What Results Can I Expect From Content Marketing? - Bright Ideas for eCommerce Entrepreneurs

I have yet to meet an entrepreneur whose business doesn’t need any more customers, and with all the talk these days about content marketing, more companies than ever have begun to embrace this highly effective form of marketing as a means of customer attraction.

If you are considering embracing content marketing (plus some marketing automation) in your business and you are wondering what to expect in terms of results, this post is for you.

Managing Expectations

The very first thing you need to understand about content marketing is this: results do not happen over night. Identifying your target audience’s needs, wants, and desires takes time. Creating content takes time. Accumulating social proof and traffic take time.

In other words, success with content marketing takes time.

While overnight success isn’t something you should expect, one thing you can expect – once the momentum begins to kick in – is this: high quality content produces traffic and leads for a very long time!

Should you decide to embrace content marketing, here’s just a few of the things that you should be aware of:

Content marketing requires resources (your time and/or someone else’s)
Content marketing requires expertise and new habits
Meaningful results are unlikely in the first 3-5 months
Sustained activity will produce steady long-term growth

Want proof that it works? Check out these 50 brands using content marketing.

Additional Resources:

Discover Why Content is Your Greatest Asset
How Content Marketing Has Forever Changed Client Attraction
How Content Marketing and Marketing Automation Led to a $5,000 Retainer Client

Still not convinced? Here are some more statistics:

93% of B2B Marketers are using content marketing
42% of B2B marketers rate their content marketing efforts as effective
Only 44% of B2B Marketers have a documented content strategy
73% of B2B Marketers have someone in charge of content marketing strategy

(Content Marketing Institute / Marketing Profs Study)

We Walk Our Talk

Over the last 18 months, Bright Ideas has become a very successful business as a result of the steady increase in traffic to our website. As you can see below, traffic has, more or less, steadily increased since day one. As you might also expect, the volume of leads, customers, and revenue has also steadily increased.

Did it happen over night? No, it didn’t. Our success was the result of a sustained investment in content creation, and so long as we continue to produce content that is of value to our audience, it’s quite reasonable to expect that our traffic & revenue will also continue to increase.

Do we spend any money on advertising? Not really. We do spend a bit here and there to drive traffic to landing pages we want to test, but that is about it.

Do we engage in direct mail and employ a sales force? No, we don’t.

Instead, we invest heavily in content creation, and so should you.

Click to Tweet: What Results Can I Expect From Content Marketing?

How to Get Started With Content Marketing

Hopefully by now, you have realized that success with content marketing takes time and it requires a plan that is built on proven strategies.

If you are looking for just such a plan, we can help.

Step One: The Marketing Assessment

The first step in working with us is to have us produce a marketing assessment for you. The purpose of the marketing assessment is to do a deep dive on your company’s current marketing assets & strategies so that we can produce a report that you can use as a 12 month game plan to help you achieve your business goals.

Here’s a summary of some of the items that we typically review during an assessment:

Your website
Your social media presence
Your lead capture system(s)
Your CRM system
A basic competitive analysis
Your buyer persona(s)
Your typical customer’s Purchase Lifeycle
Your marketing funnel
Your customer’s change drivers
Your customer’s change inhibitors

Step Two: Develop a Game Plan

A Solid Game Plan Leads to a Solid Execution

Once the assessment is completed, the next step is to create a game plan to get you started with content marketing.

Here’s a summary of some of the recommendations that we typically address in a marketing game plan:

Analysis of top 25 keywords
Marketing tools to use
Website improvements
Social media improvements
A 90 day blogging strategy
A blogging checklist
Marketing funnel development
Video marketing strategy
Premium content development
Premium content checklist

Marketing assessments, once completed, will allow us to give you a solid game plan for your first 12 months. Marketing assessments (including the game plan) start at $1,500 and up, depending on the level of complexity and research required.

Should you wish to retain us for execution of the game plan, we are available to do so for a monthly retainer. However, should you wish to execute the game plan on your own, it will be sufficiently detailed to allow you to do just that.