What Is Content Marketing (And Why Should You Care)?

If you’ve spent any time discussing or researching marketing strategies for your business, you’ve probably stumbled upon the phrase “content marketing.” The name itself conveys some of its basic concept. But still, unless you are quite familiar with it, you might be asking, “what is content marketing?”

Our answer? It’s a game changer for businesses in almost any industry—especially small and regional ones.

But why? First, consider a little bit of background. Content marketing took off back in 1996, when John Oppedahl started using the term. It was likely a concept even before then—just not one defined by a clear name.

Of course, the age of the internet boosted content marketing’s relevancy. In more recent years, the rise of the influencer has also contributed to a boom for content marketing.

Today, this method is like a sophisticated ecosystem that does the work of prospecting for you. It is a tool for connecting with your audience, positioning yourself as an expert in your field, establishing a resource potential clients will return to, and making sales—practically before the reader even reaches out to you. To summarize, the ROI is fantastic.

That is especially true given the relatively low initial investment. Ad dollars being sucked away by publishing, billboard, and broadcasting fees? Not with content marketing … let’s dive in.

The Definition of Content Marketing

“Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.” -Content Marketing Institute

That quote is a sharp introduction, but we’ll break it down.

When we talk about content that attracts and retains a clearly defined audience, we’re talking about speaking to your ideal customer. The idea is that, through content marketing, you can begin to build a relationship of trust and appreciation that ingratiates them to you and your product or service.

How It Works

Imagine you are a purveyor of apples. You live in a beautiful valley where a few different local farmers maintain healthy orchards full of apples. But you know that yours are the best. They are organic, and you tend to them lovingly.

If you produce (pun intended) traditional ads showcasing why your apples are so great, you might get some interest. But nowadays, people are wary of feeling like they are always being advertised to. Plus, you might spend quite a lot of overhead getting that ad placed.

The alternative solution is content marketing. Now, you publish blog posts with apple-centric recipes, beautifully produced videos showing off the orchard during its best season, seminars explaining the importance of buying organic, and a social media series with funny historical quotes about apples. 

Before you know it, you’ve captivated an audience. You’ve made fans out of followers and found loyalty in baking devotees who served your decadent apple pie recipe.

When those same individuals want to buy some locally grown apples, where do you think they’ll turn? Probably to you. During their weekly grocery trip, when they say they’ll skip on the apples there because they anticipate seeing you at the farmers’ market that weekend, maybe someone nearby overhears and asks where the market is because they need to experience apples delicious enough for two trips. The thing is, it isn’t just that the apples are great. It’s about the loyalty that customer now has to you because of your offering and the personality of your brand. The content marketing positioned you as an expert in the growing of top-tier apples and a company with passion, values, and a sense of humor. People love you. So, they love your apples.

Of course, this is an overly simplified example. But it serves to showcase the beauty of content marketing in straightforward terms.

What Comprises Content Marketing?

As mentioned above, there are quite a few ways you can approach content marketing. Personally, as writers, we have a soft spot for a good long-form blog post. We know, we know, “who will take the time to read that?” is probably what you’re thinking. But guess what?

An impressive 77% of Internet users read blogs, and 61% of U.S. online consumers have made a purchase based on recommendations from a blog.

It’s true: blogging can have a direct impact on the improvement of sales.

But other avenues for content marketing are also key. Podcasts continue to gain traction among a huge base of consumers. The ability to passively listen in while going about one’s day makes podcasts an effective way to capture more eyes (or ears, as it were).

Email newsletters, too, continue to prove a marketing powerhouse that businesses can utilize on the cheap—win, win! The same goes for social media. While it might cost you a pretty penny if you want to utilize influencers, the total cost still doesn’t touch that of traditional advertising methods. And the ROI can be better—both in volume and longevity.

What do we mean by longevity? To put it simply, when you build a social media presence that delights and engages followers, you can better create brand identity for those individuals. When someone sees your ad on a billboard, they might consider one purchase, but you haven’t done anything to inspire a love or appreciation for your brand.

Content marketing can help to make sales while building a brand loyalty that results in what you could call lasting ROI. 

Speaking of smart investments, don’t forget about video. As content marketing and brand presence go, video is essential. In fact, 91% of consumers want to see more online video content from brands. Give the people what they want … and they might give you some sales.

