If you’re involved with marketing, chances are you’re well aware that content is king. And the benefits of content marketing go far beyond visibility. It builds authority, attracts potential customers, and nurtures trust, while storytelling drives results—from higher engagement to increased conversions.
Content can have a real impact on your marketing efforts. Whether you’re growing your company or building your personal brand, the right content helps you connect with the right audience and achieve meaningful results.
However, some of the most interesting advantages of content marketing go beyond marketing and sales. Read on to learn what content marketing is, how it drives sales and nine of its impressive benefits that prove how content can be so much more than a sales tool.
What Is Content Marketing and Why Is It Important?
Content marketing is a marketing strategy that relies on creating and sharing valuable content. It aims to attract and engage potential customers and influence their buying decisions. With this approach, you don’t directly try to sell. Instead, you focus on building authority, trust and interest, which can ultimately lead to improved sales and other benefits.
Most other forms of marketing can boost sales and revenue over shorter periods. But content offers long-term advantages. It keeps your brand visible and relevant, improves brand recognition and trust, and ensures a steady inflow of high-quality leads.
How Does Content Marketing Drive Sales?
Like any other form of marketing, content marketing can help you generate leads, inquiries and, ultimately, sales. However, the big twist lies in the way it does that.
Unlike traditional marketing that relies heavily on self-promotion to drive sales, effective content marketing flips the script by making it primarily about the customer instead of the brand.
Every piece of content created for content marketing aims to offer specific solutions to potential customers in different stages of their purchase journey. These stages shape the content marketing funnel. This, in turn, sums up how content drives sales by keeping the customer at the center.
The funnel has three parts:
- Top of the funnel: The awareness stage
- Middle of the funnel: The consideration stage
- Bottom of the funnel: The decision stage
Three stages of the content marketing funnel.
Top of the Funnel (TOFU):
This is the earliest stage. At this point, a potential customer may not know much about your brand or its offerings. Yet, they’re looking for things you can help them with. The goal of TOFU content is to attract as many such people as you can, efficiently solve their queries or problems and, if it fits, subtly introduce your brand and its offerings.
TOFU content usually includes:
- Blog posts, articles and videos on high-volume keywords
- How-to guides on popular topics
- Infographics
- Social media carousels
- E-books
- Podcasts
Middle of the Funnel (MOFU):
This stage caters to those who have identified their problem or a specific need and are looking for solutions. Content for this stage focuses on offering detailed insights on possible solutions (including your own). The goal is two-faceted—to help your leads correctly assess their options while also presenting your solution as the best option.
MOFU content can include:
- Buying guides
- Case studies
- Product comparison videos and blog posts
- Lead-nurturing email campaigns
Bottom of the Funnel (BOFU):
At this stage of their journey, the lead understands their problem and the solution they want. They are ready to make a decision and may already know your brand as one of their options. The purpose of BOFU content is, therefore, to convince these leads about your product and give them a final nudge to choose your brand over your competitors.
Here are some examples of BOFU content:
- Product overviews
- Customer testimonials/reviews (written and video)
- Landing pages
- Success stories
In a nutshell, content marketing drives sales by meeting potential customers at different stages of their buying journey. It offers them what they need at that stage and helps them move forward until they reach the final stage—purchase.
9 Powerful Benefits of Content Marketing
While sales remain an essential end goal, they’re but one outcome of the content marketing funnel. The most valuable benefits of content marketing extend far beyond what meets the eye, yet affect several key business areas.
Here are nine of the most valuable benefits of content marketing:
- Shapes a Brand Identity That Leaves a Lasting Impression
- Brings More Eyes to Your Brand
- Drives Leads (Which Can Drive Sales & Profits)
- Cultivates Internal Clarity
- Attracts the Right Talent to Your Company
- Builds Long-Term Relationships
- Nurtures Trust That Strengthens With Time
- Turns Customers Into Your Hidden PR Team
- Simplifies and Improves Customer Support
1. Shapes a Brand Identity That Leaves a Lasting Impression
When we think of a familiar brand, it’s not just the name or the logo that comes to mind. It’s a well-defined set of traits that shapes our perception of a brand.
You think of Nike, and an athletic, bold persona follows. Duolingo may remind you of a sarcastic owl with its signature witty charm. Netflix has created a fun, humorous identity with creative content centered on entertainment.
