Building links is often assumed to be the biggest benefit of content marketing and whilst it’s true that great marketing can lead to high-quality backlinks, it shouldn’t be the sole, primary goal for your site. Linked In: There are multiple other advantages to content marketing that, in fact, provide just as many (or more) positive effects than backlinks. When you focus on these, backlinks will come naturally. Here are 10 ways content marketing can help your business beyond backlinks:
1. Increasing brand awareness
When your brand appears on a high-authority website, it’s not the link that improves awareness but in fact, the mention of your brand name. The value of being mentioned on a popular site is your brand appears to a large audience – perhaps this introduces you to a new audience too. For up-and-coming brands trying to gain a foothold in the market, using content marketing can help your business become a memorable, recognizable name.
2. Creating awareness of a product or service
Unique products and services can be introduced to new audiences by implementing a content marketing technique, such as strategically demonstrating these services through things like feature videos. For example, a beauty brand might choose to publish a video tutorial on how to use their latest makeup gadget.
3. Addressing a problem
In a similar way that content can be used to introduce a brand to a wider audience, it can also be used to address a particular problem. When you create content that exposes a problem your audience might be facing, you both educate them and lead them back to your products or services that help solve it. For example, your brand could collaborate with a rehabilitation treatment provider, which addresses substance addiction in communities.
4. Increasing site traffic
Links are incredibly powerful due to their SEO, but they are even more powerful in sending potential traffic to a website. When working on content marketing campaigns, remember the traffic a link creates can be more valuable than the link itself.
5. Establishing a core message for your brand
If your brand has a unique perspective, you can use content marketing to really reinforce that message and brand identity, according to your target audience. This can also help attract a group of loyal followers or consumers and expand your reach.
6. Receiving coverage from traditional media
Even though you can’t get a link when someone mentions your brand on TV or over the radio, it doesn’t make for an invaluable reference. Appearing in traditional media is an effective way to expose your business to a new (potentially national) audience, increase brand awareness and draw attention to your project.
7. Increasing social media sharing
Buzzworthy content: when done right, content marketing has the ability to spread on social media – even having the potential to go viral. This exposure also increases brand awareness and helps with driving traffic back to your site. The real benefit of increasing the number of social share your brand is getting is the free promotion that comes with users promoting your content for you!
8. Expanding your brand’s social following
When users on social media spot content they like, they want to know how to access more of it. If you produce a valuable piece of content that audiences can relate to, you have an opportunity to expand your social following. A larger following means you’ll be more likely to have success with other campaigns in the future, as you’ll already have an audience you can count on to help spread the message.
9. Constructing an email subscription list for your brand
Content marketing can catch the attention of audiences through off-site content, and draw them back to on-site content that encourages people to enter their contact details for things like content upgrades or exclusive offerings. For example, you could carry out a quiz and ask people to enter their email addresses to reveal their results.
10. Building trust and showing initiatives of authority
Building brand trust can occur by publishing authoritative, well-research content that shows why your organization leads in its industry. It places your business in a prospect’s mind and illustrates that you are the best option in your field, creating a pathway back to your product or service once the consumer is ready to buy.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]
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