The Small Business Administration recommends “small businesses with revenues less than R5 million should allocate 7-8% of their revenues to marketing.” However, as noted from previous research and surveys, this is not being done. Findings conclude that 63% of small businesses invest 6% or less of their revenue in marketing.
So, should your company be investing more in content marketing? Well, the best person to decide if this can help your business is you. Learning about how content marketing works and what the benefits are may be able to tell you if this is right for your business.
1. Content marketing helps you retain existing customers
Normally new businesses become so focused on finding new clients, that they often neglect the ones they already have. This is a mistake.
It costs dramatically less to retain an existing customer than it costs to find a new one.By creating good content, businesses owners are able to retain existing customers through constantly promoting their services and skills. This will help businesses keep their previously acquired customers as well as make them more valuable.
2. Content marketing is more effective than native advertising
With the increase in the amount of advertising, as well as the increase in browser ad blockers, it is difficult to get ads promoting your business through.
Content marketing does not have these barriers. Good content is useful and audiences are naturally drawn to it.
Good content blurs the line between entertainment, education and advertising.By using good content to promote your business, it isn’t even recognisable as being a form of adverting.
3. Content marketing generates leads
Content marketing has been proven to generate leads. Yes! It is as simple as that. A stable stream of content can keep you talking to potential customers. Through continued communication in the form of content, prospects will become customers sooner than they would have.
4. Content sharing leads to ‘word of mouth’
One of the most effective marketing tactics ever created is word of mouth. For content marketing, the form of word of mouth happens in many different ways.
Remember that people trust information that comes from people they know.
5. Content marketing supports your outbound marketing
One of the best things about content marketing is the fact that it can support your other marketing tactics.
Your advertising, email marketing, webinars, and other outbound tactics can all be amplified by your content marketing work. They can be re-used, re-formatted and re-shared multiple times.
In conclusion, there are a lot of benefits to content marketing, however, it is up to you to decide if it is a good fit for your company or not.
