Free Advice Trumps the Hard Sell

Posted by Alec Hess

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This especially persuasive form of marketing focuses on using content, such as articles, videos, infographics or blogs, to gain the trust and interest of consumers, and potential customers for your business. It’s like advertising in that it’s goal is new business, but it works on the principal that people are getting numb to “push” marketing like traditional interruptive advertising such as magazine, newspaper, TV and radio ads.

But everyone likes solid advice or “content”. So the idea is to show off your expertise relating to your core business and become a “thought leader” in your field. This will lead people to trust you and your company. It’s proving to be one of the most effective marketing methods in the modern digital era.

Free is Better:

Free content is the name of the game. In the current social media era it’s important to create real value for your customers beyond your traditional product or service. You need to explain the positives and the negatives, the in’s and out’s of your offering and compare them to other providers in your field so people can make an informed decision; hopefully to purchase from you.

There are many mediums that you can use to distribute your content; and just as many topics that relate to your field that you can explore. You can offer your opinions on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; write your own blog, or guest blog on other sites that draw potential customers interested in your field. You can write articles for magazines and online journals as well.

I’m No Writer, What Do I Do?

Content marketing is such an important and mature endeavor that a great many vendors and tools are available to assist you in your content creation. Designers can help you produce highly engaging infographics; videographers can produce TV quality shorts for amazingly low cost; and writers abound that will take your business subject and provide countless articles and blog entries for you to place. In fact you can hire bloggers to help fill your blog or Facebook page with regular features in your voice, under your name.

Two Great Reasons To Just Do It:

Consumers will trust great content. If people know that what you give them is high quality content, they will be more inclined to like your brand. They’ll also share your content with others through social media, further increasing your brand recognition. The greater the trust, the more likely it will be that consumers will turn to one of your products rather than a competitor's.

More Than You Pay For?

Content marketing has the potential to make your content go viral. Because it is so easy to share content through social media today, high quality content can spread far. Not only that, but Search Engine Optimization is improved with good content, which means you’re more likely to attain higher page ranking for search results regarding your business. These are only some of the advantages content marketing can do to get your company's name out there, and trusted. 

Still Not Convinced?

Here are some statistics that might change your mind. In a marketing survey done by the Content Marketing Institute of 1,092 B2B marketers from a diverse array of industries and of all sizes:

• 9 out of 10 business organizations are using content marketing because it works.
• Of those organizations, over 25% of their marketing budget is devoted to content marketing.
• In fact, 60% of those companies actually plan on increasing their content marketing budget.

Alec Hess is a marketer and small business expert as well as Principal of Full Voice Media and Vanguard Healthcare Products; and co-founder of BizSaves. His focus is on small business success and he has consulted, guided and advised many firms.
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More Great Content Marketing Articles

Forbes: 5 Essential Ingredients for Content Marketing Success Mashable: 5 Tech Companies That Get Content Marketing Right Forbes: 5 Ways to Use Content Curation for Marketing and Tools to Do It Mashable: The Anatomy of a Killer Content Marketing Strategy