The long-term benefits of content marketing for SMEs

Content marketing is the most long-term element of digital marketing, which means it can have a very effective role to play in some strategies.

Many SMEs will have considered the benefits of digital marketing, not least those who have tried more traditional means and found them wanting. But not every firm has the same needs or problems, which means there is no single strategy that will work as well for each and every firm.

This is something that needs to be appreciated by companies as they look to hire digital marketing agencies, as an offer of a one-size-fits all strategy might turn out to be ill-fitting.

A key question is the role that content marketing may play for a firm.

What are the benefits of content marketing?

Good content marketing consists of news, blogs and other content that helps to raise awareness of your firm, what it is about and what it does. It offers the following benefits:

•          It enables more people to find out about your firm and establish your brand identity

•          It can tell your company’s story in a compelling way

•          It can act as a gateway for people who will then go on to visit your website and engage with you more, therefore starting the buyer journey

•          It contributes to the marketing ‘rule of seven’, which notes that the average individual needs to encounter a marketing message seven times before they make a purchasing decision

What is the role of SEO?

While online content is very useful in taking your message to the world, it can take a few months for it to become easily found. The reason for this is all to do with search engine optimisation (SEO).

SEO consists of keywords for which someone will search for content online, relevance, authority, good images, readability and a number of other elements that search engine algorithms will take into account when ranking content. The highest-ranked content will reach the first results page, which is where most searches start and end.

However, even with very good content it takes six months of regular writing and excellent SEO to build up the authority to get on page one.

This is why content, in and of itself, must be part of a longer-term strategy.

How can you plan for the short term and the long term?

For many firms, the primary need will be to build up awareness of their products and services over time, for which content marketing is ideal. However, there are other situations a firm may find itself in:

•          It may be the priorities are much more focused on the short term, such as a need to bring in leads swiftly. That is where the focus should be on tools such as pay-per-click (PPC) ads and social media management.

•          Alternatively, there may be a combination of short and long-term priorities. For instance, PPC may be a great way of getting seen on page one of Google to start with, but the campaign might last for six months until content with good SEO manages to achieve a high ranking in an ‘organic’ manner.

•          Whatever your aims to gain a strong presence on search engines, this can be combined with a range of other tools like social media management and email marketing.

For this reason, content marketing should not be a priority for everyone. However, for firms with a long-term plan, its benefits are evident.

How BeUniqueness can help you plan for the future

At BeUniqueness, we know every firm is different. From what industry you are in to your size, how long you have been running, your unique selling points are and what your ultimate aims are, every firm will have a different story to tell and their own particular needs that must be met to fulfil their goals.

That is why we seek to draw up an individual, tailored plan for every client firm. This may well include content marketing, as well as a range of other tools, with the final goal being to help your firm to grow and enjoy a great marketing return on investment.