Content marketing is the process of creating and sharing online material to attract and engage your audience. Content includes anything that is created and shared by an organization to tell its story. Though content can take many forms (like blogs, webinars, social media posts, etc.), it will be considered as content marketing if it aims to drive profitable customer action. Share your knowledge on content marketing on the world’s largest audio streaming platform and start connecting to your niche audience with the help of Spotifystorm.
Anatomy of Today’s Traffic
Thirty years ago, when there was no internet, marketers had to beg attention from other people’s media to get their messages out to the public. This was done by reaching out to newspaper and television reporters who would include the stories in their articles and reports.
With the advent of the internet, huge websites and portals were developed. Marketers were now publishers capable of building their own audience and attracting their own attention. People would type in website names or links into their browsers and read whatever was available there.
Marketers had their selected group of loyal customers who would consume their content. The emergence of Google as the dominant source of traffic and customers on the web brought with it a major shift in the media landscape as most people started searching for content through Google searches.
The prevalence of social networking sites has now made them the primary sources through which people find content. These sites have surpassed Google today, as the largest sources of traffic for virtually every content website are social networking platforms like Facebook, Reddit, Tumblr, etc.
People now even choose to go through the effort of sharing it with other people on these platforms. Readers only click through links on these sites, read the article, and return to the networking platform without really caring which site they visited.
This has resulted in decreasing the pool of loyal/dedicated customers for many websites. The New York Times even reports of a significant decrease in homepage visitors. In their “innovation report“, it stated that less than 1/3 of its visitors come directly to the front page. The rest of the visitors find random articles through search queries and social networks.
Content Marketing for an App Startup
The above statistics may not bode well for the traditional incumbents like The New York Times. However, it isn’t bad news for startups. They are now on a level playing field with the big players, because their content can be amplified on the web using the same mechanism that the big players rely on.
Hence, your app startup can be an information source on par with the biggest traditional media sources in the world.
The rest of the post further highlights the role of content marketing and how it can contribute to the growth of application startups.
1. Content Improves Brand Awareness
Good content can help your app startup to get noticed among the 2.1 million other apps. For how can your audience buy from you if they cannot find you! Research shows that up to 81 buying cycles start with a search online.
Though traditional ads and outbound marketing can be an effective way to increase brand awareness; content marketing allows you to build organic awareness.
2. Thought Leadership Status
Engaging content marketing makes you a trusted source of learning and education. You position your app as an authority in the industry. You can also create a preference for your app startup through relationships which are strengthened every time your content entertains or helps your customers. People tend to buy from companies with whom they have relationships. However, this requires you to generate content that people like.
3. You Reach More Customers and Generate More Leads
The Forrester research reveals that customers distrust marketing that interrupts or intercepts them. Engaging content marketing is part of a natural conversation with potential customers. It is relevant to the customers’ interests, and behavior builds a continuous story over time.
This also means that content marketing is a long-term strategy and will generate more leads over time. A study shows that companies with blogs and content-rich websites generate 97% more leads than companies without.
4. App Store Optimization
Google and app store love quality content and will rank your app higher in search results for relevant keywords. Title of the app, description, screenshots, and keywords determine the rank of your app among search engines for app stores.
App description and keywords used in the apps can give you an idea about how the algorithms of the search engine will treat your app. Optimizing in-app content increases chances for your app to rank higher in search engines because users constantly browse them to download new content.
5. People Love Content
Most of the people run ads to encourage consumers to download their app. What will be the impact of an article that informs the reader about the app before asking them to download it? Chances are that they will click on the article and read it which may drive them to the app store to try out the app or renew their subscriptions.
Research shows that 68 percent of people are interested in reading about the brands they like. However, this requires your content intro to punch the reader in the face. Not literally of course, but it needs to grab the customer’s attention in the start otherwise in a few seconds, the customer will close the tab forever.
With a voracious demand for good and reliable content in the market, your content has a chance to get a huge following and eventually leads to good business.
6. Content Marketing is Cheap Yet Evergreen
Many startups find themselves keeping strictly within the confines of their budget. In-app startups, a large chunk of the budget goes to the app development, so marketing is usually managed on a shoestring.
Content marketing, being cost-effective, can help you big time in such a case. Almost anyone can produce content for the product and distribute it freely to a wider audience.
As a survey by DemandMetric reveals, content marketing costs 62 percent less than traditional marketing and generates three times as many leads. Unlike traditional marketing, content pays dividends over a long time, and this effect multiplies as you create more content.
7. Builds a Relationship With Customers
Good content builds brand awareness and attracts new customers; it also helps in retaining old customers. Returning customers contribute a lot to business’s revenue which is why it is essential that you build a strong relationship with your customers so that they do not hesitate to return for more.
BIA Kelsey research found that 61 percent of small businesses claim that return customers are responsible for generating half of their revenue. Good content builds trust and encourages customers to purchase from you again.
8. Content Influences Conversions
The conversion statistics clearly indicate how effective content marketing can be for the growth of your startup. It also denotes the importance of quality content for any content strategy.
A study by Curata shows that 74 percent of companies attribute the increase in their lead quality and quantity to content marketing. Another study by ABG Essentials shows that content marketing has 6 times higher conversion rates than other techniques of digital marketing. 61 percent of U.S. consumers’ purchase decisions about a product are influenced by reading recommendations on a blog.
These statistics only show the impact of content on conversions. The reason it works is that content helps you connect with your potential leads and help them make informed decisions. By equipping them with appropriate knowledge, you foster an honest relationship.
The Bottom Line
Due to its enormous gains both for product/service providers and consumers, content marketing is gaining rapid popularity. Engaging content marketing is no more an option, but a necessity for businesses as a lot of success now depends on it in the digital world.
The fact that it is cost-effective compared to traditional marketing, more and more apps startups are expected to use content marketing as a key part of their app marketing strategy. Implementing an engaging content marketing strategy will result in more app downloads, more engaged users and improved brand recognition than ever before.
