By now we all realize that killer content is the best way to keep your users interested, gain traction on social media, generate new leads via organic search, and pretty much everything else that goes with SEO these days. Which is why it is so surprising to us that the internet is rife with big companies that don’t care, or don’t care enough about how their content looks. It seems that the importance of the information on their site hasn’t yet translated into the minds of old school companies still looking to pay rock-bottom prices for work. There are plenty of reasons why you need good content marketing, and here are some stats that show you need to do it right.
The most effective B2B marketers do it well
Businesses that market services to other business know the ropes better than anyone else. They have to go up against battle-hardened professionals that know the ins and outs of their own business, and convince them to part ways with their money. It isn’t exactly selling ice to eskimos since there is certainly a good use for their services in this environment, but it definitely isn’t easy. According to research done by Vital, an online marketing company, the most effective B2B advertisers spend 39% of their marketing budgets on content. It shows that you pay for what you get.
The most successful companies have a content exec
Having someone like BlueHatMarketing in place to call the shots and to drive the content in the right direction is a sign that a company really cares about what is being put out there in their name. Companies without one usually end up leaving the strategy to someone who isn’t always qualified enough to call the shots. 49% of companies surveyed by Emarketer, said that they had an exec who directed content strategy, and many of the others believed that one would be hired in the next year.
Inbound marketing destroys outbound marketing
Outbound marketing, the practice of interrupting your target audience’s daily life to throw an ad at them even if they aren’t looking for your services, is just not going to cut it for much longer. People have far too many options in their lives to be sitting through your advertisements, and they can just change the channel, watch a billion videos on YouTube at the same time, or click to a new window and tune your ad out. Inbound marketing, the practice of targeting a core audience by showing them useful content to reel them in to your product or service is the method of choice these days, and perhaps the only method of the future. According to a study done by State of Inbound, 54% more leads come into the sales funnel via inbound marketing as opposed to outbound. Not only is it at times more affordable, but it is far more effective. And since content is the backbone of every inbound marketing campaign, you can see how to connect the dots here.
Everyone knows, or at least should know, that they need good content to compete on the web these days. Yet still, some studies have found that up to 60% of it lacks quality. This is just not going to cut it. As a company, you need to realize that investing marketing budget into quality content is worth every penny. These are just a few of the reasons why you need good content, and the stats to back it up.
