In the world of marketing, content marketing is a hot topic. Whether you’re a small business just getting started or a multi-location company scaling to unexpected levels, you’ve probably heard about the value of using content to get the word out about your business.
Unfortunately, many small businesses in water damage restoration have a kind of love/hate relationship with content marketing. Content marketing is all about consistently offering valuable content, for free, to your target audience to establish yourself as an expert in your field. This requires a significant time and monetary investment for many businesses, and it isn’t uncommon for it to take months before they begin to notice a return on their investment.
If you’re finding yourself wondering if content marketing is really worth all the effort, you’re not alone. Here are the arguments for making content marketing a part of your water damage restoration marketing plan.
1. Everyone Else is Doing It
In some cases, it’s beneficial to jump on the latest trend. Digital marketing is changing everything for businesses, and adopting content marketing as a top priority is key if you want to continue to compete in this changing marketing.
Staying competitive is reason enough to begin creating valuable content to be shared on your website, on social media, and through your email lists. Much of your competitors are on board, and those who aren’t will be soon.
2. Content Marketing Builds Relationship
What sets content marketing apart from other kinds of marketing is that your target audience is actually coming to you. With things like banner ads, mailers, and billboards, you are randomly approaching individuals and businesses in hopes of getting their attention.
Content marketing uses your knowledge as an offering and draws people to you. They enter a few words in a search engine, and your well-written blog post or video answers their questions about home maintenance or water damage restoration. Then they click “follow” on social media and begin to expect the same quality content from you on a regular basis. A relationship is formed, and it’s a relationship that benefits both parties involved.
3. Content Marketing Increases Your ROI
Many business owners have trouble committing to content marketing because it is difficult to see the return on investment in black and white. Getting a return on the time and money you put into content marketing may take time, but it is effective.
Content marketing does increase your ROI. It does that by building your reputation as a source of information that can be trusted. By consistently creating informative blogs and videos that provide real value to your audience, your audience will begin to see you as someone who knows their stuff and who cares enough to share it with the people who need it.
4. Google Loves Content Marketing
It may be frustrating, but it’s true — when you’re marketing your business, you have to consider how your strategies affect your standing with Google.
Getting a first page spot on local searches isn’t a simple task and often requires multiple approaches to make it happen. One thing we do know, however, is that consistently adding content to your website is one important way to increase your SEO. It can’t be just any content, of course, Google is looking for content that is rich with value that will benefit the people most consistently searching using the keywords and key phrases relevant to your industry.
5. Everyone is Online
If you still think your ideal customer isn’t using social media and can be better reached through mailers or print ads, you’re missing a simple way to reach the people you care about the most. The fact of the matter is that just about everyone is online. According to research from Sprout Social, 76 percent of all adults are logging on to Facebook daily. And when it comes to turning that audience into real leads, content marketing is found to generate three times the leads than pay per click ads.
Content marketing isn’t optional and it certainly doesn’t have to be complicated. At More Floods, we work with small business in water damage restoration, providing them with the resources they need to get the ball rolling. Once you have a plan in place, you can move forward with more effective marketing, generating more leads, and bringing more floods to your business.
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