Why Is Quality Content a King & How Content Marketing Drives Sales?

Quality content engages many more consumers than you have ever imagined

Despite understanding of the importance of quality content, very few people pay enough attention to it. If you want to know more about the effectiveness of content marketing, you are in the right place. 

Among marketologists in customer content marketing, it is popular to think that quality content marketing might engage about 30% more clients. Therefore, it might increase business revenue by 30%. However, it is not exactly like that.

According to DemandGen research, more than 70% of consumers are eager to get to know about the product via content instead of traditional advertising methods. It is possible to state that the best motivator for most consumers to make a purchase is a detailed review, tests, and comments of the owners of a new smartphone, not just the advertisement of it. Hence, we might conclude that advertising guarantees only 30% of success. 

According to one more research by the Content Marketing Institute, 86% of B2B marketologists actively utilize content marketing. About ⅔ of heads of marketing departments admit that their departments are rearranged to meet the needs of consumers in content. Also, about 70% of users feel a close connection with a company after seeing its content that answers to their questions and gives more information about a product or service. 82% of consumers say that they have a more positive attitude towards the company after using its content. 

If you want to know how content marketing drives sales, you would better read on. Here, we will talk about content marketing and customer engagement.  

What are the 3 directions of content impact on user´s behavior?

There are more than 3 directions of it, but we will concentrate on 3 most remarkable of them:

1. Forming of the opinion about the brand or product. Content influences the way consumers perceive the things you offer. For example, advertisements might form either positive or negative attitudes toward the brand, and feedback from other people might help others to make up their minds.
2. Impact on a decision about purchase. Content influences directly whether a consumer buys a certain product or service or not. By comparing reviews, he or she might decide which product is the best for them.
3. Influence on behavior after purchase. Content influences the way consumers will use the product. Cases and instructions of using might help consumers exploit the product properly and benefit from all of its advantages. The comments of other people might help decide whether to buy additional products or services. 

Therefore, quality consumer content marketing might lead the consumer from the initial thought about purchasing a certain product to its purchase and use. Therefore, it is important to create appropriate content. 

5 basic principles of generating quality and influencing content

To please content consumers and make them interested in a certain product or service, you would better mind the following principles:

1. Creating of content minding factors E-E-A-T. 

E-E-A-T is a Google term that stands for Expertise, Experience, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. Matching of content to these criteria is vital for its promotion in the search system and profit for potential customers. If the content does not match one of these criteria, it has to be optimized.

2. Combining various types of content for different purposes. 

First of all, we speak about a variety of content formats: videos, audio, images, infographics, quizzes, tests, surveys, etc. Secondly, we speak about its types:

• Informational content. It gives main and additional information about your product or service without direct advertising.
• Navigation content. It helps consumers find necessary information, products, or services and might give additional data.
• Commercial content. It targets at advertising and promotion of your product and uses advertising instruments. 

• Transactional content. It stimulates the consumer to do some action and pushes them to make a purchase. 

It is perfect to use various types of content. To check your conversion rate, revenue of products, brand loyalty, retention, and engagement, you might use consumer behavior metrics. 

3. Using calls to action. 

Calls to action are words or phrases that encourage your audience to do something. For instance, they might invite you to sign up, download files, make a purchase, share content, etc. You would better utilize strong and specific calls to action that highlight the advantages of your product and solve the problems of the target audience. It is essential to motivate the consumer to choose only your offer. When doing this, you should demonstrate the limits in time, and offer discounts or other additional benefits that your competitors do not suggest.

4. Creating viral content that is shareable by users.

Viral content is content that is quickly shared on the Internet through social media, email, blogs, etc. It might bring a lot of traffic, attention, and influence. To have results, such content has to evoke strong emotions, use principles of storytelling, be interesting, fun, and controversial, using triggers of social proof. Indeed, it might be complicated, however, it is impossible to forecast whether your content will be viral or not. If it works, the results will be amazing.

5. Accent on real cases of use and reviews. 

You must show your audience how your product, service, or idea might tackle their problem, meet their needs, and improve their life.  Accordingly, you might demonstrate real use cases that show how your clients or users benefit from your product. For example, it might be stories about the way satellite connection in iPhones saves human lives in extreme situations.

Summing up

A long time ago the content on the Internet consisted of texts that included keywords but brought no value to the readers. Now, we live in an era when the quality of content matters. Speaking about content that might be generated via Artificial Intelligence tools, it is worth mentioning that it cannot replace human-crafted content. And it will never will. Indeed, Internet space is being changed very quickly. However, content is a constant theme that is not likely to be modified in the near future.