Why Content Marketing Matters Now More than Ever

With everyone staying at home, internet usage is up big time. This presents a digital content marketing opportunity for businesses trying to survive.

The impact of the coronavirus on American businesses has been nothing to take lightly. In the matter of a just a few days, the U.S. economy has practically ground to a halt, leaving thousands of business owners struggling to figure out how long they can survive.

Fortunately, the federal government has acted swiftly to address the issue and provide aid to businesses through stimulus packages, disaster relief loans, and federal reserve loans.

All that assistance will definitely be a big help, but the times ahead will still be challenging for small businesses hoping to keep sales coming in.

One thing business owners can’t ignore is the fact that more people are spending more time online than ever before. Forbes is reporting that internet usage is up 70% since the coronavirus pandemic began. 

Retail businesses may have shuttered their storefronts, but the potential for eCommerce is greater than ever right now. And other types of businesses can use this opportunity to connect with a wider audience by focusing on their digital marketing efforts. 

SEM, email marketing, and social media advertising are all ways to connect with new audiences and re-engage existing ones. 

One of the most effective ways to make a lasting impact online, though, is with organic content marketing.

Why Content Marketing Matters Now More Than Ever

Organic content is the original copy you create across your website with the goal of building a robust, keyword-supplemented, and diversely-linked web presence. 

Your organic content is what tells search engines that your site is legitimate, increasing your ranking in search results.

Your content is also how you hook potential customers. It’s how you entertain and how you establish brand authority in your industry. Offering informative, educational, inspiring, or engaging blog content is a way to give to your audience. 

Brand trust is built on giving. Continuing to offer your personas targeted content that you know they’ll enjoy is a huge service right now.

Here are 5 ways organic content can help keep your business going during the coronavirus lockdown:

1. Content re-assures your audience

One thing that we here at BKMedia Group have been spending a lot of time doing in recent weeks is helping our clients craft messaging to their customers about how they’re responding to the threat of COVID-19.

This is something that every business who wants to hold onto their customers should be doing.

Your audience wants to know the following:

• What safety precautions are you taking to protect both your customers and your employees?
• What kind of guarantees, refund policies, discounts, payment plans, etc. are you offering to make purchasing decisions easier in uncertain times?
• How, if at all, is the pandemic affecting your ability to fulfill orders, provide quality customer service, etc.?

This type of messaging shouldn’t be thrown together on a whim. People are stressed out, and may know people who are sick right now.

Thoughtful, considerate communications are always important, but they’re especially critical at this time.

By getting this right, you can assure nervous customers that you’re there for them, increasing the strength of their loyalty to your brand for years to come.

2. Content connects your product with the people it can help

Many businesses have products or services that can help people in these stressful times, including:

• Food delivery services
• Online learning applications and virtual courses
• Remote wellness products (virtual yoga and workouts, meditation apps, etc.)
• Outdoors products (camping gear or bicycles to help people get outside and relieve stress)
• Entertainment companies (video games, music and video stream)
• Conferencing and remote work technology companies
• Time management and productivity app developers

Those are just a few examples. Whatever your business is, well-crafted content is a way to make your case for how your product or service can help people in this time.

Done right, this can be a mutually beneficial arrangement — you get new customers to keep your business going strong, and they get something that helps them get through a difficult period.

3. Content drives traffic

High-quality blogs and landing pages that follow SEO best practices (i.e., high word count, original copy, keyword-supported, solid metadata) will be ranked higher in search results.

Between 70% to 90% of all clicks in search engines like Google are on a result on the first page. Ranking is incredibly helpful for driving traffic to your site. 

It’s also a way to make new people aware of your brand through discovery searches. If you sell camping gear, someone who searches for “best camping gear” could find your page through a discovery search. They’d never heard of you before, and now they’re a customer.

4. Content generates leads

Once you get people to your website through organic searches, you have the opportunity to convert them into leads. 

You could have a pop-up offering a discount code in exchange for their email address. This is an awareness-level lead that you can easily connect with in the future — through email drip campaigns, retargeting ads on social media, and more.

Now that you can send them emails, you can push them into the consideration phase, where you present them with strong arguments for the value of your product or service. After that comes the decision phase, where you pivot to a harder sell.

5. Content maintains audience awareness

Regardless of whether your business can operate in the current crisis, content marketing is one of the best ways to maintain a connection with your customer base and potential new customers.

It’s critical to stay present with your audience throughout the crisis, so that when it has passed, you’ll be well-positioned for a big comeback.

What’s Your Content Marketing Strategy?

The power of a solid content marketing plan is real. But here’s the thing: your content has to actually be good for it to be effective.

At BKMedia Group, our digital content marketing team knocks content out of the park by:

• Developing personas and framing our content to speak to their unique needs and challenges
• Maintaining a consistent brand voice for each client
• Crafting best-practice blog headlines and metadata that boost SEO and garners high click-through rates
• Implementing in-depth keyword research and targeting keywords that connect content with user search intent
• Utilizing data analytics to measure the effectiveness of organic content in terms of traffic, lead generation, time spent on site, and conversions

This kind of stuff comes naturally to us — we have the benefit of decades of experience. That’s why if you’re serious about keeping your business going during this crisis, you need to hire a marketing agency with professional copywriters.

When we brought our content marketing strategy to bear on our client Carefree Dental’s website, we grew their site traffic by 384% and their sales went up by 47.5%.

If you want to see these kind of sales happen for your business, you’ve come to the right place. 

Learn more about our content marketing services here »