Seeing too many zeros after a dollar sign makes anyone woozy. But if your business is your content (which let’s face it, most are these days), it’s critical to look at the value that strategic content marketing adds to your business—and not just the final invoice. After all, content marketing is worth the investment ten-fold!
That’s why at Charm School, we spend a lot of each day trumpeting the importance of a comprehensive content plan to our clients and talking warming up their cold feet. Since we don’t mind sounding like a broken record, here’s what we tell every nervous client at one point or another. When they take the plunge, they’re glad they did.
Why Content Marketing is 100% Worth the Investment—And Why You Need to Be Consistent and Patient to See Results
1. Content Marketing Isn’t One-and-Done
If you’re not willing to put six months to one year into a content marketing strategy and budget, then you’re wasting your time and money. Why? It takes time to rank, time to increase your reach, time to test strategies and optimize. Time to see if the gosh darn thing is working. Think of it as a diet—it doesn’t work if you eat salad for one week then revert to your dozen-donuts-a-day habit the next. You’ll thank us for this eloquence later.
For instance, SEO blog posts. These take six to twelve months to start to rank well in search results. You need to batten down the hatches for the long haul, be patient for results, and keep on keeping on in the process. Kind of like planting a garden. What starts as a tiny seed and takes a lot of watering will eventually be a tasty meal.
2. Metrics Aren’t Always Dollar Signs
Most of our clients are direct money in the bank-focused. However, many of our KPIs (key performance indicators) are not. We factor in new qualified leads, links, social engagements, branded search volume, shares, and overall customer feels. We can give you plenty of proof in the pudding that your content is bolstering your entire business, but it probably won’t all be in the spreadsheet form you’re used to. (Change is good!)
3. You Get More Than a Tangible Product
Tossing a large portion of your budget into a marketing plan isn’t like going out and buying a new car; you don’t drive away with a shiny toy in your hand. Instead, you buy the proverbial ship in which you need to sail to new, fruitful lands. It may feel scary, but digital marketing and content marketing is the way you will bring customers to your physical goods and services.
With digital marketing, you’ll get brand affinity. You’ll get buzz. You’ll get the traffic you need to outrank competition. Content marketing is the digital web you spin to bring customers closer to a sale or conversion.
4. You Snooze, You Lose Big-time
Does your business need links to elevate organic search ranking? Does your business need increased engagement on social channels to spike sales? Do you need the kind of results only digital marketing can deliver? If yes, then there aren’t any corners to cut. The more time you waste hemming and hawing, the more customers slip through your fingers to your competition.
5. Investing in Content Marketing Isn’t as Scary as You Think
By all means, outsource your content to the penny-per-word robots of the web, but be forewarned that you either buy nice or buy twice. A full-service digital marketing agency like Charm School doesn’t just give you words on a page; it gives you guidance, strategy, copy that’s written for the customer, and auto-pilot mode—meaning, we take the reins and steer you toward that beautiful sunset you’ve been dreaming about.
Digital marketing is the now and the future. It’s a tailored, targeted, and strategic means to get noticed by search engines, your customers, and the world. We’d be happy to walk you through these bonus points as many times as you need. Although, all the above is our mantra and what makes clients who choose a digital marketing like ourselves successful. Give us a shout if you’d like to learn more with a free consultation!
