How engaging customers with effective content can help your business

If there’s one thing a content marketer knows it’s that the best advertisement for your brand lies with your existing customers. Word-of-mouth now acts as a full-blown power tool on the various social media sites of the internet, largely due to easy mobile connectivity, peer research and online reviews and the best news is that this powerful source of unpaid product publicity can be successfully harnessed through effective content marketing. Read more: Social Media. Is it here to stay?

How is it that effective content is the most efficient approach to maximising a pool of enthusiastic activists? The simple answer is the abandonment of traditional sales techniques and the embracing of storytelling, compelling topics, info graphs, social media engagement, and videos. Potent subject matter indisputably attracts more traffic to a website. Developing and holding on to that interest is achieved by growing into a must-see destination where a brand can build a reputation and develop a large membership of keen aficionados happy to be associated with a label’s identity. Engaged customers turn into powerful campaigners or advocates of a product or a service. The B2B company Forrester reports that “most B2B marketers can tie revenue results directly to advocacy programs. Among those interviewed, roughly 50% of participants said they saw higher conversion rates, more qualified leads, and greater sales efficiency when they involved advocates in their campaigns”. Existing customers are there to uphold sales volume and generate future sales, but the real bonus materialises when that same pool of customers enthusiastically assumes the role of company representative.

Because the modern approach to marketing is all about establishing and nurturing a strong relationship with customers, what transpires is increased SEO optimisation. Check SEO-What you need to know. This is because it satisfies search engine priorities like relevancy and usefulness. Search engines prioritise relevant, valuable, and interesting topics because that is what gets shared on social media platforms or linked to other top websites. The more visits and clicks on a website, the greater its presence on the web which means more visits and clicks! 

There are tools for measuring the number of pages viewed, time spent, and social media feedback in order to gauge the size and interest of a website’s audience. However, none of it would matter if the subject matter and the digital options don’t hit the right notes when it comes to attracting and keeping that audience. Content scoring is a useful tool that can assess the potential performance of material posted on a site. Lead generation is the ultimate goal and marketers can now prioritise the type and style of material most likely to generate and convert leads. The comprehensive monitoring of a site’s performance remains crucial to its success, but content scoring can add even more value to a site’s fabric and thus its performance.  

“Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing and generates more than three times as many leads” – The Content Marketing Institute

Also Check: 7 ways content marketing beats traditional marketing 

The most attractive feature of effective material is that it has a long shelf-life. The traffic it generates continues to flow long after publication. The secret lies in offering subject matter that remains relevant, useful, and accessible. Here’s a guide to help you  write effectively for your business. HubSpot uses the term ‘compounding’ or ‘evergreen’ for blogs that continue to expand website traffic, even over time and although they consist of only 10% of all blog posts, they continue to generate 38% of all traffic.

Quality input encourages visitors to stay for longer periods of time, absorbing and delving further into a site’s offerings. Anything that can overcome the infamous 7-seconds of an average visitor’s time on site means that it has something valuable to offer. That’s what constitutes a real hook!

All of the above ‘engagement’ tactics have real value when it comes to brand reputation, effective market placement, lead generation and eventually, sales volume. Ultimately, effective content is the jewel in the crown of any successful marketing strategy!