Have you turned to Google to help solve a problem in the last year or two? If you’re like most of us, the answer is almost certainly a resounding ‘yes’. We lean on the world’s most consistent and vast catalogue of information to help us figure out what’s wrong with our hot water system, where to book our next holiday, or how to fix the formatting on a document.
But it’s not Google that provides these answers. It’s the websites ‘underneath’ the search results that provide those valuable snippets of text that lure you in and that you click on.
That content, hosted on hundreds of millions of websites, is what makes the internet incredible. And it’s also what can serve as the hook and the lure for new business. But that’s not all. There are plenty more benefits of strong, consistent website content, and this short piece is here to highlight them.
A Competitive Disadvantage
To use a sports metaphor, if a team doesn’t take the field, they have zero chance of winning the game. It’s the same in business – to compete, you have to be ‘on the field’, so to speak. Otherwise, your competitors are going to get a very big head start. The data backs this up – 86% of marketers are using content marketing to get their messages in front of potential customers (in the business to consumer – B2C – segment). In the ‘business to business’ – B2B – segment, the number is even higher, with 91% of professionals using this form of marketing to try to reach potential clients.
So the implication is pretty clear: if you’re not putting out content into the world by uploading it to your website, you’re likely to be at a significant disadvantage to your competitors in winning new work and attracting higher-quality clients.
An Efficient Marketing Engine
Many businesses collect email addresses as part of sales transactions or post-sales service. Given this, it’s common for businesses to default to only ‘marketing’ through their emails, while their website functions more like an online yellow pages listing.
But a small tweak to the mindset can deliver some highly effective marketing synergies. Content written for emails can be lightly rewritten and uploaded to a company website. That way, it’s not just the email list that can see you demonstrate your knowledge, expertise and passion, but the world at large.
And going the other way, website content and the action of planning it can serve as an idea generator for future email marketing campaigns and content.
Website content helps turbocharge your overall ‘marketing engine’ any way you look at it.
Liking and Trust Scores
Think of the following two ‘personalities’. The first one is open, friendly and has plenty of information to offer anyone who asks it a question. It’s a pleasure to interact with it, and many questions can be answered by ‘talking’ to it.
The second one is fairly abrupt and basic in its responses. It takes some time and effort to talk to this person, and most questions asked come back unanswered or met with a blank stare.
Which personality makes you more likely to interact with it?
It’s not a hard question to answer: the first one, hands down. Unfortunately, a website without content will have the ‘personality’ of the second person. It won’t offer helpful information, it will be sparsely populated, and if there’s a competitor with a similar business proposition to you with a better website, chances are that the ‘friendlier’ website will get a better liking and trust score from browsers.
And once that happens, it’s far more likely a new customer will contact the business that maintains the ‘friendly’ website.
A website populated with better content makes it more likely that you’ll convert the browsers that land on your pages to leads and customers.
Key Takeaways
There are many more benefits of having a website with strong, actionable, useful and interesting content. But the three highlighted above have some of the most practical benefits for your business.
If you’d like to understand the types of content that would be best suited to your website or review what you’ve already begun posting with the help of an experienced professional, please feel free to contact me at [email protected] – I’d be glad to help.
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