Very!

I did a talk at the Gatwick Diamond monthly event today and part of the presentation focused on how important your content is to your business success. The research I did threw up some interesting stats which I’m going to share but first, here’s a quick reminder of how it is important (rather than how important is it).

How does your content affect your business?

The answer to that is in 4 different ways (two of them overlap but are worth a separate mention):

1. First impressions

Just for a moment think about your behaviour and thought process when you visit a website. Do you visit their blog or news page? If so, I bet what you find there, creates an unconscious reaction.

So for example, if they’re blogging regularly, it creates a positive impression. They know what they’re doing, their customers matter and they’re on it, sort of thing! You feel as if you’re in safe and professional hands.

But if they’re blogging infrequently or not all, what goes through your mind then? I tend to assume that they’ve either gone out of business or they just don’t care. And that’s not a great start!

You have only a few seconds to make that lasting first impression and just the fact that you aren’t blogging, may spoil that for you. Just a thought!

2. Professional development

Yes really. If you’re writing or creating great content on a regular basis, then the chances are, you’re spending time researching and reading around your subject. That can only be a good thing.

3. SEO – the big one!

If you’re writing blogs and other content frequently, using keywords intelligently (and naturally) and spending time on your Meta tags, then you and your content are going to get found more easily by search engines.

Think about your own behaviour again. if you want to prune your wisteria, you probably google, “How to prune a wisteria” and more often than not you end up on someone’s blog. Simples. I’ll share some stats about this in a minute but better search engine results is surely reason enough on its own to be blogging?

4. Sales and marketing

Great content is good for sales and marketing at every level. It’s about keeping in touch with your existing leads and clients, it’s about reaching out to new leads, it’s about raising brand awareness, building relationships and trust and becoming the “go to” business in your field. And that all makes your marketing and sales a whole lot smoother.

5. Still not convinced?

I promised you some stats and here they are:

• “Adding between 21 and 51 blog posts to your site boosts traffic by up to 30% and when you’ve added at least 52 blog posts, your traffic increases by 77%!” (Traffic Generation Cafe)
• “Small businesses that blog get 126% more lead growth than small businesses that do not blog.” (Think Creative)
• “The average cost to generate a lead through inbound marketing techniques such as blogging is about half the average for traditional outbound marketing, such as cold calling.” (Hightable)
• “61% of consumers say they are more likely to buy from a company that delivers custom content they can trust.” (Custom Content Council)

Food for thought huh? These days content, be it your blog, your download, your podcast or your video, really makes a difference. Provided it’s done well.

I know it can feel like a time suck at times but just look at that stat provided by Hightable about costs. And think of the time spent at a networking event to generate maybe one or two leads.

Next time it feels like a bit of a grind, just check back in with the stats and keep writing.

Lucy