Small businesses in particular can find it difficult to break into various search results, particularly if their targeted audiences are not local in nature. From optimizing their content and pinging search engines with relevant keywords to delivering a captivating message, there are a number of hurdles that brands and businesses face when entering the online hemisphere. Many small businesses struggle immensely with this concept, so don’t feel bad if yours is one of them. Perhaps the best way to boost a small business or brand in search results and to gain more exposure revolves around the use of content marketing. Below, we’ll list four reasons why your brand must invest in this effort if it is to be successful with your targeted audiences.

Content Creates Confidence

Search engine users and customers are in pursuit of products and services from brands that they can trust. In the online world, it is much more difficult to ascertain which brands are trustworthy and which are not, so many smaller elements are subconsciously assessed by these individuals when deciding where to shop and who to use. Documented surveys and reports tell us that brands with a developed content strategy perform better with search engine users and shoppers than those that do not. Shoppers also report that they overwhelmingly prefer to purchase products and services from websites that have ample content that relates directly to their products, and also to other subjects. In short, the more relevant content your brand produces, the more trustworthy it is in the eyes of those you wish to convert.

Content Creates Clicks

In order to be seen by search engine users, your brand must invoke content marketing as a means to achieve it. Search engines are highly sceptical of brands that merely set up a simple e-commerce interface and provide little content otherwise. In addition, brands that have a few static pages often perform poorer than those that maintain active blogs. You do not have to post new content every single day to be a dynamic and active brand in the eyes of Google, but you do need to be consistently serving up new types of content – in the form of blog posts and other forms of media – so that search engines view your brand as a contributor in the niche in which it resides. Brands that are viewed as “leeches” (those merely trying to hock a product) will rank below those that use content marketing successfully.

Content Creates Recognition

Particularly within the realm of social media and sharing, content marketing strategies help give your brand recognition that it otherwise wouldn’t be able to achieve. Pinging search engines with content will help with ranking in select SERPs, but the content itself can also help to boost brand recognition in niche circles as it is shared. As more and more people begin to see content associated with your brand in their news feeds (via friends sharing it), more and more of them will begin to check out your other web presences. Perhaps they do a quick search for your brand on Facebook and find your page, or maybe they look on your website after reading an article for more content and/or social media platforms on which you are active. The strategy of content marketing is one that has a multiplying effect with respect to putting your name/brand in front of others and spreading it even further.