Content is the backbone of digital marketing. Without it, search engines would have nothing to crawl, ads would have nothing to funnel clicks to, and customers would have nothing to read to get to know your business.
The thing is, content marketing isn’t just about creating content for audiences to consume. It’s also the best way for businesses to learn what their prospects and customers want.
By analyzing what performs well, content marketers can understand their customers better, iterate, collaborate, and build a content machine that accounts for every part of the customer journey – from brand awareness to retention.
Acquiring new subscribers and leads is key for every business, and content marketing is one of the best ways to do this. By creating blog posts, landing pages, webinars, white papers, and video content, businesses can offer answers to prospects’ questions and address their pain points, getting their email addresses in exchange for gated content.
Businesses can then nurture those email leads and educate prospects about the services or products the business offers, eventually driving them to take action and become a customer. As a result, content marketers often work well with email marketing experts and freelancers.
With all the resources that get invested into acquiring a new customer, you better believe savvy businesses will do everything they can to keep them. Luckily, content marketing is a retention tool, too.
It’s a fantastic way to engage with current customers, build trust, and wow them with your updates, insights, and how-to guides. Aside from delivering quality services or products, businesses can use content marketing to continuously educate customers about why their product matters.
Apart from user acquisition and retention, content marketing is also a great way to position your team members as thought leaders. Writing thought-provoking or head-turning articles, publishing reports, and offering new insights or perspectives allows even the newest businesses to flex their muscles and show their audience that they know what they’re talking about. This leads to brand recognition and trust, all of which support customer growth — and your bottom line.