It’s a fact, if you are trying to boost brand awareness and grow your customer base, social platforms, blog posts, email campaigns, and SEO offer some of the best opportunities to build relationships and increase your ROI (Return on Investment) – that is, with the right strategic approach and marketing partners.
As HubSpot reports, B2B companies that blogged 11+ times per month had almost 3X more traffic than those blogging 0-1 times per month. From lead generation to nurture to purchase, having a targeted content strategy gets prospects to move through the funnel by reinforcing relationships at every stage. In fact, 80% of business decision-makers choose to get a company’s information in a series of articles rather than an advertisement. Seventy percent reported content makes them feel closer to a business, and 60% stated they make smarter buying decisions because of a company’s content.
So, to help keep content marketing working for you, here are three of the top trends that have returned proven results for our clients and us:
Diversified Content
Presenting content in various mediums such as infographics, galleries, video, podcast, etc. will ensure your message is being received. Your consumers will feel valued because you’ve taken the time to give them the option to select how they want to consume your information. The likelihood that your content will be fully read, seen, watched, or heard quadruples the chances your product or service will be obtained. These diverse options also foster an interest in your consumers to want to come back to see what’s next — strengthening customer retention and lead generation.
For example, the accounting and consulting firm, Crowe Horwarth, had remarkable success with launching approximately fifty diverse components, all centered around content specifically targeted to their customers, such as case studies, infographics, video, executive briefs. Their infographic alone, according to the Content Marketing Institute, was responsible for generating around 800 new contacts.
In addition to all these rewards, an added benefit, to you, is that by outfitting the same content in various ways, you will save time from having to keep on creating new copy. And, as we all know, time saved is money saved.
Curated Content
Who has time to sort through all the content out there to find the quality gems?
As busy professionals, your clients do not. That’s why providing consumers access to trusted content, curated for them in a blog or emailed newsletter is an invaluable service. It’s an establishment of a content net that will help support all future efforts. When you curate the content specific to your email audience, you provide the incentive for brand loyalty; therefore, nurturing both your ROIs—impression and investment.
Check out here one of the editions of the newsletter we curate for Altice Business. The emailed newsletter provides value to the customer by giving them quick, informative access to expert advice, keeping Altice Business reigning as the thought leaders in their industry.
Interactive Content
Case studies and reports are still doing well, but including an interactive element like a quiz for your consumer adds another chance to get results for your efforts. To get a visit to your site is great, but if there are no reasons for your visitor to click around, you’ve lost the opportunity to positively affect your return on impression.
Collecting the data results from content like assessment and calculators helps you to create in-depth customer profiles as well. When you have an option to get a clear picture of a consumer’s needs, you can better strategize future efforts to drive improved results.
Interactive content, not only elevates engagement, but also educates, generates leads, and creates brand awareness. And it’s with this type of content that businesses are seeing real outcomes affecting a consumer’s path to purchases. Interactive infographics were 60% more effective during the stage of awareness/discovery in a buyer’s journey
HubSpot, for example, has leveraged an interactive technique with its ROI calculator. The calculator provides the ability for the client to estimate their possible ROI for their marketing efforts. The user then knows the financial benefit they can gain before they even speak to a sales rep. This technique guarantees customer engagement and increased conversion.
The main key to see success from any of these trends is to be sure to include valuable, quality content.
And here at Bloom, in all our marketing efforts, we take great care to write actionable content specific to and suitable for the right consumers — valuable content that gets shared.
How has content marketing gained you higher returns on impression and investment?
What’s been the most effective trend for your marketing?
Leave us a comment and let us know.
