Content marketing attracts potential customers through engagement.
By consistently distributing relevant, helpful and entertaining content, a brand establishes itself as a thought leader and a trusted source of information.
This, in turn, creates connections, builds relationships, and can develop more prospects into leads.
Here are some examples of how content marketing can draw people to your brand.
Your potential customers are online and on social media. According to the Pew Research Center, 96% of adults use the internet and a growing number of them are on social media platforms, as noted in a separate Pew Research study on social media use:
By creating and sharing engaging videos, posts, and images, you can expand your audience.
This is especially true considering that there are over 5 billion social media users worldwide as of October 2024.
When your audience likes your content, they are more likely to follow you, which increases brand awareness. They are also more likely to share it, expanding reach and visibility to a wider audience.
Anytime a follower shares a post, your organic reach begins to grow.
One of the very best ways to connect with potential customers is to help them find something they need or solve a problem.
The different types of content shared through a website, blog, social media, and video-sharing platforms should address your audience’s needs.
Example: If your company sells project management software, you may provide a helpful blog on your website that answers questions about what project management is and how it helps businesses.
Your articles would include relevant search terms that align with the search intent of potential customers. You could also offer a guide or lead magnet that blog readers can download for more information.
Through helpful content on your blog and other channels, potential customers quickly learn that you have answers to their questions.
This builds trust and establishes a positive relationship with your brand.
When your brand reaches people with valuable content, helps solve problems, and answers questions, it becomes a trusted resource.
Trust and value help build lasting connections with consumers.
According to MIT’s Sloan Management Review, when a customer feels a brand is trustworthy and responsible, it can provide feelings of respect and a kind of “brand admiration.” Loyal customers are more willing to share your brand.
All good content should help to build brand awareness. Ideally, you want your audience to see you as a leader in the field — a brand to trust and, ultimately, the company to think of when it’s time to buy.
Thought leadership can be expressed through your content channels by sharing relevant content, solving problems, and providing helpful information.
However, some forms of content, such as webinars, podcasts and guest posts, are particularly positioned to let your brand show its stuff.
By creating a scenario where your company has the floor to share expertise and offer insight and analysis through webinars and podcasts it enables a targeted audience to learn from and engage with you.
Writing guest posts for other publications demonstrates your expertise to a new audience. Likewise, collaborating and inviting experts to write a post for your blog can bring a new audience to your site.
Content marketing also allows brands to provide in-depth information about products and services through web content.
Through product pages and descriptions, a brand can educate potential customers about a product's benefits.
For instance, if your company is creating e-commerce content, a product description can include relevant keywords that the audience is likely to search for and be written in a very readable way with your brand voice.
In short, a product description highlights key product information through helpful and relevant content that may include videos, photos, customer reviews, and testimonials.
In this way, content marketing expresses a value proposition and also allows customers to research specifications, with the goal of turning readers into customers.
Content marketing, in all its various forms, is an inbound strategy targeted to draw in a specific audience, as opposed to outbound marketing tactics, which push messaging out broadly.
The idea is that by creating and sharing content your audience learns from and enjoys, you are more likely to engage potential customers and attract them to connect with your brand.
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Then learn more tips on how to boost your content marketing strategy: