When Online Marketing is Saturated, Content Marketing is the Answer

Every year, the number of people actively using the internet grows at an unprecedented rate. This makes it one of the most effective ways to market any business to a global market. 

But with this rise in the number of internet users comes a surge in the number of brands battling it out to be the market leader amongst their competitors. 

Online platforms like search engines and social media sites have seen the financial advantages of this growth. They’ve created effective advertising platforms for companies to spend their money on. As such, aiding companies to reach this ever-growing audience.

For large, established brands with big budgets and plenty of resources, it’s easy to dominate the online marketplace. They can sit back and reap the lucrative benefits of being at the top.

But what about those who don’t have buckets of money to spend? Or who may have only just launched online? How are they to ever cut through the noise and get noticed by the audiences needed to help them grow? Well, content marketing is the answer!

Image: Companies without buckets of money

Fortunately for them, content marketing offers a unique avenue to step away from these increasingly saturated advertising platforms. It can connect brands with their audiences via organic search engine rankings and SEO opportunities. 

By creating content that consistently taps into their audiences wants and needs, brands can forge strong, trusting connections. Which is essential when it comes to online growth and true website success.

Advertising Online in a Saturated Market

A few years ago, if you asked consumers what their biggest annoyance with online brands was, they probably would’ve told you that they were inundated with sales-pitch emails. 

Fast forward to today, and the surge of smartphone users has created a new environment. One where in addition to multiple marketing emails, consumers are inundated with ads. 

In fact, consumers are estimated to see anywhere between 6,000 and 10,000 ads every single day. This includes everything from paid search and social media ads, to video banners, app notifications and everything in between. And that’s just online!

Image: Ads are everywhere we look

The majority of adults now spend nearly 7 hours online each day. So it’s no surprise that brands have been increasing their digital marketing efforts over the past few years too. The online world is global, potentially lucrative, and subsequently, saturated.

In a recent survey which included over 500 marketers, the top three digital marketing channels businesses use are: 

  •  Social media (81%)
  •  Websites (78%)
  •  Email marketing (69%) 

In fact, the least popular channel that businesses invest in is SEO (44%). Leaving content marketing coming the second least popular marketing avenue (53%). Wait, if content marketing is the answer, why is it such an unpopular strategy?

Well, we know that content marketing and SEO are very time-consuming marketing strategies. And big brands with big budgets will see much quicker results through other ‘traditional’ types of online marketing. Such as, paid ads and sponsored posts on social media. 

Taking Google Ads for example. The click-through rate (CTR) for those in the top 4 positions gets around 50% more traffic than those below. And for popular social media advertising platform Facebook, the average paid reach for a post is 28.1%. In comparison, the average organic reach is 5.17%.

With results like these, it’s obvious why paid marketing channels have become so popular. But for smaller or new start-up businesses it can feel like an uphill struggle. Without the resources needed to bid against more established brands, the online marketing world can feel inaccessible. 

However, that’s certainly not the case. Just because brands don’t have big marketing budgets or established rankings doesn’t mean they’re doomed to fail. Reaching new audiences online is not an impossible task. 

That’s the beauty of content marketing. For all of its trials and trivialities, it can be an extremely beneficial avenue for brands to grow their online presence. More and more marketers are discovering that content marketing is the answer to cut through the noise of today’s world. 

By using SEO optimised content to increase search engine rankings, you can reach new and larger audiences. As well as forge connections that can help to drive long-term growth for your business.

Why Content Marketing is the Answer

Image: Content Marketing to the rescue

Content marketing is one of the cheapest marketing channels (costing 62% less than outbound marketing). And, apparently has the ability to generate three times as many leads. This is why many marketers consider content marketing a way to stand out in an overly saturated online marketplace. 

With expensive ad campaigns and competitive top-ranking positions to battle against, it can be hard. Especially for smaller brands to get seen online by their target audience. But, with the organic growth potential for brands, content marketing is the answer for small brands. In fact, it’s one of few ways to cut through the saturated market.

Put simply, content marketing is the answer for both larger brands and their smaller counterparts.

Of course, content marketing is not an easy avenue to pursue. You need to be fully committed. And willing to try new things. It’s the only way to stand out from the competition and make your mark. 

And, with enough time and hard work, your strategy should help you increase your site traffic. Not to mention those all-important online sales.

Content Marketing: 3 Tips to Help you Stand Out From the Rest

Image: 3 tips to stand out from the rest

If you’re new to content marketing, chances are you feel like a small fry. You probably have pretty low search engine rankings and site traffic. The larger, more established brands likely dominate search engine results pages (SERPs). Perhaps from organic rankings but also from paid advertisements too. 

At the beginning, it’s important to understand that you’re not going to be able to tackle the biggest brands. The key to success with your content marketing is all about making small wins. And in order to cut through the noise of the digital marketplace, these wins will show you just why content marketing is the answer.

As you start to increase your rankings for keywords with smaller search terms, you’ll be strengthening your domain authority. As a result, this will put you in better stead in the future. So you can eventually tackle the hotter, more popular search terms. 

Below, you’ll find three tips to make your content marketing stand out from the rest.

Tip 1: Consistency is Key

Behind every great content strategy is an even greater planner. 

We know that the marketplace is competitive. 

Even with content marketing being a lesser used channel, it’s still rising in popularity. This is due to more and more people discovering how great it can be to help reach new and larger audiences. Even better, it can be done at just a fraction of the price of other inbound marketing strategies.  

So, if you want to break through and make an impact with your content, you need to publish content regularly. 

