1st in a series of three
Browsing through my Ticketmaster subscription last week made me realise just how effective content and inbound marketing can be. I want to go to all these events. I may not need to go to them all but they’re letting me know about something I’m interested in. I’ve been buying from Ticketmaster for years and I always welcome their emails advising on upcoming events and gigs I’m interested in. That’s exactly how they are getting me to spend a chunk of my wages on gig tickets this week – by executing a simple content technique perfectly.
Since 2006 content marketing has been the most effective marketing method for doing business online. Content marketing is essentially attracting already-interested customers to your business. This is done by creating content specifically designed to appeal to your customers.
Content marketing is particularly effective for B2B companies as demonstrated by the fact that 65% of B2B companies implemented content marketing practices in 2013. There are several reasons why it’s so successful:
- It builds trust between the buyer and the business. Trust and relationships have always been very important in B2B sales;
- It delivers primed customers. Through engagement with your existing customers it encourages them to become advocates of your company. This all means higher customer retention and referrals;
- It converts more leads into sales. 34% of the leads marketers generated in 2013 came from content marketing sources versus 22% from outbound;
- It’s a better and more targeted use of resources as you are focusing on customers and companies who want to do business with you and therefore increases ROI ;
- It ensures that you have not only traffic, but the right traffic on your website;
- It interacts with customers through a channel that they want to be connected and engaged with on. By letting businesses come to you, you are letting them take those first few crucial steps;
- It engages people before the purchasing stage. 93% of buying cycles start with a search online so it is critical you connect with them at this stage.
This is just a quick insight into how content marketing can help your company but it’s more important that you know how to do it, which is why our next blog will focus on tips about content marketing tactics.
References
http://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/2013-inbound-marketing-stats-charts
http://www.newbreedmarketing.com/blog/b2b-inbound-marketing-machine#.U0J5W1dJZI1