An Asset for Our Age

There is a reason so many marketers, business leaders, copywriters, and graphic designers are espousing the merits of content marketing. They have been entrenched in this industry for a long time, and they’re seeing the benefits this approach can bring; they’re watching businesses spend less and pour thought into their brands, ending up with more customers and lifelong followers because of it.

One could argue that it’s the new gold standard for return on investment in the marketing world … content marketing is the tool to triumph in today’s digital, authenticity-starved landscape.

If you’d like to learn more about content marketing, contact our team here at Pearl & Wordsmith for a free consultation.

What to Include on Your Business Website: 5 Copy Points

In honor of our new website launching over here at pearlandwordsmith.com, we thought we’d dig into our advice on website copy. We write a lot of it for our clients, and one of the first questions they always seem to have is, “What should I even include on my business website?”

It’s a fair thing to mull over, given the contradictory advice we often get when researching website optimization. Many leading experts will tell you to ensure you have enough copy to make it crawlable for Google, but others will say that too much copy is going to overwhelm your visitors once they get there. Some will tell you to showcase just enough info to make readers reach out for more, while others recommend being completely transparent because your potential clients might not want to get in touch until they’ve pretty much decided to work with you.

The honest truth is that all of those tips have proved useful at one time or another. Often, the best technique for you will be based on your industry, audience, and goals for website visitors (do you most want them to buy something or are you just looking for them to join your email list). As with many pursuits in life and business, a thoughtful, customized path is the solution.

This strategic thinking is a part of our process when working with clients to write the copy for their business website. But today, we’re going to walk you through a few of the copy points we always advise including—in whatever way works best with the approach you’re taking.  

#1 Your Offering

This probably seems obvious, but you would be surprised how many websites don’t showcase the business’ product or service clearly.

Some of our favorite ways to help visitors understand what you can do for them include:

• Eye-catching tagline on the home page

• Paragraph of copy on a “What We Do” page

• Services listed out on the home page or the “Services” page

• Grid of product images

But there are so many ways to get creative with conveying this info! Just remember to make it happen. Too many businesses get lost in talking exclusively about their founding, why they love what they do, etc. While those things are great to include (they showcase your longevity and passion for the industry!), you want to focus predominantly on your client—not you. Why should the visitor care about your business? What does it do for them? Your business website should answer those questions.

#2 People and Personality

The above being said, it is still important to imbue your business website with personality. A mistake we sometimes see clients make is wanting to remove themselves from the equation entirely. Unless you are an Apple-level business (and even then, Steve Jobs’ visibility did great things for the brand), you should probably be including headshots, bios, and the story of how you, individually, came to bring this company to life. Our advice is to use the home and services pages to speak to the info your client wants most: how you can change their life or work. But on the “Who We Are” or “About Us” page, be sure to inject some personal details.

People generally don’t love to engage with a nameless, faceless brand. Especially nowadays, when many of us actively try to support small businesses. Showcasing the minds behind your innerworkings will lend you a sense of relatability, reliability, and realness. It helps readers feel as if they know you, and that encourages them to complete whatever your call to action is.

And, that brings us to our next point!

#3 Call to Action

So, you’ve captured a visitor’s attention. They love the design, the fun catchy line of copy on the home page, and the smiling faces and fascinating bios of your team. But they’re left wondering … now what?

Never, ever forget to include a clear and concise call to action on your website. If you leave your visitors no option except to find your email address and phone number in the footer, you are going to be throwing away tons of potential leads. Trust us.

• Step one: Decide on a clear, singular call to action. Whether it’s “get in touch,” “browse our products,” or “book now,” you need to have a consistent directive for visitors.

• Step two: Incorporate that call to action above and below the fold. If you aren’t familiar with that concept, it stems from newspaper days. Publications would place the stories they felt most important above where the newspaper would be folded in half after printing. That way, it would most immediately grab attention. This applies to your business website. If visitors need to scroll to find your call to action, move it up!

#4 Persuasion

The job of website copy is manifold. Yes, it serves as the home base and representative of your brand. Indeed, it also acts as an informative resource for your clients and potential clients. And, it can be a direct gateway to business, via e-commerce purchases.

But your website is also a marketing platform. In fact, it is the only digital marketing outlet you fully control. This isn’t a resource to overlook. Social media often grabs initial attention and guides people to your business website. However, it’s what happens when they get there that matters most. Many people won’t pull the trigger on getting in touch or buying your product until they’ve visited—and had a good experience on—your website.

