Content is the fuel that fires inbound marketing and involves the creation and distribution of engaging, relevant content that will attract new customers to your business. Successful content marketing position you as a market leader in the education sector and encourages the development of ongoing relationships with your customers.
A 2015 IBM Digital Experience Survey revealed that 56% of marketers believe personalised content helps consumers remember a brand and encourages consumers to engage more personally with a business, which benefits both the business and its customers. Here are some benefits your organisation will experience from a successful content marketing campaign:
Content marketing boosts your brand awareness
The more your customers see your content and engage with it, the more your organisation will be top of mind. When implementing a content marketing strategy, it’s important to remember that consistency is key. If your prospective customers don’t hear from you for a while, you will start to lose credibility. This means you need to regularly publish fresh content that will help customers deal with any challenges they may be facing, and help them map out their future studies.
Remember to keep your customer personas in mind when creating any form of content. Personas are fictional representations of your ideal customer and they’ll assist you in helping you create the content that will attract prospective customers to your organisation. Once you have defined your businesses’ personas, it’s far easier to visualise them. You can imagine what they enjoy and what they don’t. You have a better understanding of what interests them and the things they dislike. Once you achieve this, you’re able to create the content and product or services offers they will be interested in and will respond to.
Content Marketing builds your organisations identity as a trusted expert
According to Hubspot, 50% of consumers’ time is spent online engaging with custom content. Relevant and engaging content will position your organisation as an expert and encourage leads to see you as a trustworthy brand in your space. Once your prospective customers start to see you as a trusted source of information that is relevant to them, they’ll turn to you rather than your competitors.
Content Marketing encourages customers to take action
DemandMetric reports that content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. When consumers need to spend money or make time for a service, it’s natural to procrastinate. However, if you nurture them along the sales funnel with success stories and relevant content that gives them clear answers to their questions, your prospects will feel more confident and motivated to contact you, apply or schedule an appointment with your organisation.
Content Marketing gives customers a reason to return to your website.
If you are regularly updating your content and personalising it for your leads, they are going to visit your website on a regular basis and you can start to build a relationship with them. Once you are seen as a trusted resource, they will encourage other customers with similar needs to visit your website to find the answers or information they need.
Content Marketing attracts your ideal customer.
The beauty of content marketing is that while you’ll be distributing proof of your expertise to the world, only those customers who are really interested in what you have to say will be viewing it, responding, and sharing it. Creating content that users want to share is marketing to those that are directly interested in your brand. Sharing the right content with valuable information at the right time of day with the right audience accelerates website traffic, increases brand visibility, and disrupts the competition.
Lupo Digital is an digital marketing agency that specialises in creating quality content that attracts customers towards your organisation with personalised lead nurturing campaigns appropriate to every student’s stage in the admission cycle. For more information about how personalised content works for you organisation, download our executive guide to inbound marketing.
Written by Glenn Miller
An exceptionally experienced digital marketer, proactive and future-forward thought leader, I deliver exceptional customer experiences, industry leading digital strategy and superior marketing results.