Nike’s social media content contributes to its bold and inspiring brand identity.
(Source: Instagram)
A standout identity makes a brand memorable and unique. Content marketing can play a major role in building this identity. The result is not just improved brand awareness but also—and more importantly—a lingering presence in your audience’s minds.
2. Brings More Eyes to Your Brand
According to a recent customer trends study, over 50% of U.S. consumers looking to buy a product start their search on Google. Social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook, TikTok and Instagram are among the other most popular preferences.
Here’s what this essentially means: If you want people to discover you, you must tell these platforms that you exist. That’s exactly what content marketing for business growth helps you do.
When you create unique, relevant, consumer-centric content on your blog and social media accounts, you are not only offering value to your potential customers. You are also telling search engines and social networks that you are useful and valuable to people. The result tends to be increased website traffic and social reach—in other words, more visibility.
3. Drives Leads (Which Can Drive Sales & Profits)
Generating leads is a benefit of content marketing, but what really stands out is the superior quality of leads and ROI it can generate.
This guide can encourage readers to take an action, i.e., downloading Duolingo.
(Source: Duolingo blog)
For example, think of this article on the French alphabet. It’s likely read almost exclusively by those who want to learn French. Someone who reads and likes this guide is more likely to download Duolingo than someone who just sees a random Duolingo ad without context.
Similarly, people who follow a brand’s Instagram page and regularly engage with its posts are “warmer” leads than those who just see the brand on a billboard while commuting.
The point? Content marketing is centered on relevance, which tends to attract better-quality leads who drive higher conversion rates and ROI. In fact, businesses that employ content marketing report six times higher conversion rates than their peers, and 62% of marketers think that content marketing gives the highest ROI.
4. Cultivates Internal Clarity
Even before it tells people about your brand and product, content marketing often teaches internal team members about the brand.
You read that right.
Many brands have great products, strong teams and even a decent social media presence. Yet, they fall short on something crucial: internal clarity on their core vision, USPs and the target audience segment. The result could lead to poor positioning that sabotages growth.
“When your positioning is so abstract or too broad, your content becomes like a sad beige wallpaper—bland, safe and forgettable in all of this marketing noise,” points out Sabina Brdnik, who has over 10 years of experience in marketing and related fields.
However, content marketing compels you to identify and fill such gaps because, as it turns out, you cannot prepare an effective content plan without having clarity on the fundamentals. “It also reveals where your company strategy is fuzzy and forces you to fix it,” Brdnik adds.
So, in short, content can bring clarity to your team. This can help you create better content so it becomes a continuous benefit loop.
5. Attracts the Right Talent to Your Company
A good content strategy in place can have another hidden benefit. Besides attracting potential customers, you also draw potential team members.
Sara Celotto, talent manager, founder and CEO of The Vision Catalyst, says this is no accident.
“The best people are usually already employed. If you want them to jump and come to you, they need to know who you are, what you value and why it’s worth it. And if you’re not consistently putting that out there, they won’t,” she notes.
The premise is simple. You create content aligned with your brand values. When this content reaches the right people, they may feel inspired to join you.
The key is that your content is honest and relatable. As Celotto says, “Share how you lead, what you care about and how you work through challenges. That’s what makes people want to be part of what you’re building.”
6. Builds Long-Term Relationships
Driving sales and expanding your customer base is hard. But keeping new customers engaged is an entirely different game. If you want to be at the back of your customers’ minds, go beyond ads and turn to consistent efforts. The question is, how? The answer—content, again.
Content drives connection. It gives your brand a means to connect with your customers’ needs, concerns, likes and dislikes. Whether it’s an article on your website, a podcast on Spotify or just an Instagram post, good content helps build relationships that last beyond sales.
7. Nurtures Trust That Strengthens With Time
You might be able to get people to buy your products. You may even get them to engage with your content. But how do you get them to trust you? After all, trust isn’t something you can encourage with a CTA or boost with a discount.
Content marketing has a promising answer: Offer value selflessly.
Of course, business and selflessness aren’t exactly compatible. But ironically, it’s often when you help people in some real, practical ways for free that they start trusting you enough to pay you.
