Keeping your content current is one of the most important things you can do for your digital marketing strategy. Though a simple blog post might not convince hundreds of people to immediately buy your product, it’s the best communication tool you have. To keep your audience engaged, informed and entertained, content is key.

Don’t fall behind when it comes to your content marketing strategy. Here are five reasons why content is invaluable to your marketing efforts.

1. Generate Brand Awareness

The best way for people to know about your business is through your content. By creating content, you drive targeted traffic to your website and expose prospective customers to products and services they never knew existed. Content also allows you to control your brand image and deliver accurate information. Otherwise, you rely on others to do so, which may not benefit your brand.

2. Improve SEO

When a person types a keyword or phrase into the search box, Google works hard to deliver the most helpful information. Don’t hand over search visibility to your competitors. Produce content that Google will be happy to recommend to users. The search engine algorithms are always changing, but it’s safe to say that the most favored content is up to date, written in a natural tone, and solves problems/answers questions.

3. Create High Quality Leads

Content marketing helps the right people find your products and services. “Right” is the key word, as a bunch of traffic won’t matter if it’s not relevant. As you create content for your audience, only people who truly care about what you have to offer will read it. You can use this content to nurture the right people through the funnel, giving you high quality leads that are more likely to convert.

4. Share Content on Social Media

Social media lets your content be shared with hundreds and thousands of people, not just by you, but by your audience as well. People are more apt to share content that solves a common problem or delivers important information. For example, a mom who is trying to get her teething baby to sleep might share a specific teething ring with her mom friends. Imagine how much brand exposure you can get from a single piece of content!

5. Build Backlinks

The more quality content you create, the more likely other content will link back to yours. The quality of the links do matter, so it’s important that authority sites are linking to your content. As long as you have reputable sites linking to yours, you can expect to build a stronger link profile that supports your SEO strategy.

You can achieve a lot with content marketing. The best part is – it’s an economical way to generate traffic. You and others within your company can produce articles, or you can work with a content writer to help develop topics and create content. Be sure to alternate your content with videos, podcasts, infographics, ebooks, etc. to cater to a wide audience.