One of the most significant benefits of content marketing is its cost-effectiveness. And in this economy, more bang for your buck is not only good--for some companies it's actually necessary for survival.
Of course, no marketing method is 100% free, and content marketing is no different. Make no mistake--the initial investment can be sizable. IT expenses may be high at first as well. But this is true for most enterprise; up-front costs seem higher because there is little return until market interest is generated.
No need to be discouraged. The relationships you establish with good content can last for years, creating a steady base of customers who willingly discuss their products in their own content, expanding access to other consumers while further lowering marketing costs.
Cost-effective Content Marketing for Everyone
Content marketing is based on the concept that providing premium information pertinent to customers' interests increases the value of the message, thus increasing sales, revenues and profits. Once implemented, content marketing more than pays for itself as customers from SEO and social media sources respond to your thought leadership and content reliability.
Be sure to direct your content strategies to the target audience. This is especially important if you are new to a product niche and aren't sure who their customers will be. Trust that if their content is riveting, they will not only make themselves known, but will also be very precise (niche, remember?) about what they want. Customer responses spread the word of the product, making the marketing effort even more economical. Cost-effectiveness also emerges from the relatively economical ways content marketing is executed, for consumers as well as providers.
Four reasons content marketing is cost effective for everyone:
1. Diversity of Approach
The diversity of content strategies assures complete management of the complete marketing process. Delivering niche-specific messages to consumers most likely to buy your products saves money because there is no need to devise a costly spin-generated ad-campaign. Simply telling the truth in an informative, dependable way supersedes the need for agency-originated advert-hype.
Content servers save money by creating their own messages infused with the kind of thought leadership that catches the attention of niche consumers, themselves potential thought leaders in their fields of interest. Some initial costs may arise creating or purchasing content, but these expenses tend to be minimal compared to one-way advertising. More than this, the diversity of lower-cost venues of delivering your content – websites, social media, blogs, podcasts – are relatively inexpensive for you to distribute and for the consumer to access.
2. Access to free content
Government-produced content is often free and tends to be very accurate. For private material, you'll need to ensure the copyright no longer applies, but even older material can be updated for relevancy to your niche consumers. And where free content is absent the eloquence, specific brand identification and quality you know your products or services merit, content marketing can be customized through message enhancement to meet both quality standards and the need for reliability. In any case, nothing is more cost-effective than free.).
3. Social media
Perhaps the most cost effective option, social media allows you to reach your markets, and adds the benefit of dialogue. The very nature of social media encourages communication; consumers in the niche invariably share their impression of your offerings with each other. Thus, finding the networks most applicable to your selected consumer demographic – whether from Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Twitter, or their numerous alternatives – expands your social media presence.
Further leveraging of niche communities can be generated from real-time events and the associated gatherings they propagate, creating a further source of cost effective content-sharing for both your companies and the consumers themselves.
4. Good content builds brand loyalty
Brand loyalty means consumers keep buying the products. The consumer community that results provides a source of revenue for your firm that is cost effective because it no longer requires inducement to seek your goods. Updated and relevant content should be sufficient to maintain a loyal consumer base.
Content marketing is cost effective due to a diversity of approach offering access to low-cost marketing options available from social media and brand loyalty. Good content builds lasting customer relationships for fewer marketing dollars.