This is your opportunity to make the sale. You should include copy that makes it clear why your product or service can help a potential client.

#5 Clean and Polished Prose

38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content or layout are unattractive.

74% of web users pay attention to the quality of the spelling and grammar on company websites and 59% felt they could not trust a company that made mistakes in these areas.

What do these fascinating statistics say to you? To us, they send a clear message: the quality of your website’s content matters. Design is a huge component of this, but so is copy.

No matter which of these five copy points you choose to incorporate into your business website (we’d vote for all!), the most important thing is that you execute them well.

Of course, that’s where we come in. For a beautifully written, perfectly on brand, mistake-free, and stylistically consistent suite of website copy, give us a shout! ;)  

Why a Blog Is Vital to Your Business' Digital Presence

Business owners, I’ve got a message for you: NOW is the time to bring your focus online and, more specifically, to the blogosphere.

I get it. The idea of building a brand’s digital presence can be pretty overwhelming. Do you need a page on every social platform? Does your website have to have bios for your team members? Would a form that visitors can fill out to request more info be a good idea? Should you produce a blog, and if so, what should you post? 

Well, I have some answers for you …

Yes, you should round out your social suite, because consumers like to follow their favorite companies and brands, and tag them, on whichever social network they are most active.

No, your website doesn’t need to introduce your team, but it probably should. In a time when almost no industry is exempt from the challenge of a saturated market, the ability to make a personal connection with an interested client really does change the game. 

Yes! If applicable, a fillable form is always useful to include on your website. It might seem like anyone willing to fill a form out and then be called by you would be willing to call you in the first place, but that isn’t necessarily the case. For many, submitting their information is a much more passive and intuitive process, which means you’ll have more contacts.

Lastly, YES. Your business needs a blog. And this is my focus today.

While I believe each of the things we touched on already is important to a company’s reach and repute, a blog is one of the greatest ways to find new clients and make sales. In my opinion, your blog is the hub driving your brand’s online persona.

Let’s talk about why.

1) A blog is the best way to drive traffic to a website.  

This is because search engines want longer, more crawlable content than social media or more permanent website copy provides. Google’s top considerations when ranking results are content quality and link building, and both of these are most efficiently and sensibly done in a blog post. A website that has a blog, especially one that is frequently updated, is much more likely to come up in your potential buyer’s search results.

This fun fact proves it: According to HubSpot, companies that blog have 55% more visitors, 97% more inbound links, and 434% more indexed pages.  

Also, a whopping 77% of everyone who spends time online is reading blogs during some of it, Quoracreative says.

Annnnnd, driving traffic isn’t all a blog can do for you. It might also be able to persuade those visitors to get in touch or make a purchase.

Huffington Post notes that 60% of online consumers in the U.S. feel more positive toward a company after enjoying custom content on its website and 61% have purchased something because it was mentioned in a blog they read.

This is the second big reason your business needs a blog. 

2) Blog content builds a bridge between you and your potential client. 

Providing useful or interesting content is a great way to endear people to you. You’re not asking them to pay for anything yet, yet you’re giving them something. This can make readers more inclined to give you their business later on.

A blog also gives the customer insight into your company and team, which is a handy personal feel to have created when it comes time for a pitch.

Another advantage lies in a blog’s ability to showcase you at your best. Producing blogs about topics related to your industry establishes you as an expert authority on the subject, and gaining this sort of trust with a readership is a surefire way to make yourself the first choice among competitors. 

Blog space can function as your own personal pressroom, too.

3) Your blog is a landing place for company announcements, holiday wishes, product releases, behind-the-scenes stories, interviews with the team, and more.

Consumers appreciate when a brand has identity, and this often comes in the form of commenting on the latest happenings and holidays, and sharing the inside scoop on developments and interworkings. People also get excited about what you are excited about, so it’s always great to find a way to express your enthusiasm for your product, process, etc. As a place ready for publication, a blog is your ticket into a whole world of communication with your buyer and your industry.

And there you have it! I think these are all compelling reasons to consider a blog the foundation of your company’s digital presence, and perhaps, of its entire marketing plan.

So get started, and if you need any help with ideas and writing, you know where to find me. :)