5 Benefits of Producing Quality Content for Your Industrial Manufacturing Company
If you’ve done any marketing in the last decade, you’ve probably heard the phrase “content is king.” It’s probably a given since the term was coined by Bill Gates back in 1996 and remains prevalent—even more so in 2019. Clearly, Gates was able to see into the future! (Of course, he may have had a hand in creating it, to a degree!) Though content marketing has changed dramatically in form over those years, its significance hasn’t wavered. In the early days, content creation was a strategy that helped separate your business from the rest of your competitors. It has now become a proven necessity for all businesses. And still, it is king.
According to eMarketer, “Almost two thirds of marketers—60%—produce at least one new content asset every single day.” With the endless stream of content on the web today, the mindset of businesses has to change from focusing on the quantity of content being produced, to aligning its efforts to create the highest-quality content possible.
Content marketing isn’t a “one-size-fits all” application. Instead, creating unique organic content that is both entertaining and useful to your customers is the successful and efficient approach to take. From videos and blogging to imagery and infographics—whatever your preferred content medium is (which is to say, what your target audience prefers)—be sure it’s both sharable and relevant to your industry. The more accurately you nail down the context, the greater effect you’ll reap from your content.
4 Good Reasons Content Is King
So why is content king? We discuss four good reasons for content creation to be a top marketing strategy for your manufacturing company. Here are some of its most influential benefits.
- Content Builds Trust and Encourages Engagement from Your Target Audience
Content’s ultimate goal for your businesses is to form a meaningful connection between your brand and target audience. Well-crafted content is a crucial means to establishing trust with your leads and customers. If the content you’re sharing is factual, engaging, and helpful, they will start associating the same qualities with your brand. The more value you provide to your prospects through your content, the greater the likelihood they will turn to you when it comes time to make a purchase. Additionally, if your audience sees you consistently publishing important topics relevant to your marketplace, they will acknowledge you as an industry thought leader—which further establishes trust and fortifies your brand.
Posting contemporary content is also a crucial tactic that encourages engagement from your online visitors. Whether it’s a blog or a short social media update, content invites users to engage with a brand—whether they are actively aware of it or not. When the content is of high quality, users will stop in their tracks to consume it and will take the time to fully digest the messaging behind it. When people are actively and thoroughly consuming your content, they will often feel compelled to chime in with thoughts of their own—implementing their ideas in the form of likes, comments, and shares. For the highest possible engagement rates, make sure your sharing most—if not all—of your content efforts on social media.
“Social proof” is a real psychological phenomenon where people view a behavior as more acceptable when they see others doing so; also influenced by the “halo effect”—which is based on our impressions of someone. Social proof is a powerful vehicle to propel messaging via peers and colleagues—and doing so on social media provides a platform for interactivity that allows for it. People, consciously and subconsciously, look to others for referral “approval.” It also helps reinforce the concept of “self-identification,” which is a pivotal factor in the buyers’ journey today. People spend much of their early time researching products and services before they contact you. In that time, your content needs to help them self-identify with your products, services, and brand. By the time they are ready to buy, they have bought in to your business.
- It’s Great for SEO
Content creation is also a great way to give a boost to your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and increase your website’s visibility online. Unduplicated content on a company’s blog will have a significant impact on SEO and where your website ranks on the SERP—especially if you’re publishing on a regular basis. Google and other search engines continuously crawl the internet to discover websites that have the best content to address peoples’ search queries. While the merit (think quality information, not quantity) of your content is the most important factor search engines consider when assigning rankings on the SERP, they also factor your site’s activity level into the equation. By publishing a variety of new content offers on your site regularly, you show the search engines that you have a healthy website that features updated, timely expert information—which is exactly what the search engines strive to deliver to their customers, the people triggering the searches.
When it comes to curating content, whether it is your own or you are getting content from guest bloggers and industry experts, it’s imperative that you optimize it for SEO purposes. What does this mean? First, content such as blog posts, webpages, whitepapers, or any other text offerings should include internal links to other relevant sources of content with naturally placed keywords throughout the copy—both efforts will help your website rank organically for relevant search terms.
Next, long-form content is in. The days of 500-word blog posts aren’t over, but if you want to be an effective blogger, they should be. According to MOZ, “Large posts seem to attract more links than posts with 900 words or less.” People are craving longer-form content that gives them in-depth information about the topic they’re interested in—so give the people what they want, address the topic thoroughly, include relevant links, and watch your site’s ranking on the SERP soar.
- Great Content Earns Conversions
If you’re really wondering what content creation will do for increasing your conversions and ROI, look no further than these statistics:
- Content marketing provides conversion rates about 6 times higher than other digital marketing methods. (ABG Essentials)
- 80% of business decision-makers prefer getting info from a series of article vs. ads, and nine out of 10 buyers say content effects purchasing decisions. (Content Marketing Institute)
- According to 74% of companies surveyed, content marketing has increased their marketing leads, both in quantity and quality. (Curata)
- Video content can help provide a great ROI and significantly increase conversions, according to 72% of businesses surveyed. (CrazyEgg)
- HubSpot reports that inbound marketers are able to double the average site conversion rate (from 6 to 12%), in part, due to their content marketing efforts.
Content marketing encourages conversions because it gives prospects the information they need to make an educated purchase decision. To optimize your content for conversions, implement appropriate and eye-catching CTAs within your offerings that lead viewers to the logical next step in their buyers’ journey.
Conversions can take different courses of action—some business want a straight-forward purchase, others look for an action that indicates a prospect wants more information, such as a whitepaper download. Regardless of your conversion criteria, make it clear to the reader what action they should take next.
- It’s a Cost-Effective Way to Bring in More Traffic
Looking for a cost-effective way to drive traffic to your website and keep visitors there for longer? Strategize a content marketing plan. For example, a website with just a homepage and contact us page will receive significantly higher bounce rates, less page views, and lower engagement rates when compared to a website that has a multitude of indexable pages. The best part of devising a content marketing plan is that it’s relatively cheap. In fact, a recent study done by Oracle indicates that, “Content marketing costs 62% less than outbound marketing & generates 3x as many leads.” The results speak for themselves.
The excellent return-on-investment and relatively low costs make content marketing a viable option for all manufacturing companies looking to maximize their marketing spend. It is important to note that content marketing is time intensive and requires a fair bit of creativity to pull off well. Indeed, it is an investment you make as you build and maintain your content. The upside: every piece of content is an asset. You own them and once the initial work is done, they build valuable equity and pay off every time a sale comes in … over and over and over again. And remember this: each piece of content is on the job 24/7. Even after you finish for the day, it’s still doing its job, helping your prospects and customers continue to do theirs.
If you’re already pressed for time or lack the resources to create quality content yourself, consider Grant Marketing’s content creation services for your business.
As a full-service marketing agency—with capabilities including content creation, account-based and inbound marketing for manufacturers, brand development, website design, and more—Grant Marketing can help guide you through the process of creating a content marketing strategy for your B2B company that aligns with your goals and resonates with your target audience. Contact us today to get the ball rolling on your new initiatives.
