In a word, they are undiscoverable.
If you want to grow, having a basic website means casting far too narrow of a net.
Publishing regular content widens that net.
For example, if you’re in the call centre service business, creating in-depth guides that cover the breadth of that topic — how to hire operators, how to run a call centre, best tech for call centres — allows you to capture keywords that your target market are looking up in the search engine. You’re getting organic traffic to your website, even if the user has never heard of your company.
Here’s an example of an e-commerce site that only sells a handful of products. Because they’re also publishing blog posts and videos around the pain points their potential buyers experience, they’re ranking for thousands of keywords and getting tens of thousands of visits per month.
Snapshot of monthly organic traffic from Ahrefs (website performance tracking tool).
Of course, you shouldn’t limit the content you create to just your owned platforms.
Partnering with other experts in your field for guest-posting opportunities; creating video and social media content with influencers; finding paid placements for high-quality content in online magazines — all of this can exponentially grow your brand visibility. Yes, this means extra work on your plate… but it can also make you go viral. To share your content is (mostly) a good thing.
| The Dominique Ansel Bakery is a great example of what brand awareness and exposure through content can do for a small business. Their site saw a 300% increase in website traffic after their creation — the Cronut doughnut — was featured on a foodie blog back in 2016. The owner made the most of that momentary burst of virality, and there’s still a 60-person-strong line in front of their location in SoHo, New York City every morning… almost 7 years later. |
And last but not least, there are technical and SEO benefits to regular content creation.
From a search engine optimization point of view, publishing regular blog posts can also help with link-building, time-on-site, and topical relevance — all factors in how search engines like Google evaluate your website. If you’re constantly improving those factors, Google will reward you with top positions in the search results pages (SERPs).
In a nutshell, top positions on Google = more & cheaper visits = more leads = revenue growth.
| Are Your Competitors Popping Up On the #1 Page of Google… & You’re Not?
Content marketing is an integral part of search engine optimization (SEO) — the process of increasing your website’s visibility in Google’s results pages. But it’s still just a part of it. We can help you develop and implement an SEO strategy that captures all your core keywords, to increase your traffic and generate leads… and leaving your competition in the dust. |
#2. Content Marketing Builds Trust & Helps You Convert Customers
Let’s say your website ranks for a bunch of important keywords without a lick of supporting content.
So no knowledge base, no blog posts, no case studies — nothing. Just your service or product pages… and they’re getting a ton of traffic. [This is almost impossible in 2023. The SERPs ecosystem is just too competitive.]
The fact you’re ‘discoverable’ doesn’t mean you’re going to get the business.
There’s a lot to be said about trustworthiness and brand awareness. Most people won’t buy from a company they know nothing about. And this is especially true if your business operates in a B2B ecosystem. You need to become a subject matter expert… and you can only do that through content.
For example, when someone searches for a popular ‘how to’ term in your industry and ends up on your blog post — if it’s high-quality content, they walk away with knowledge… and a bit of appreciation for your company. If they look up something different in the same space tomorrow, and your content pops up again… Well, you’re really showing up for them, right? Once they’re ready to spend money, your website will be high on their list of trusted resources.
Trust = Positive Relationship + Frequency + Expertise
Regular publishing schedule + educational content + knowing what you’re talking about = customers who trust your brand.
With an on-point small business content marketing strategy, you get to excel in all three elements.
And that means you’re that much closer to making a sale.
| Making sure that you appear in the results pages for a lot of searches relevant to your industry means building an ‘SEO moat’. It’s how big brands like Canva and Airbnb cornered the graphic design and homestay markets, respectively. Smaller organizations can build these SEO moats with hyper-targeted content that focuses on a geo region or a tight product/service category. |
Juicy bonus: High-quality content is also a sales qualifier and enabler. Your sales teams don’t have to waste time walking lukewarm prospects through your offers. Instead, they can use pre-existing content in the sales process. Qualified leads will re-enter the pipeline at some point, and unqualified ones will drop out without wasting your time and resources.
| Content Marketing Consistently Adds Qualified New Leads to Your Sales Pipeline
And it does it cheaper and faster than any other digital marketing tactic. With Asset Digital Communications at your side, you’ll get a content strategy that works for your specific audience… and brings in more qualified leads than your sales teams can handle! |
#3. Content Marketing Delivers Compounding Returns For Years
I firmly believe that content marketing is the only digital marketing strategy that benefits SMBs years after the initial investment.
And I have the data to prove it.
Look at the metrics of that e-commerce online business I’ve mentioned previously:
They get 45K estimated visits per month that are worth $13.3K.
