We're sure you will agree that content creation has many factors that make it important to your marketing. However, if you're not entirely convinced as to why you need such an important aspect in your company’s marketing, here are the three main reasons:

Reason one: Buying habits have changed

buyinghabits

Research has shown consumers are buying differently to how they did 10 years ago. Before the internet, you would pick up the Yellow Pages and call the supplier with the biggest ad, speak to a sales person and be sold to. Now, they research, find a number of solutions, and compare their opinions all before they come to their decision and actually get in touch with you. 81% of consumers are doing this, with half also spending at least 75% of their total shopping time researching!

This shows consumers are not quite yet in the mood for buying your product as soon as they start interacting with your brand and will instead be looking for research information to help them decide on the best solution for their problem or need - which will hopefully be you!

This is great right!?

By creating content that answers your target market’s questions and allows them to educate themselves on what the right solution is for them, you’ll be opening up many more opportunities to get in front of them at all stages of the buyer’s journey. This positions your brand as a knowledge base, making you an authoritative figure in your field. Being with them every step of the way through their buying journey helps them with their vital choice of getting them to choose you.

Reason two: How else are you going to rank?

72% of buyers turn to Google during awareness stage research; 70% return to Google in consideration stage research.

Want to show up in a search result? Google will love you if you create valuable content that answers the searcher’s questions. Although there’s not much point in creating content around a question that people aren't asking, so it’s important to find out the questions your consumers are asking at each of the buyer's journey through keyword research and then create the content tailored to each of those stages. This will then also help to make sure your content is in front of them when they are searching for it.

Content creation also allows you to build your website’s authority through backlinks. Meaning people can link back to that amazing piece of content you have created on your website and through this, if the website’s linking back are deemed of a high authority, it will also help to increase your website's authority in turn, helping you gain those all important Google ranking spots.

Reason three: It drives traffic

traffic

(No, not that kind of traffic!)

To get traffic to your website you need something to drive them there with, therefore content creating in the form of blogs, pillar pages, videos etc will allow potential  consumers to find your website.

Once you have driven this traffic through your content creation, it's then important to use it for capturing these consumers and turning them into leads. Therefore it is important to offer a range of high value content that you can then gate behind lead capture forms, such as  ebooks, podcasts, webinars and other resources (the list can really go on!) that you can provided to them in exchange for their details. Once you have their details (and gain the right permissions to contact them - be GDPR savvy!), you can follow up and nurture them with an automated, but personal, email series to then qualify them further and move them into a customer, this again will all need content!

Your probably thinking “Wow! That's a whole lot of content I'm going to have to start creating!”, but think about this: you wouldn't be reading this blog if it wasn't for content and  the question you were researching. This shows just how important content really is for your marketing. Also if you’re savvy with your content, you can limit the amount you have to create by creating content that is evergreen, and with the use of repurposing you can turn one piece into five by changing the format of the resources information.