Content marketing is a crucial component of an inbound marketing strategy. Content marketing, if done correctly, can drive high-quality traffic to your site( improving your SEO efforts ), generate leads, and increase sales. How? And what exactly is content marketing?

Here’s a quick, simple definition of content marketing: the marketing of your business or brand via the creation and distribution of informative, entertaining content(blogs, podcast, books, video) .

How does content help generate leads and increase sales? Content marketing allows firms to demonstrate expertise in their industry. Which helps to build and solidify reputations amongst industry peers and customers. In other words, how can you demonstrate your expertise and industry-know-how? Your company can produce and distribute educational content on your respective industry.

It sounds like a lot of work. But it’s considered one of the most underrated ways to generate leads and sales for your business. Here’s why: Content marketing is a digital asset that provides your company value long after it’s published. Not only does it render your company a voice of authority over a subject but it provides web traffic, leads, sales, and meshes well with SEO efforts. If a content marketing program is implemented correctly, it provides businesses leads and sales for years.

Let’s frame this another way. When you invest in paid media, in order to continue producing news leads and customers at a sustainable rate it requires that you pay publishers(Google, Facebook, Instagram) costly fees. However, if you create interesting, educational content, users will come to your sight long after you have published the article or podcast. In short, content marketing programs provide a cost-effective, scaleable way to generate traffic and leads. Whenever marketing budgets tighten, content marketing programs can provide an inexpensive way to generate leads and sales for your business long after they have published.