That doesn’t mean creating something once a week. Nor does it mean sporadically creating content when you have some free time between projects. 

It means creating content (if you can) every single day. 

Sound ambitious? It is. 

But with so many advertisements infiltrating consumers’ everyday lives, you need to be consistent. Especially if you want to remain relevant and fresh in the minds of your target audience. 

With 60% of marketers creating at least one piece of content each day, daily content creation shouldn’t be a chore. It should be habit.

Image: consistency is key

This is why many companies dedicate a team or individual to their content marketing efforts. Researching, creating and promoting content is a full-time job. You need someone who is hot on the pulse – up-to-date with what content your searchers are looking for. Someone who has an understanding of the type of media which clicks best with your target audience. 

In fact, content marketers require multiple skills in order to be successful.

Consistency in your creation is vital, but so is the image of the brand you’re sharing across the internet. Before diving head-first into a content marketing strategy, you need to have a clear idea about your brand. Whether that’s who your brand is, what it’s style and tone of voice is, and what it stands for.

When a brand is authentic, consumers know it. In fact, they appreciate it, and will put their trust into that honesty. Research has found a whopping 90% of consumers consider authenticity as a main factor when deciding which brands to support.

Be transparent in every piece of content you put out there. Consumers won’t put their trust into those who they think are trying to score an easy sale. Or in those who are sharing a viewpoint just for the sake of jumping on a trend.

Remember, content marketing is all about putting your audiences’ interests at the core of everything you produce. As long as you’re creating consistently honest, relevant and engaging content – they’re going to keep coming back for more. 

Tip 2: Keep A Close Eye on the Competition

It’s all well and good having some great ideas for content, but it’s not enough. If you want to make it big as a content marketer you need to keep your finger on the pulse. Not just on your industry or niche, but on everything that your competitors are doing. 

Image: Keep a close eye on the competition

A competition analysis can help you to do this. In terms of content marketing and SEO, they’re all identifying your competitors. Then, evaluating strategies which are relative to your brand – through determining your own strengths and weaknesses in comparison to them.

From here, you can create a targeted approach that can help you to make small wins against them. And, ultimately, aim to eventually knock them off the top spot. 

It doesn’t matter how big or small your brand is, a competition analysis is something you should regularly conduct. More so, if you want to be a market leader. 

Whether it helps you to identify a gap in their strategy that would allow you to rank for a niche long-tail keyword. Or helps you identify a niche of audience which you hadn’t considered trying to target before. This cumulation of small wins is what will help you to reach the top.

Tip 3: Don’t Abandon Other Online Marketing Channels

It goes with the saying; ‘don’t put your eggs all in one basket.’ 

Just because ‘traditional’ forms of online marketing are becoming diluted doesn’t mean that you should give up on them entirely. 

Image: Don’t put all your marketing eggs in the same basket

That doesn’t mean you need to start launching huge campaigns on all the different marketing channels. But consider keeping them active whilst building your content marketing. This will show audiences that you’re a brand they should take seriously. 

A wider, albeit less concentrated digital presence will show consumers that you are an authoritative brand, with an omnichannel presence. 

Spreading your brand across a variety of channels can also play a huge part in determining your content marketing’s success. The creation of your content doesn’t automatically make it a success. You need to put a huge amount of effort into promoting it. In fact, some experts even suggest a 20% creation and 80% promotion time split

Think about it. If you’re a small website that doesn’t have high rankings. And one who doesn’t promote their content through different platforms, how do you ever expect to get the views needed to forge those connections and grow your business?

You can try sharing your content across multiple channels. Whether via regular newsletter updates, social media channels or even by reaching out to external sites or blogs. Asking established blog sites to offer up your content as guest posts is a great way to grow your audience. 

You don’t need to spend big budgets on them but using other online marketing channels will help. It can prove your authority as a brand, promote your content and can help contribute to the growth of your content marketing. 

Summary

Over the past decade, online marketing has become a highly saturated market. No longer do we need to rely on email campaigns and website pop-ups to target our audience. Instead, the infiltration of ads on almost every digital platform has changed the way we respond to and absorb content. It means that inbound marketing is a highly lucrative, competitive and challenging strategy for brands. 

With the sharp rise in marketers pumping big budgets and resources into content marketing, it can be hard for smaller, niche or start-up businesses to get their voices heard online. 

Fortunately, the power of content marketing can still allow for these brands to grow. This is why content marketing is the answer for brands who are struggling to grow. It can help them to reach new audiences for almost little to no budget.

Content marketing is all about creating quality, relevant and engaging information. It addresses particular search terms and queries. If brands can tap into their audiences’ needs and offer consistently good advice, they’ll become an integral part of that searcher’s life. 

Outsourcing your Content Marketing to a Consultant

As lucrative as content marketing sounds, we’ve established that it’s an extremely time-consuming process. It’s one that demands a serious commitment if brands are to make a success of it. 

Unfortunately for lots of brands, they don’t have the resources in-house that they need to dedicate to it. And so, they often look to outsource their content to a marketing consultant, like myself. 

Having worked in digital marketing for most of my career, I have worked with thousands of brands. My team and I have created and implemented comprehensive content marketing strategies. We know what it takes to grow your online audience and increase your revenue. 

So, if you’re looking for help to grow your brand online, get in touch for an obligation-free chat. We’d love to learn more about your brand and what we can do to help.

About Murray Dare

Murray Dare is a Marketing Consultant, Strategist and Director at Dare Media. Murray helps UK businesses find better ways to connect with their audiences through targeted content marketing strategies.