Because the cannabis and CBD industries are highly regulated, brands and retailers find themselves at odds trying to leverage Google Ads and social media platforms with respect to compliancy and risks of set-backs and loss of followers. Fortunately, there is a time proven method of leveraging Google via Search Engine Optimization to drive organic search. A strong SEO strategy coupled with a well crafted content strategy is great way to build topical authority and higher SERP (Search Engine Result Pages) rankings.
To that end, here are some of the most important content marketing trends and strategies you should consider.
Content is King
Let us first start by understanding the definition of content marketing. Content marketing is the process of planning, creating, and sharing content with your target audience. In a nutshell, content marketing is about the experience a business provides to its lead, in order to create a series of follow-up campaign touches that drives reengagement, retention and referrals. Content helps generate brand awareness, convince customers to take action and ultimately drive revenue. Content can take various forms like social media, blogs, and video.
Many successful cannabis brands and retailers have fully embraced a digital-first world. To date, there are more than 600 million blogs on 1.9 billion websites in the world. This equates to over 6 million daily blog posts. The future looks bright for bloggers. Blog posts are getting longer, and 2000+ word articles are gaining much better recognition. (Web Tribunal)
2022 Stats You Should Know
- 90% of marketers using content marketing plan to continue investing the same amount in 2022. (HubSpot)
- 66% of marketers expect their 2022 content marketing budget to increase more than their 2021 budget. (Content Marketing Institute)
- Over 60% of marketers measure the success of their content marketing strategy through sales. (HubSpot)
- The top challenges marketers face with content marketing are creating content that generates leads, finding ideas for new content, and creating content that receives high levels of online engagement. (HubSpot)
Poor Content Matters
Blogging is a surefire way to share content that consumers find valuable to draw them into your sales funnel and build yourself as an expert in your field. Having a robust blog is a great way to connect with your customers. Think: right message, right person, right time. Conversely, you should not be surprised that when a new visitor comes to your website they often make a bee-line directly to your blog. If you're a marketer, you already know that content marketing is not a one-and-done investment. Having an outdated blog that hasn't been maintained is a poor first impression--and often an opportunity lost.
Recently, Forrester Consulting and Site Core published a report highlighting that ad hoc, one-off, and off-brand content execution is hurting marketers' customer experience and brand visions. According to the research, companies today are failing to fully deliver the best digital brand experience, resulting in subpar customer experience (CX). The commissioned report uncovered that content weaknesses are sabotaging firms' marketers solid digital strategies, undermining their efforts. Their findings revealed that disconnects between strategy and execution ruins the customers' experience.
Matter of fact, 41% of C-level executives said they have a clear content strategy and plan while 42% create content in a ad hoc manner. Perhaps this explains why Site Core found that content marketers spend too much time on mundane tasks and improving content management instead of producing great content. 40% of digital-experience decision-makers said they spend too much time on mundane tasks such as tagging content, looking for content, etc.
Pros and Cons of AI-based Content Writing
Marketers who don't understand the real value of content, have been experimenting with AI-based content writing. Here are some of the Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Greater Efficiency (LinkedIn)
- Cost Savings (Twitter)
- Doesn't Require Human Input (Crew Machine)
- Streamlines Marketing Efforts (Twitter)
Cons:
- Lack of Creativity (LinkedIn)
- Lacks an Understanding of Human Behavior (Crew Machine)
- Context & Depth Goes Down (Crew Machine)
- Search engines have hard times recognizing the original authors of content (Better Marketing)
B2C Marketing Strategy Matters
We often recommend to our clients is the importance of crafting a content strategy that balances topics that are ever-green that provides information that is timeless and remains relevant to users over time. Combined with topics that are holiday or product specific is a great tool for cannabis retailers.Dialing in on local specific blogs such as where's the best places to go that are cannabis friendly.
According to the Content Marketing Institute, the majority of B2C marketers are allocating a quarter of their budget to content marketing. Half of B2C marketers often higher copywriters to assist in content creation.
As for tools, B2C industry leaders are using social media analytics (84 percent), analytics tools (83 percent), and email marketing (72 percent) to devise and direct their content marketing strategy (Content Marketing Institute).
Gone are days of being able to spit out a 300 word article and watch it increase your rankings on Google's Search Engine Results Page (Rellify). Writing fewer, well-researched, high-quality content pieces that are a minimum of 1,000 words is a great strategy if one's budget is limited. At WUNDERWORX we emphasize the importance on relevant long-form content.
The Investment is Worth it Content Creation
Given that the data all points to written material like blogs as powerful marketing tools, it’s worth it to have a healthy budget allocated for content creation. Well written content will increase your return on investment and ensure your business continues to thrive in the long run. To learn more about our turnkey content creation, let's have a conversation.
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