7 Benefits of Content Marketing You Can’t Ignore

If you aren’t sure what content marketing benefits you’ll enjoy by putting in the time and effort, consider this example.

In 1920, two brothers, André and Édouard, started a magazine. Their tire business, which they’d started years before, was not growing fast enough for their liking — one reason being that there weren’t enough cars around for tires to be in demand (and they hadn’t yet heard of content marketing).

So they compiled a list of vacation hot spots, including resorts and restaurants, put it in their magazine, and distributed it across the country. The magazine picked up in popularity, generating a desire within readers to visit these vacation destinations — and in turn, increasing road travel and demand for tires.

A little more than 100 years later, their company, Michelin, is one of the largest tire manufacturers in the world, and their magazine, The Michelin Guide, can make or break a restaurant. That’s the power of content marketing.

7 undeniable content marketing benefits

Whether you create it yourself or outsource the content, taking the time to create articles, social media posts, videos, and more, that provide value to your target audience pays off. Take a look at seven undeniable content marketing benefits.

1. Educates your target audience

In the first stage of the customer life cycle, they don’t know they have a problem. Hence, they don’t know they need your solution.

For example, in Michelin’s case, customers didn’t know these great locations existed and were only a short drive away. By educating people, Michelin showed them they needed a solution: more cars and more tires.

People may not know they need your product or service. Create content that educates, teaches them the benefits of your product, and generates a demand for it.

2. Builds trust

Think back to the door-to-door salespeople who used to push products on people. Chances are you never wanted to speak to them, and if you were kind enough to listen to them, you probably still didn’t buy anything.

That’s because you didn’t know who that person was or the brand they were selling. There was no trust, which is one of the most valuable content marketing benefits you can receive through content creation.

As a small business, Michelin needed to build trust, and they did that by creating valuable, trustworthy content. And when these same people needed tires, they knew whom to trust for the best products.

Similarly, create trustworthy content. When the time comes to buy whatever it is you’re selling, your subscribers will trust you enough to consider and even purchase your products.

3. Grows your brand

Michelin is now a universal brand. In fact, the Michelin guides became so popular that they became their own brand.

Because the guides were so helpful, it improved the perception of Michelin. The ratings in the guides are treated as gospel, and people will pay hundreds of dollars to eat at a Michelin-starred restaurant.

And because the guides are connected to the tires, the brand power transfers over.

As people consume more of your content, it strengthens your brand in their minds. So when you release a new product line or even a new company, you’ll have enough brand equity that you won’t be starting from scratch.

4. Increases exposure

Typically, products are not worth sharing. I’ve never seen anyone share an image of a tire online!

That’s where content comes in. Great content is share-worthy and shareable. When we read something good, we want others to know about it, too. It could be because we know someone who would benefit from the content or because it was particularly funny or entertaining. After all, sharing stories is what we do as humans.

When Michelin writes a review of a restaurant you want to visit, that’s something you share with others. You let your friends know about this new restaurant so you can enjoy it together. When you share the content, you’re also sharing the Michelin name. See what we’re getting at here? Content marketing benefits go beyond an initial read or view — they can turn your brand into a household name.

5. Attracts traffic

With a click of a button, you can post content to Facebook, Twitter, and dozens of other social networks and forums. Every time your content gets shared, that’s more eyeballs and traffic to your site.

What’s more, you can repurpose those blog posts into videos and post them on YouTube, create infographic content and post them to Pinterest, and on and on, drawing in traffic from those sources.

And if your content is really great, people will link to it from their sites, sending referral traffic your way, too.

6. Helps you rank higher

One of the most valuable content marketing benefits is improving your SEO rankings. As your content attracts more traffic, social shares, and inbound links, it will start to rank higher on search engines.

Plus, with more content, you can target multiple keywords and keyword phrases. You’ll start to rank not just for your core keywords but also for related keywords.

Additional factors that will improve your SEO are frequent and fresh content, more engaging content, and internal linking between posts.

A higher-ranking site means more free traffic. It’s common to see a site’s traffic increase rapidly once a good content strategy is in place, even without active content promotion.

7. Provides a great ROI

It must have been costly to produce books and ship them across the country back in 1900, but today the internet makes production and distribution of content nearly free.

OK, it still takes time and money to write an epic post. In fact, some companies spend thousands of dollars on a single content asset. But the returns make it worth it.

Here’s the math. One really good post can attract tens of thousands of views in the weeks after publication. That means you’re paying only a few cents for each visitor. Compare that to how much you pay for a click on Google Ads. Some keywords cost up to $20 for one click!

Ready to invest in content marketing and reap the benefits?

Look around you, and you’ll see people with their eyes glued to their phones. They’re either consuming content or sharing it. And if you’re not creating content, then the only way they’ll find you is if you interrupt them with ads.

Create content instead and reap the benefits.