The importance of content has never been bigger.
Content marketing continues to grow into a more important arm of the greater marketing function every year.
There are reasons for this.
Things like:
- Attracting leads
- Gaining conversions
- Building brand awareness
- Increase organic traffic
- Educating your audience
These are just some of the benefits that you can expect.
So, how and why is this the case?
Well, things have changed. The ever-increasing capabilities of technology have expanded the reach and influence of marketing.
For a long time, print was the traditional way of pushing out content through direct mail, outdoor advertisement, printed ads etc.
With the advent of digital marketing, several channels have opened up and luckily for you, this presents you with the opportunity to present content very quickly to enormous audiences.
Below I’m going to run you through some enlightening statistics putting into context just how powerful digital marketing is and how exciting this landscape is for releasing content that reaches your target audience.
Digital Use Around The World & Ireland
A total of 5.03 billion people around the world use the internet today – equivalent to 63.1 per cent of the world’s total population.
Internet users continue to grow too, with the latest data indicating that the world’s connected population grew by almost 180 million in the 12 months to July 2022. – Data Reportal
There are a huge number of users of mobile, internet and social channels who use it for communication and passing through content.
As this number continues to grow, it reaches more people in more marketplaces. This increases your reach for marketing bringing you a wider audience to sell to.
What This Means For You:
- You have a huge audience to sell to.
- You can expand your reach to your target audience.
- You’ve got a great opportunity to get content to people rapidly.
- There are plenty of channels to get different content into.
Let’s take a look at one of those channels in more depth, social media.
Social Media Use Around The World
The latest data indicate that 424 million users started their social media journey over the past year, equating to an average of more than 1 million new users per day, or roughly 13½ new users every single second.- Data Reportal
The number of social media users is enormous. You probably already knew that.
But I want you to focus on the continued growth of 10.1% or 424 million new users yearly. These numbers are staggering and represent just how much our society continues to buy into these huge platforms.
Also, people spend on average 2hr 27min daily on social. Not only that but an average of 7.5 social channels are used per month.
What This Means For You:
- Social media marketing needs to be a massive priority for your business.
- This is where you’ll reach the most people.
- You can share your different forms of content on these socials. e.g: blog, podcast, video
- This is the platform where you attract your audience to be interested in what you do.
- Your content needs to be optimized for mobile phones – this is where the vast majority of people use social from.
- Create eye-catching social posts, make impressions, create consistently and keep at it until you earn your target audience’s engagement.
The Growth of Content Marketing
This graph is for any who still harbours doubts about content marketing.
What you’re looking at here is the exponential growth content marketing has undertaken since its humble beginnings at the end of the 2000s.
This graph proves content marketing’s value as a tool and how it’s a crucial element of the marketing mix.
It works and has the reach for you to market your product/ service in several different ways on several different channels.
Global Trends To Watch Out For
World’s Most Used Social Media Platforms
We can see here the most popular social platforms. While it’s always important to look to the biggest ones, there are instances where it’s important to realise this list is subject to huge change.
TikTok is an emerging platform that has grown exponentially and looks set to continue that way with no sign of stopping. This platform is big for influencers and is a great place to showcase your product with short videos that boosts engagement.
YouTube, Facebook and Instagram are all massive platforms which present different opportunities for advertising content.
What This Means For You:
You need to create different content for different channels to reach different viewers.
Ex: Let’s say your business sells gym gear.
You create a piece of content outlining the benefits of proper footwear, and within that post, you link a couple of your recommendations that you sell.
You write a blog post on the benefits which you share on Facebook, you have a TikTok of an influencer, you post a video on YouTube explaining the advantages and you release a podcast discussing it in more detail.
The beauty of social media is that you can then link each part of the same content onto every one of your social channels.
This allows you to reach all the different audiences who use each platform and also reach the different audiences who consume content quickly.
You’ll create engagement, boost brand awareness, increase market authority, drive organic traffic and ultimately, make more conversions.
Annual Worldwide Digital Spend
Global advertising spending has been constantly increasing (except 2020) since 2010 and is forecast to round up to nearly 650 billion U.S. dollars in 2021. – Statista
Above we can see the forecasted projections for digital spend worldwide.
Quite simply, the numbers are phenomenal and are increasing every year.
Why?
As the reach and time spent on electronic devices rise, it makes sense that companies will shift their focus to digital marketing.
Those that don’t risk getting left behind.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is the business of getting found online.
It’s improving your website through optimized content so that you rank higher on the search engine results page (SERPs) and bring more organic traffic to your website.
Ex: You’re selling gym gear in Ireland.
When someone types in “gym gear Ireland” into Google, you want your business to be on the first page. If it’s there you’re gaining a huge increase in organic traffic and conversions.
This highlights the importance of SEO and optimising your content. Here’s more information I’ve linked for you below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HeeUHugrG5U
Reasons For Using The Internet
Depending on your angle, whether you’re providing content for interest or a specific marketplace, there’s a piece of content for anywhere.
This graph highlights the importance of different content for the buyer’s journey:
- General Browsing – Awareness Stage
- Finding Information- Consideration Stage
- Researching Products – Decision-Making Stage
The key is to create content that covers all of these stages. That’s how you can guide your prospects, gain followers and convert sales.
The Founder Factory
You’ve seen the power of content marketing. Where it’s going in the future. Why it’s so important for your business.
Now that you’re doing it, do it right.
This is where we come in.
The Founder Factory is a content creation powerhouse built by founders for founders.
We’re a team of creatives, imaginers, dreamers and strategists, who have come together to turn your business’s content aspirations into reality.
We will be offering podcast studios, video sets, and a host of equipment and expertise.
That’s not all.
We’re going to be offering digital marketing services and one-on-one’s to help you strategize your content approach and tailor the right fit for your business.
So, book a tour on our website or stay tuned by following us on LinkedIn, and join the exclusive cohort one of Ireland’s very first content creation house built by founders for founders.
There’s a content revolution coming…
Watch this space.
