What are the advantages and disadvantages of content marketing?

If you are thinking about how to attract people to your brand or company, an overview of the pros and cons of content marketing is helpful. Content marketing is about entertaining and informing people. In this way, they should get to know your brand or your products and keep them in mind.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of content marketing? The advantages of content marketing are the creative dissemination of the company's values and those of its products. It increases visibility and improves interaction with interested parties. The disadvantages are the high expenditure of time and the increased likelihood that other advertising opportunities will be lost sight of.

Content marketing is a form of marketing in which your customers and prospects are provided with content that is entertaining and offers added value. Added value is particularly important here.

What is content marketing actually?

Let's first address the question of what exactly content marketing is. The name already gives you an idea. It's all about content. Where and how you make this content available depends on which target group you want to reach. In content marketing itself, a distinction is made between different types of content:

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1. Texts: Texts are provided in the form of landing pages, blog posts, eBooks or as a guide or whitebook.

2. Graphics: With infographics, custom illustrations or even images to introduce descriptions, you can present content visually.

3. Posts on social media: Social media allows you to carry out content marketing in various forms. This includes surveys, descriptions of graphics and images and hashtag campaigns.

4. Content in the form of audio: Of course, content is also an important part of audio distribution. Podcasts, streaming or audio webinars in which customers can participate are well-known.

5. Videos: Videos are the final type of content. Moving images and content are the best way to implement explanations. Image films or video blogs are just as much a part of this as promotional videos and VR videos.

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As you can see, the possibilities of content marketing are many and varied. At MORE, we are experts in the field of optimally integrating content into your marketing. Our specialists know the needs of different target groups inside out and can help you define the right content marketing campaigns.

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These are the advantages of content marketing

At MORE, we know how important content marketing is for your company. Precisely because there are so many benefits, we see it as an important part of marketing. We have compiled an overview of the benefits for you.

Increase your brand awareness

Visibility is one of your most valuable assets in online business. The better the visibility of your brand, the higher the likelihood of good leads. Content marketing is an important part of increasing brand awareness. To do this, it is important to regularly post relevant content that people can benefit from.

Depending on the content, you emphasize the identity of your brand. You build a story and create a character. There are many different products and services on the market, but there is also a lot of competition. That's why it's important that you manage to stand out from the crowd. You should show what your company or your products have to offer, work as transparently as possible and offer good content. With regular content, you can continue to build your brand.

Social media is an important factor in this context. The 2022 Content Marketing Trend Study by Statista shows that many companies now consider social media analyses to be just as important as website traffic analyses.

Improve rankings in the search engine

Potential customers who are looking for a product or service usually use the well-known search engines online. They enter terms and then decide on one of the providers that are in the top positions. Here you can use content marketing to ensure that your offers are among the first places.

Useful content also helps you to be ranked better by search engines. The Google search engine has set itself the task of showing users the best content and therefore constantly checks websites to ensure that high-quality content is provided on a regular basis.

With every new post you put online with content marketing, the likelihood that your ranking will improve also increases.

The increase in visitors to your website

An important point for increasing sales is good traffic to your website. This means that one of your goals should be to increase the number of visitors to your website. This also works via content marketing. Spread your content on many channels. Social networks play a particularly important role here. The more people see your content, the more visitors will come to your website and view your products.

With good content marketing, you can also reach people who were previously unaware that they might need your products or services. If you manage to arouse needs with your content, this is the first step towards more leads. This brings us to the next advantage.

Ensure more leads

Content marketing can therefore increase your visibility, your rankings and the visits to your website. It can bring people to you who previously knew nothing about your offers. It can also attract potential customers for whom a need has been awakened. Now comes the next point. If you provide people with lots of information, you increase the likelihood of generating more leads.

At MORE, we have often found that you can generate interest with valuable content and thus increase your chances of generating good leads. However, there is also a need for action here, which should not be underestimated. Calls to action and offers go hand in hand.

We recommend that you draw on the expertise of experts here. As an external marketing agency, we at MORE are here to help you with all aspects of good content marketing and support you in improving your leads.

Quantity is not more important than quality. You can also generate leads without content marketing. However, this is often associated with a great deal of effort. At the same time, the number of leads is no indication of their quality. With good content marketing, you can reach exactly your target group.

Build trust with your customers

Trust is an important basis for being able to build up a reliable clientele in the long term. Regular customers are customers that you have already won over. To achieve precisely this goal, however, you should use good content marketing. With valuable content, your potential customers realize that you can offer them solutions to their problems. They receive added value from your content and your products.

Appreciation is one of the factors that increases trust. If you use social networks for your content marketing, for example, interaction is an important sign of trust. Respond to your prospects' comments. Respond to questions and always remain friendly and positive. This is also an important part of content marketing.

Improve your credibility

See your company as a source of knowledge for your customers and potential customers. The focus here is on your industry. If you publish valuable information and interesting content with good and regular content marketing, your credibility will increase. Little by little, visitors to your website will realize that your content is a credible source.

Many companies say that they have extensive knowledge and good expertise. But they don't show it. You take a different approach and make it clear that you really do have this knowledge and are willing to share it.

