Content Marketing – why it is so critical for your business in 2015

by Alex Mangrolia

Building Trust & Establishing Authority

We are an internet search driven society. We are always searching for answers to our questions. In the past we searched inside of the encyclopedia and in the library for our answers. Now, with the internet, we can quickly search the internet for the answers to our questions. All our searches lead us to the same thing, content. As we are looking to the future to capture more visitors we need to have the content that will drive visitors down the content funnel to a lead or a sale. In this world, Content is King and every business needs it in order to survive.

In the book Youtility by Jay Baer, he talks about how he took his fiberglass pool company that was going downhill and almost going bankrupt to becoming extremely profitable in a matter of months. How did he do it? The answer is simple, content marketing. He was able to create a mass amount of content that came up on search a great deal of times, and as a result people would research his website as the authority of fiberglass pools. Eventually, people built a trust factor based around his content and contacted his company to purchase a fiberglass pool. From a sales perspective, he was able to achieve a significant sales conversion at 85% consistently rather than only closing 35% of the sales calls he went on.

SME businesses are sitting on a wealth of knowledge, real hands on practical knowledge that people crave for on an ongoing basis. Most businesses see their knowledge as general or commonly understood, but from an outsiders perspective it is information gold. For example: Suppose that you wanted to search for a blue widget and how to use one. Your options are to ask a friend or quickly search the internet and quickly learn about using a blue widget. The business that makes the blue widget already fully understands the workings of the blue widget; to them it is common knowledge. To the searcher that wants the information, it is not so common how to use a blue widget. It is at the primary initial point of search that a business truly needs to gain the authority and trust in order to have the potential of gaining new customers.  In order to  build trust and establish itself authority as an authority, the business must create fresh content regularly.

Content from a Search Perspective:

When it comes to internet search engines, Google is the king! (despite other players trying to take them down). The days for ranking for keywords and getting sales from it are pretty much out the door. Jay Baer talks about a concept called “zero point”. “Zero Point” is the very beginning of a searcher’s search. It is where searchers are simply searching for information and once they get their answer, they are gone. Think of it this way, when was the last time that you’ve filled out a “contact me” or even bothered to call someone after you visited their site and got your answer? As searchers we just really want to be left alone, but if we keep ending up back at a site because of their content, we are more likely to sign-up to an email form or even call them. It falls on the business owner to really put out the right information for their potential clients and visitors that they wish to attract.

The days of faulty links and builds are pretty much out the door. You can’t just have a bunch of links and get rankings anymore. We know, we have been there and done that. You have to feed the robots at Google content and information. If you look at search from the perspective of the search engine, you will see that they make money from advertisements. Google alone makes roughly $14- $20 Billion dollars a quarter just from their search advertisements. The only way searchers would continue to use Google is by having Google provide them with the most relevant information on the internet. By providing quality content regularly, Google will have a better reason to provide your content to searchers.

Conclusion

Having quality content can allow you to engage an audience prior to them going down the search funnel and engage them at the “zero point” moment. Your business will be able to engage new searchers, eventually build the trust of your visitors, establish your business as authority and obtain more leads & sales.  

For more information on how to get yourself the right content marketing strategy set in place, contact our content marketing team at Iffel International by writing to us at sales@iffelinternational.com