Content marketing is hot. As consumers increasingly use major search engines to discover brands, companies who provide high-quality information are able to capture interest, and business. 33% of the average B2B marketing budget is currently allocated towards custom content creation. If you haven’t designed a content strategy, it’s high time to get started.
Can a company ever have too much branded content? The statistics seem to indicate that the answer is no way.
In spite of the fact that corporate spend on content marketing will exceed $118.4 billion dollars in 2013, 64% of B2B marketers struggle to produce enough blog articles, eBooks, social media posts, and video to meet consumers’ demand.
While Google’s Authorship markup has been available to content creators since June 2011, adoption rates remain low.
While it’s challenging to develop an accurate gauge of engagement on Google+, studies indicate that user engagement with the platform is weak, especially compared with social media giants Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter.
Thanks to the Internet, your ideal customers are looking for you and researching your products online. So how do you get their attention over the competition? Inbound marketing, of course. While you can use traditional marketing and advertising to find customers, the new style of marketing online is more efficient, more cost-effective, and customers actually like it.
So what is inbound marketing?
Email should be the power player of your inbound marketing strategy.
In case you haven’t heard, it’s still an incredibly effective method of connecting with consumers. The Direct Marketing Association reports that email drives more ROI than any other form of outreach for 67% of companies, and it’s the top source for new sales for 30% of marketers.
It’s so easy to get caught up in content envy. Big companies worldwide are gaining attention, fans and customers for quality content efforts. Remember when Oreo tweeted a humorous custom image during the Super Bowl blackout in January, revealing they had a Photoshop-savvy employee armed and waiting?
It’s no secret that content marketers don’t always get the best rap.
In a recent satire on Huffington Post, marketer Keith Blanchard stated their “writing is exclusively consumed by other content marketers.” While his comment was in jest, there was some truth behind his words.
One of the biggest concerns businesses have about their websites–other than generating leads and making sales–is traffic. The more traffic you get, the more leads and sales you’ll eventually get. So the question is, how do you increase website traffic?
There are a lot of tactics and methods you can explore, but experts like Marketing Sherpa and HubSpot agree that content marketing gives you the most bang for your buck.
How do you feel about most of the websites you come across online? Can you tell why you like them?
People are visual. Many even decide on a purchase based on what they see.
- 92.6% of people believe that visuals are a #1 factor that affects their purchase decision
- 90 seconds of initial viewing is enough time to make a judgment about a product
- 85% of the reason people decide to buy is based on color
Getting your visuals right in the digital age is important. If you don’t do it, your competitors will. I know you are in the game to win. So, let’s do it!
To attract the best prospects, generate the most leads, and convert the most buyers, it pays to have a well-planned buying cycle or sales funnel for each buyer persona. That way you know where your sales are coming from and how to appeal to each type of customer.
So where does content marketing fit into the buying cycle?