How much time does your organization devote to content marketing?
Do you have a dedicated content professional on your staff, or is writing and publishing content something you try to get around to in your spare time?
Do you remember the last time you sent out an email to your subscribers?
What about the last time you posted on your blog?
Consider this your wake-up call. Without the right content marketing strategy, your success in 2019 and beyond is limited.
From 2015 to 2017, engagement on social media dropped 50%, according to Buzzsumo. Part of this drop is due to the algorithm changes that Facebook made during that time period, but there’s another big reason for this drop–an avalanche of content. The social media sites have become saturated with content, and all of that competition leads to a decrease in visibility. In fact, as of February 2019, brands were seeing a median engagement rate of just 0.09% per Facebook post.
However, today’s social media landscape isn’t all doom and gloom for content marketers. Some highly-authoritative websites actually had their social shares increase from 2015 to 2017. The key here is “highly-authoritative”. According to the 2019 Sprout Index, 59% of social media users want to see posts that teach them something.
The best way to give them what they want and be considered “highly-authoritative” is with great content.
It’s not just social media users who understand the importance of great content, though. It’s estimated that 70% of internet users want to learn about products through content instead of traditional ads. This shift in mindset has caused advertisers to take a new approach–sponsored content. Designed to look like editorial content, these sponsored pieces inform readers instead of flashing a bunch of hyped up ad copy in their faces.
Again, it’s proof that quality content is the key to reaching people. So, how does all of this affect your bottom line?
For mid- and large-sized businesses, leads generated through content marketing cost 41% less than leads acquired through a paid search campaign, according to research done by Oracle.
Unfortunately, though, the number of organizations that are missing out on this benefit is much bigger than you think.
According to research from the Content Marketing Institute, 91% of B2B organizations are trying to harness the power of content marketing–but only a tiny 9% rate their content strategies as “sophisticated”.
The takeaway?
Developing, executing, and scaling a strong content strategy isn’t a nice-to-have. It’s a must-have.