To get the same amount of traffic though paid online advertising, they’d need to spend $13.3K every month.
And you’ll notice that they’re not running any paid ads.
It’s their SEO optimized content that’s ranking and bringing in all that traffic.
Because I want to drive this point home, here’s a look at the metrics of just one blog article this company has published close to two years ago:
One blog post targeting broad, industry-related keywords, still ranking strong after two years.
That’s 23.6K website visits from one blog post in 16 months. It would cost this company close to $20K to get that much traffic with paid ads. And this piece of content — valuable content, mind you… but it’s still a 2000-word blog post, not a dissertation — cost them $500 at the most.
Here’s the bottom line — as a small business owner, do you want to saddle yourself with ongoing marketing costs that will only keep growing?
Or do you want to leverage the best practices of content marketing for SMBs to create original content that brings in new leads and new customers regularly as clockwork years after you hit that publish button?
The answer to that is obvious, right?
3 Common — & 100% Wrong — Objections to Content Marketing
Most SMB owners and marketers can quickly realize the enormous potential of content marketing campaigns. I’m certain you are already making mental notes on how you can improve your marketing funnels by using it.
But… some lingering doubts remain, right?
There are three pervasive myths about content marketing that need to be put to rest once and for all. If And if they’re on your mind right now, let me show you why they’re wrong.
Myth #1: Content Marketing ROI Can’t Be Measured
This is 100% untrue.
What is true is that content marketing ROI is difficult to measure if you’re trying to tie every sale to a specific piece of content. You can’t do that without building a very complex — and mostly inaccurate — attribution model.
But…
There are a good deal of metrics you can keep tabs on in every stage of your marketing funnel that can tell you if your consistent content marketing campaigns are hitting their mark.
Metrics like:
- website traffic
- referrals
- social media shares
- number of captured email addresses
- click-through rates
- number of new leads
- time on site
- time to close for new customers
- number of repeat customers
- retention rate
If these metrics are going up while you’re putting out great content then it’s likely the content that’s doing most of the heavy lifting.
Myth #2: Paid Ads Work Better (& Faster) Than Content Campaigns
Yes, you can get a lot of visitors to your website with paid ads.
But, the more important question is — can you convert them?
Paid ads are great for that subset of your customer base that’s ready to buy right now.
Here’s an illustration of the marketing funnel:
Ads will work mostly in the last phase of the buyer’s journey.
Anywhere else, they’re just a waste of money. That’s because searchers are not yet sure what they’re looking for. They’re not sure if they need it. And they’re definitely not sure if they trust you enough to buy from you.
The good news is that content marketing and paid online advertising can work hand in hand. Your content marketing efforts establish your brand and build inroads with potential customers, so they are much more likely to convert once they see a paid ad from you.
Myth #3: Content Marketing is Slow
It can take a long time to get content to rank in the SERPs, and to show up at the top of the search results pages.
It can take time.
But it doesn’t have to:
We published this blog post (for a client) three months ago.
It’s already at the top of the SERPs. See that — 5.5K website visits in just three months since publication. That’s powerful. And achievable with the right content strategy.
The best way to shortcut your way to organic rankings is to publish in-depth, long-form content that your target audience will engage with through comments and shares. This way, the content distribution part of the equation takes care of itself, and the rankings come much faster.
That said, what if it does take 3-6 months for your business to see benefits from content marketing?
Growing social media platforms and followings can take a much longer time to yield results.
And those results are usually nothing to write home about, at least when compared to content marketing.
The thing about publishing good, relevant content is that it’s a gift that keeps on giving once you plant the seed. And that’s what a great content marketing strategy does — it plants seeds that will need time to sprout, and will bear fruit for years to come.
Are You Ready to Leverage Content Marketing to Grow Your Business?
If you’re not leveraging content marketing in your SMB, you’re leaving money on the table.
In addition to all the benefits I’ve listed in this post, quality content marketing campaigns have pulled in 3X more leads in the past… at a 62% lower price.
Is that something you can afford to miss out on?
Of course not!
If you’re convinced that a content strategy is exactly what’s missing from your current marketing mix, we’re happy to help you create one that will work for your business. Simply click the link below to schedule a quick call with our content strategy experts, and we’ll get that ball rolling. Get ready for a sharper online presence, more leads, and more revenue. All are achieved with the help of expertly written, relevant content!
Clicking on the link will take you to the Calendly app, where you can choose the date & time for a short Zoom call to discuss how ADC can help your business grow.
