Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few years, it’s very likely you’ve heard of brands that use content marketing or have even considered giving content marketing a try yourself. Unlike other marketing approaches, which push themselves onto an audience, content marketing gently approaches an audience. It offers solutions or information that will help solve a variety of problems.
While the goal of other forms of marketing and advertising is to convert customers or boost sales, the goal of content marketing is to deliver useful information to establish a relationship with an audience. The end goal is sales and conversions, but it often takes considerably longer to get there with content marketing.
Neil Patel highlights the difference between organic content and paid advertisements. He notes that content typically shifts the intent of an audience. People who stumble across a long-form blog post or article shift into information gathering mode. People who come across a paid ad or sales page are going to be pushed to buy more immediately.
Why Should You Use Content Marketing?
If content marketing delays sales or alters the intent of an audience, why would you want to use it? At the end of the day, it’s not all about making sales.
Establishing relationships — and building trust — with your audience is also critical. According to Nielsen’s Global Trust in Advertising study, one of the most trusted forms of marketing or advertising is a brand’s own website.
Another reason to use content marketing is that it gives people what they want and creates a positive impression of your brand in their minds. One of the oldest examples of content marketing is “The Furrow.” This magazine was published by John Deere and distributed to farmers. Although it was branded by John Deere, the goal of the magazine was to help people farm better, not sell tractors or farming equipment. The magazine debuted in the 1800s and still exists today. It has shown itself to be a valuable resource to the farming community.
Why Do So Many Brands Use Content Marketing?
John Deere isn’t the only brand out there using content marketing. According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, 86 percent of consumer-focused brands use it, as do 91 percent of business-to-business brands.
One of the reasons why so many brands have started to use content marketing is that it gives them an “in” with an audience. People see hundreds of ads a day (some say thousands). Of those hundreds or thousands of ads, the typical person notes just a handful.
Some people are even going out of their way to limit the number of ads they see. A 2017 survey of 1,000 people found that 40 percent had installed ad-blocker software on their laptops. 15 percent had installed the software on a mobile device.
Another reason why brands choose content marketing is that it tends to be less expensive than other forms of marketing or advertising. According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing costs 62 percent less than outbound marketing, yet produces three times the number of leads.
One last reason why so many brands have started using content marketing is that it lasts. A blog post, article, video or ebook will stick around, while a banner ad or piece of direct mail can be quickly forgotten. As long as the content provides evergreen information, it will be able to reach an audience for years to come.
What Does Content Marketing Do?
Content marketing doesn’t only give brands a chance to reach an audience that might have otherwise shut them out. It also gives brands the opportunity to prove themselves to an audience. While traditional ads shout, “pick me! Pick me!,” content marketing says in a calm and gentle voice, “let me help you.”
By offering to help an audience, content marketing shifts the perspective. The brand no longer comes across as an entity that wants to profit off of people.; instead, it can be perceived as a friendly entity that wants to provide assistance when needed.
Why Does Content Marketing Work?
So why does content marketing work? For a variety of reasons. For one thing, content marketing tends to be personal. Some forms of content marketing are as personal as Coca-Cola’s Share a Coke campaign. This campaign put people’s names on Coke bottles. Others are personal because they meet people where they are. The content created solves a problem a person is experiencing, which makes someone feel as if the brand really “gets them.”
Another reason why content marketing works is that it taps into the human need to hear and tell stories. When people connect with an engaging story, their brain releases oxytocin, according to the Harvard Business Review. Oxytocin is the “feel good” hormone that makes people feel warm and fuzzy and safe. It also boosts empathy and feelings of trust. Microsoft has taken the idea of telling stories, and run with it. The company produces a Story Lab blog that’s full of exciting and engaging stories about what people are doing in the tech world.
Finally, content marketing helps to establish brands as authorities or influencers in their fields or industries. When your company consistently produces a stream of engaging and interesting content that’s useful to the reader or viewer, people get the sense that they can go to you whenever they have a problem or concern.
Content marketing has been around for decades, if not centuries. Since content marketing builds trust and establishes relationships with an audience, it has proven itself to be one of the most effective forms of marketing around.