For example, Headspace—a platform offering mental health solutions—shares insightful mental health-related content on its blog and Instagram page.
Similarly, Canva, the popular graphic design tool, regularly posts editing tutorials and tips on its Instagram page.
When your audience benefits from your content, they start seeing your brand as an authority. This, in turn, can sow the seeds of trust that grows with time.
8. Turns Customers Into Your Hidden PR Team
Here’s one of the best things that happens when you ace your content marketing game. Your audience becomes an extension of your marketing and PR team.
This team isn’t made up of just your existing customers who love and recommend your brand and content. It also includes people who have yet to become your customers but love your content anyway. They may like your YouTube videos, blog posts or Instagram posts and share them with their friends.
All this helps expand your brand presence. The more people know you, the greater your brand awareness and, hence, the more your sales.
9. Simplifies and Improves Customer Support
Managing customer complaints and queries efficiently can often get tricky. You have to ensure that everyone gets the help they need—without long wait times or difficulty contacting support.
You can improve customer service by having the right content in place. For example, you can prepare a dedicated set of customer support articles covering generic queries, along with FAQs containing common questions customers ask.
You can also create onboarding guides, how-to articles and videos regarding your services or products. This content can help educate customers and reduce their need for one-on-one support. Then, your support team can focus on handling more complex customer issues.
Content Marketing Best Practices
The advantages of content marketing are powerful. Yet you may question how to maximize these benefits and make sure you’re doing it right.
This is an important concern for any brand, especially one that is just starting out or planning to enter the content arena. So, let’s discuss some best practices for content marketing.
Know Your Audience
Having in-depth clarity on your audience is an ever-evolving process, but it can take you far in content marketing.
Start with a rough idea of the people most likely to be your customers, but also keep an eye on the ground reality. Talk with your sales team. Look at your social media engagement. Check in with your SEO professionals. Identify your most active customer segment and most engaged audience, and keep molding your content strategy to accommodate them.
Choose Quality Over Quantity
While it’s fine to create a lot of content, it’s important not to mistake more volume for more engagement or sales.
Instead of focusing on quantity, study your customers’ pain points and needs thoroughly. Create relevant content they can relate to. Once you know what works and what doesn’t, you can scale your content efforts in line with the audience insights.
Repurpose Your Content
Content repurposing is a tried-and-tested approach. It can help you expand your content strategy across multiple platforms and formats without producing more content. You can start with one piece and modify it to different formats for different platforms.
For example, you can take long-form content, such as an article, and use it to create a YouTube video script. The same article can also be used to write a LinkedIn carousel post. Specific points from the article can be recycled into an Instagram post or a TikTok script. This way, you can create valuable content across platforms without starting from scratch each time.
Use SEO Fundamentals
Content marketing and search engine optimization (SEO) are closely linked. While high-quality content is essential for building trust and engagement, SEO is what makes it discoverable.
SEO can tell you what your target audience is interested in and looking for online. This data is essential to create quality content that’s relevant, helpful and relatable. This is why content and SEO teams should work together.
Stay Consistent With Publishing
The value of content marketing is enormous, but it’s a long-term game. Whether it’s your blog, social media channels or video content, try to stay consistent at publishing content regularly. However, don’t confuse consistency with frequency. You can publish one blog post a week and still be consistent at it.
Track Performance Metrics
It’s important to track your content marketing performance regularly to gauge your potential marketing ROI. Look for the following performance metrics to understand how much your content efforts are working.
For websites/blogs:
- Keyword rankings
- Session duration
- Dwell time
- Bounce rates
- Backlinks
For social media:
- Impressions/views
- Subscriber/follower counts and growth rate
- Engagement (likes, comments, shares, reposts, etc.)
These (and many other) metrics can shed light on different aspects of your content marketing efforts and help you improve accordingly.
Why Content Marketing Is Worth It
Calling content marketing a feast for brands would be an understatement. With the many benefits it brings to the table, a well-rounded content marketing strategy is a balanced diet that promises holistic and sustainable brand growth. Start taking content seriously today to help your business thrive.
If you are unsure about where and how to start, our expert coaches at SUCCESS Coaching can help you with your content strategy. While you grow your brand with content, you can also connect with other business leaders who are doing the same.
Photo by Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock.
