Content marketing increases a business’s bottom line. 88% of all consumers consult the internet to compare businesses before they decide whether or not they want to buy. Their deciding factor? The content readily available for them on the internet.

Content is important if you want to ensure your brand cuts through the digital noise and converts leads. Aside from trust, visibility, and authority, we’re going to explore some other reasons content is still king.

1. To Educate

Business owners have a lot to say about their businesses. But it entails a curse of knowledge — often these business owners overexplain concepts that actually need to be simplified. The website is a storefront used to attract potential clients, and the best strategy to do that is to educate them, and this can only be achievable if you use simple-to-understand language, which is easier to digest and gets to the point.

Having a blog for your business is important as you will have the freedom to say more and demonstrate your expertise in a subject area. In fact, businesses that have prioritised blogging are 13x more likely to enjoy a positive digital ROI.

Furthermore, the more frequently your website is updated, the more authority  your website is thought to have in your industry. This means, pages from your website will rank higher in a Google search. Your website then has a higher chance of having leads click your link in a Google search — and this drives more traffic. Dependent on the quality of content on the webpage they get taken to, leads could then convert and become customers.

2. To Establish Your Value Proposition

Blogs are rated as the fifth most trusted source for accurate online information. This gives you the chance to explain your value proposition and allows you to do a comparison between you and your competitors. If your business offers a feature or a benefit that saves your clients more money in the long term, a blog is the best place to highlight that.

People are emotional and like to make decisions based off on who they like. Therefore, by using multimedia such as videos, infographics, or ebooks, you can find ways to communicate your information and demonstrate your brand personality. Every single word you push on your website, every piece of collateral you push, aids in your web leads’ decision making. The point here is, by showing the nature of your business and your brand, a lead could connect with your brand personality and make a decision based on that emotional connection to your business — rather than on price.

3. To Attract More Web Visitors

Companies that blog receive 97% more links back to their website than companies that don’t. The benefit of these links is businesses are able to attract more web traffic. If the content on your website is good, then it becomes a simple numbers game, where the more visitors you have on your website, the higher the conversion rate grows.

It’s not about creating one or two pieces of shareable information; it’s about creating consistent content about a subject area to establish your expertise in the field. Once that has been done, then you’ll find more and more people wanting to share your content.

If resources are scarce and publishing posts two to three times a week is not feasible, then consider using your blog as a platform to invite guest bloggers. Having guest bloggers on your blog is an opportunity to build relationships with those in your industry; and if a guest blogger has an incredible following, this will help increase traffic on your blog.

Conclusion

This year, make blogging your focus and start producing content to demonstrate your business’s expertise in your industry. With over 23% of top executives reading blogs regularly, you want to make sure your blog is one of the knowledge resources they read every morning. Not only will blogging add more to your ROI, but it will aid in your website’s overall SEO and increase the credibility of your business in your current clients’ eyes.

Written by Lina Lau, Digital Executive at Step Change

Lina’s natural flair for Java code meant she was presenting theories to her own lecturers before even graduating. A computer science and law major, she brings unique ‘systems meet psychology’ approach to marketing and strategy. Strategic problem-solver at heart, she honed her tech skills by teaching herself how to hack and understanding crypto currencies. Her diverse range of skills and natural love for entrepreneurship and understanding businesses led her to Step Change.