In last week’s blog post, Introduction to Spokal’s 3 Pillars of Inbound Marketing (Content Marketing Series Part 1 of a 10 ) I told you that you’d be hearing a lot more about content, and I wasn’t bluffing! Content is the foundation of inbound marketing, and by that I mean – nothing can work without it.

The only way people will ever look at your website, is if there’s content on it. The only way people can discover you on social media, search engines, advertisements etc., is through content. The only way you can nurture leads, is through content.

You’ve probably heard the term “content is king” before, right? Well, it might be bit cliché, but I’ve yet to see anyone adequately disprove it. Sure, you might have people claiming that content is no longer king, and say… quality is. But how, may I ask, can one have quality content without, well… content?

You see what I’m getting at here?

Content is the lifeline of your online business. Without content marketing, there is no inbound marketing. It’s an absolutely necessary subset of inbound marketing.

The good news is, the barrier of entry into who can create content is pretty low. As long as you can put pen to paper – or fingers to keyboard – you can create content. But the bad news is, content marketing isn’t easy. It takes perseverance, hard work, consistency and innovation (as well as a whole bunch of other things too!)

But I’m not here to tell you it’s going to be easy, I’m here to tell you it’s going to be worth it.

It nurtures leads, entertains followers, tracks your customers, reduces human error and streamlines repetitive tasks so that you can spend your time doing something more productive… marketing automation seems like a no-brainer for businesses looking to get online! 

But the reality is that it’s been slow to catch on. 

Whether that’s because of a lack of education, priorities lying somewhere else, or a complete misunderstanding as to what marketing automation is and what it can do for your business, there’s one thing that’s undeniable: It works.And the marketing automation statistics speak for themselves. 

But why have I only cited marketing automation statistics between 2013 and 2015? 

Did you know that 35% of a businesses data becomes obsolete after a year? And they say that statistics as it relates to the internet become outdated after about 2 years or so because, as we all know, the internet is growing rapidly all the time. And while older statistics can be still useful, they have to be taken with a pinch of salt – and there’s only so much salt you can add before your cholesterol starts to spike. 

So, in the interest of your health, I didn’t want to bog you down with anything that might be irrelevant. 

Did you know that over 3 billion people are on the internet today? It’s true! On average, Google processes 40,000 searches per second – that’s 3.5 billion searches per day!

Everyone’s on it! And, these searches aren’t just about browsing for funny memes, cat pictures and games to play when you’re bored with 78% of users say that they use Google to research products and services! 

That means people are using the internet – and the content that’s on the internet – with the intention to eventually buy.

For a business, the internet is probably the most amazing marketing tool at your disposal. Never before have you been able to reach so many targeted potential clients at such scale before. It’s unprecendented. It’s your Yellow Pages, TV adverts, magazine ads etc. all rolled up into one.

Confused about Marketing Automation? 

Who isn’t? There is a lot of information about Marketing Automation (MA) out there. It’s a hot topic – and the promises of the technology to business is compelling – more leads, better leads, more customers, less time.

But very little of that information is actually helpful for small businesses looking to understand exactly what Marketing Automation is, and how it can help them in their particular business.

That’s probably why surveys have found that although many people do have success with Marketing Automation, the results often don’t justify the investment and people who buy it rarely use it fully. Especially when it comes to small business.

There’s an unfortunate rumor buzzing around the web that Google+ just isn’t the place to be.

It’s a wasteland!

It’s a Facebook wannabe!

There’s no one on it!

Etc. etc. etc. You get the drift.

Normally I wouldn’t pay any heed to rumors and gossip. I’m a try-it-and-decide-for-myself kinda gal. But I can’t ignore it anymore – not when small businesses are the ones who have to pay the price!

So listen up small business owners, marketers and everyone in between: Google+ could potentially turn into one of your biggest sources of social media traffic.

I know what you’re thinking! No way! She’s exaggerating! It can’t be!

But here’s the thing: Since I’ve started promoting content on Google+, Google+ has become Spokal’s second largest source of social media traffic after Twitter. (click to Tweet this!)

Cool, huh?

Blogging for your business is, as we all know, essential to any Inbound Marketing strategy. It helps establish your company as a thought leader, it brings in new site traffic, and it converts that traffic into leads and customers.

But it’s not as easy as “build it and they will come” anymore. You can’t just write a blog and expect people to stumble across it on their many Google query travels. Sure, optimizing your content will help you be found through SERPs to a certain extent, but there’s also another – and often just as effective, if not more so – strategy at play: Social.

It’s not rocket science! Your audience loves social media, so you should too.