Credibility also comes with authority. If you manage to assume an authoritative position in your industry, you are a role model for your customers and also for your competitors. You become an expert and therefore a point of contact when questions arise.

You have the possibility of creativity

Content stands for content and you are flexible when it comes to content. You can give free rein to your creativity and implement content in different ways and in very different forms. The aim is to stand out, to stand out from the crowd and, above all, to stay in people's minds.

Content marketing can produce real works of art. There are some examples where the campaigns have really stuck in the mind. We are thinking of, among others:

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1. Ikea - the furniture supplier has created its own world through various content campaigns, such as Knut at Christmas time or the idea of creating a home out of a house. The provider paints pictures with its products that offer you optimal solutions to your problems.

2. Red Bull - what comes to mind when you hear the brand name? Everyone probably has the saying "Red Bull gives wings" in their head. This has given the brand a high recognition value. But that's not enough. It also needs high-quality content, such as the story of Felix Baumgartner's parachute jump from an impressive height.

3. Deutsche Bahn - a particularly interesting example of content marketing in social networks is Deutsche Bahn. Real professionals are at work here who have an answer to everything. The responses to criticism are immediate and funny. The company also likes to poke fun at itself.

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Good content marketing becomes an asset

There are various forms of marketing that can bring long-term or short-term success. However, hardly any of them can develop into such a strong asset as well-constructed content marketing. If you post valuable content that adds value for readers, it will stay in their minds and can be accessed again and again.

One of our tips is to focus on evergreens. What does this mean? If you make sure that your content is timeless in content marketing, it will not lose its value. Even if this form of content does not trigger a short-term boom on the sales side in most cases, it is much more durable.

You build an archive of content that grows and increases in value with every post. It is an area of your company that develops its own value. This makes creativity, combined with comprehensive research and well thought-out implementation, all the more important. At MORE, we support you in building this asset.

Get to know target groups

To conclude the list of benefits, we would like to point out that content marketing gives you the chance to get to know your target group better. By interacting with your potential customers, you learn more about their interests. This allows you to tailor future strategies even more effectively to your target groups and thus increase your success.

A summary of the advantages of content marketing

For a better overview, we have summarized the most important advantages for you:

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1. Brand awareness

With good content marketing, you increase brand awareness. This means that you increase awareness of your brand, increase visibility and appeal to your target group.

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2. Brand loyalty

Brand loyalty describes the connection between customers and your brand. If you build trust and credibility with good content marketing, loyalty to your brand will also increase.

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3. Customer loyalty

Customer engagement is not the same as brand loyalty. It's about the fact that your content marketing motivates your customers to share the content and draw further attention to you. This works by providing interesting content.

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4. Create a contact point for information

Content marketing is not just about generating leads. It's about creating lasting visibility. You can ensure that your website becomes a real information hub - for your potential customers and also for the competition.

Content marketing has these disadvantages

You may be asking yourself whether content marketing only has advantages or whether it also has disadvantages. We want to be completely honest with you. There are also disadvantages that you should consider when thinking about whether and how you can incorporate content marketing into your marketing. We have summarized the disadvantages for you.

The time factor

Let's face it - content marketing takes time. You want to deliver high-quality and valuable content and of course you need the necessary knowledge to do so. Content is not simply created in a few minutes. It is important to create a plan around the target group and the topics you would like to address.

However, you can overcome this disadvantage by putting content marketing in the hands of experts. At MORE, we deal extensively with content marketing, the new findings and the technical possibilities. We work with you to implement content marketing according to your wishes.

The retreat of traditional advertising

This disadvantage does not affect all companies, as some focus on the internet from the outset. In reality, however, the increasing importance of content marketing means that traditional advertising is clearly taking a back seat. However, this also has its charm and can ensure that you increase brand awareness. It is therefore important that you have a good plan when it comes to your marketing.

With the support of our experts, you have the help you need right from the start to set up the optimal combination of content marketing and classic accents for your advertising.

The unpredictability of social networks

Social networks are both a blessing and a curse. They offer you numerous opportunities to reach your potential customers with good content marketing. At the same time, however, you have no control over how the reactions develop. Of course, you would like to receive positive feedback and a good exchange.

But you can't rely on that. It is impossible to predict how posts and contributions will develop on social networks. With a lot of luck, you will attract interest and have good communication. Many people will become aware of your post, share it and thus increase your visibility.

But maybe you also have critics. This is not necessarily only a disadvantage. Critics can also be valuable for the further development of your brand. The important question is how you deal with them. However, it takes knowledge and time to react correctly.

Here too, we recommend that you get support. At MORE, we know exactly how to deal with the unpredictability of participants from social networks.

Conclusion: Content marketing should not be missing from your marketing strategy

The list shows that content marketing has a whole range of benefits. Increasing brand awareness is just as much a part of it as building trust with your potential customers and your credibility. However, how you implement content marketing plays an important role.

It is about high-quality content that should always offer readers added value. Good content marketing is therefore based on comprehensive planning, content development and the selection of the right distribution channels.

Take advantage of the expertise of MORE. As your external marketing department, we work hand in hand with you, from the planning of content marketing to the evaluation of the respective campaigns.

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