By now, it’s near impossible for anyone in the business to not have heard of content marketing. These days, everyone’s talking about how content is king, and it seems like brands and agencies everywhere are starting up blogs or building content hubs.
But your agency’s probably already neck-deep in other great marketing strategies, and you may not really see an urgent need to go into content marketing right now. There’s more than one way to skin a cat, you say, and you’ve been skinning your cats just fine so far.
Creating your own quality content is a surefire way to draw clients to your agency. Whether it’s someone who’s looking for general tips on how to market their brand, or is already in the process of looking for the right agency, content marketing is a great way to bring in new clients.
As for your existing clients, sharing valuable content with them on a regular basis is one of the best ways to keep their business. You’re essentially reminding them that bringing their business to you was (and continues to be) the right decision.
Hubspot (see screenshot above) is a marketing agency that does this particularly well.
They manage a blog with articles offering valuable information and insights that are relevant to their core client base. By providing this free content to potential and current clients, Hubspot is able to build up its reputation as a trusted thought-leader in the industry.
All this translates into more conversions and client retention. After all, in this business, it’s your expertise that clients are paying and looking for. And what better way to show off your know-how than by offering quality content?
Content marketing is all the rage right now, and everyone wants to get in on the game.
Surveys find that a whopping 88% of B2B marketeers and 76% of B2C marketeers in North America use content marketing. Brands in other parts of the world are quickly catching up.
Increasingly, more clients will probably be asking you to help them with content marketing strategies for their own brands. So it’s probably a good idea to add content marketing to your repertoire, or risk losing clients to competitors who are more adept with content strategy.
Advertising and conventional marketing is becoming over-done, and today’s well-informed, cynical consumers don’t want them. And in a constantly diversifying media landscape, people are increasingly able to turn their attention elsewhere.
Consumers who catch even the slightest whiff of an ad or sales pitch are probably just going to start running in the opposite direction. Just think about the popularity of ad-blockers on web browsers and on-demand content experiences provided by the likes of Netflix, Tivo, and many local cable or free-to-air channels.
If consumers don’t like what they’re seeing, or don’t see ad/marketing content as valuable to their lives, they can easily switch the channel, or just block marketing content altogether.
So when it comes to today’s media and consumers, traditional marketing strategies just aren’t cutting it.
The central concept of content marketing is that it’s consumer-oriented. Fundamentally, it’s about providing content that adds value to consumers’ lives.
This is the crux of why content marketing is so effective: it provides content that people would actually be willing to consume, and would actively seek out on their own.
Which is why many experts are abuzz about the effectiveness and ROI of content marketing, and the hype is well-earned. While robust content marketing is a long term commitment, it delivers great results: it raises awareness of a client’s brand, boosts its reputation, and encourages conversions.
Content marketing, if done well, will definitely augment results for your clients.
But all this doesn’t mean that content marketing is here to destroy conventional marketing. In fact, there’s tremendous value in integrating content marketing with your existing suite of marketing strategies.
For example, Subway provides useful content on healthy eating to complement its advertising campaigns. Subway’s content adds credibility to the claims made in its ads and “Eat Fresh” branding, and strengthens the perception that its products are healthy dining choices.
Other marketing strategies are still a great way to market your clients’ brands, especially to less content-savvy consumers. There are plenty of brilliant ad campaigns out there, and recent innovations such as native advertising are also pretty fantastic marketing tools.
Content is a great way to supplement these other marketing strategies by bolstering brand discovery, conversion and retention. Far from replacing existing marketing strategies, you should consider content marketing as a great way to enhance your agency’s overall effectiveness.
Content marketing is more than just a passing fad. It’s definitely time for your agency to jump on the bandwagon, and start investing seriously in content marketing.
Content marketing is the brave new frontier, but at Bolt, we provide you with the perfect content creators to deliver content that rises above the noise.
Find out more about how Bolt can help you with your content marketing strategy here or e-mail info@boltmedia.co for more information.