From Tales to Sales: Driving Revenue through Strategic Content Marketing

Creating and executing a growth-generating marketing strategy and plan requires executive-level commitment. Marketing is one of the easiest disciplines to adopt haphazardly; most companies are bought into the idea of managing a social presence, the virtue of sending outbound emails, and the necessity of maintaining a compelling website. But, for the growth-minded executive, an investment in a sound marketing strategy rooted in analytics and a deep knowledge of the customer is foundational to long-term business success.

At its core, investing in marketing is about investing in relationships with your current and future customers. Like all investments worth pursuing, building relationships takes time. There are also myriad ways to approach this relationship-building through marketing—from social media to programmatic advertising to billboards. And, these tactics can become costly quickly.

For businesses without large marketing budgets, many executives wonder what the right mix of growth-driving tactics is to drive long-term relationships with customers in a way that doesn’t negatively impact profitability.

Enter strategic content marketing.

What is Strategic Content Marketing?

Many executives wonder what the difference is between “regular” advertising and content marketing. Whereas traditional advertising focuses primarily on paying for or “renting” audience attention, the marketing discipline generally targets defined audiences in paid, owned, and earned outlets. As a specialty within marketing, content marketing is about creating and sustaining genuine engagement and interest over time that ultimately leads to sales. In other words, traditional advertising is about selling, content marketing is about “compelling”—building audiences through owned and earned channels.

In the last few years, the lines between traditional advertising and content marketing have become increasingly blurred. Content marketing is so effective that it’s often distributed through paid media. And advertising often uses compelling stories to promote products and services.

4 Ways Strategic Content Marketing Drives Revenue

So, what makes strategic content marketing a more cost-effective option for revenue generation? It comes down to how it follows the path of the customer journey in a more intuitive, human way than advertising.

1. It Taps into Your Customers’ True Interests.

If you’re a B2B technology company, the easiest way to blow your budget quickly with a small return is to talk about the features and benefits of your technology all day and all night. But if you’re looking to capture a new audience who may be unfamiliar with your offerings, content marketing is a wonderful tool. By creating a unique piece of content featuring proprietary data, conducting a fascinating new study, or writing an interview series on a technology topic that your customers care about, you can quickly enjoy a host of benefits from increased social engagement to press coverage to new and return traffic on your website.

The overall intent of top-of-funnel content marketing is to connect your brand loosely with your customers’ interests and position your company as a thought leader. Content is fuel for attracting your customers by informing them about trends and key industry issues.

Though its cost-effectiveness is a clear benefit, it shouldn’t be the primary focus. Top-of-funnel content should be worth writing, worth reading, and should be treated as a front door to your brand.

2. It Links Your Customers’ Interests with Needs.

Many executives get hung up on the idea of creating thought leadership content and never pursue investments in content marketing because it tends to seem “fluffy” to ROI-focused execs. It all seems too cerebral, too high-level, too forced, or too expensive. The beauty of strategic content marketing is that, when executed well, it creates a natural path from an interest to a need—and can be done for minimal cost.

If you are a technology company, for example, your top-of-funnel content might consist of a study on the top 40 tech trends in the US. By publishing and promoting the study, you might attract a following of potential customers who are interested in technology and are ripe for continued communication with you. This is where your content efforts can begin to focus on getting more specific—perhaps about a specific tech trend that relates to a product you create. Content at this phase can be educational in nature, focusing on how technology can benefit your customer, or stories about how a specific type of technology has evolved, and can be served to the folks you’ve attracted in your top-of-funnel efforts.

3. It Connects Your Customers’ Needs with Your Company.

4. It Unites Your Current Customers with New Customers.

Driving loyalty and advocacy is a core component of content marketing. Once your customer is hooked, they’re likely to follow you on social media, read your blog, talk to your employees, and share the content you create with new audiences, thereby creating a flywheel of new leads, new relationships, and new fans.

Content Marketing Should Be a Part of Your Strategy

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