Orig. Post July 13, 2015 by Jem Weasel, Business 2 Community | Re-Post July 14, 2015
Content marketing is a great way to increase brand awareness, and companies that use content marketing to build their brands are the ones who will reap most rewards. There are plenty of obvious reasons companies use content marketing. Here are four that may not have crossed your mind.
To counter negative PR in search
It is hugely important to have a positive presence online, and search engines will often find both the good and the bad. Therefore improving your positive SEO is essential to help push negative stories off the first results page. This will take time and careful planning but when you imagine how damaging it can be for the first three stories to appear on Google search to be negative ones, you can see how important it is.
Build trust
Consumers need to be reassured before parting with their money, so building up a relationship is vital. Your customers want to trust you before any transactions and if that trust is well founded it will be rewarded by positive feedback.
Providing easy access to reviews is a great way to achieve this; just look at the success of sites such as TripAdvisor.
Furthermore, including lots of content – such as frequently asked questions – can help reassure the customer without them feeling like they have to bother you.
Don’t just sell, communicate
Sales cycles can be long and drawn out affairs, particularly when dealing with large sums of money; after all, committing to spend millions of pounds isn’t something to be rushed. Once again a bond of trust needs to be established. Rather than relying on the hyperbole of advertising, providing regular, relevant, and reliable content through a website or social media outlet is a great way to engage with potential customers. Speaking to clients online and indeed face-to-face helps them feel valued and reassures them that further down the sales cycle they will have support and a good after sales experience.
Recruitment
Talented employees are hard to find; they will be aware that they are a commodity and will choose carefully when changing jobs.
By having a large amount of quality content you can appeal to potential employees plus engage your current staff, whie also getting your companies message and values delivered.
If you offer people a platform they will talk about their work passionately, this will benefit you, helps them realise the benefits of working for you, and benefits them by creating an industry profile both internally and externally.
Content marketing can take a great deal of time and energy – and money – but the rewards can be vast and should never be underestimated!