Reasons Why Marketing Is More Important Than Ever - Reason #2

Continuing my post from last week, it is tempting for businesses to reduce their marketing activities during a crisis like the pandemic. Unfortunately, there is already a gap in activities that has been forced upon all of us by the pandemic that somehow needs to be filled.

Reason #2 – Replacing Cancelled or Postponed In-Person Events

In-person events such as trade shows are almost non-existent through the remainder of 2020. Businesses need to get creative in maintaining communication with current customers and generating new leads without them. On-line content such as webinars and case studies are proven to be a good substitute for in-person activities, generating almost as many leads and conversions.

There are additional data points that show how content marketing actually outperforms traditional marketing:

• Generates over 3x as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less.

• Increases lead growth 126% for small businesses with blogs.

• Achieves 6x higher conversion rates.

BUT (and it is a big BUT), achieving these types of results requires high quality content that is valued by your target audience and is posted on a consistent basis. Good content focuses on building trust and developing a long-term relationship. It is NOT about making a sales pitch with every post.

The classic 80/20 rule should be followed with your content strategy. About 80% of content should be written for audience engagement only and the remaining 20% is promotional with a call-to-action.

It is not easy for any business to generate consistent, quality content. This is why over 80% of marketers elect to outsource their content generation. No shame in that. Just make sure that you have a very good brief completed for content developers that includes such things as brand voice, brand values, customer personas, customer journey mapping, etc.

A content brief will ensure consistency and quality, whether you outsource the development of it or retain it in-house. It reminds content developers to keep the customer at the heart of everything that they create. Content must empathize with their challenges and seek to solve them.