Going the Distance: Four Ways to Build a Better Customer Loyalty Program for Your Brand

It’s easy enough for a customer to join your loyalty program, especially when you’re offering an incentive such as discounts. All your customer has to do is give out some basic information, and voila! They’re in the fold, a brand new loyalty member with your company. From there, it’s happily ever after. You offer the perks; they stand solidly by you, bringing you their continued business. Simple. Or is it? In reality, just how many of those customers are act ively participating in your loyalty program? Do you know? Sure, loyalty program memberships are on the rise according to market research company eMarketer, having jumped 25 percent in the space of just two years. However, that figure may be a bit misleading. The truth is that, while loyalty program sign-ups may be more numerous, active participation in such programs is actually in decline. At the time of the study, the average US household had memberships in 29 loyalty programs; yet consumers were only active in 12 of those. That’s just 41 percent. And even that meager figure represents a drop of 2 percentage points per year over each of the preceding four years, according to a study by loyalty-marketing research company COLLOQUY.

When discounts just aren’t enough

So what’s a brand to do? How can you make your loyalty program worth your customer’s while—as well as your own? After all, gaining a new loyalty member doesn’t mean much if your customer isn’t actively participating in your program. Consider this: Does your customer loyalty program offer members anything different from what your competitors are offering? Chances are your program includes discounts. That’s a given. And what customer doesn’t appreciate a good discount? But when every other company out there is providing this staple benefit in comparable amounts, it becomes less and less likely that customers will remain loyal to any one particular brand. Frankly, it’s all too easy for customers to get lost in a sea of loyalty member discounts. They’re everywhere. In fact, just under half of internet users perceive that all rewards programs are alike, according to a 2015 eMarketer survey. The key to success, then, is to differentiate your business from the crowd. If you can offer your customers something unique and valuable beyond the usual discount, chances are they’ll be more likely to stick with your brand. Here’s some inspiration from companies who get it.

Virgin: Reward more purchases with more benefits.

That’s not to say you need to get rid of discounts entirely. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. Customers still love a good discount. The goal is to be creative in terms of the loyalty perks you offer. Take the Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, for example. As part of its loyalty program, the airline allows members to earn miles and tier points. Members are inducted at the Club Red tier, from which they can move up to Club Silver and then Club Gold. Here, it’s not just a discount. It’s status. And people respond to feeling important, elite. Still, even where the rewards themselves are concerned, Virgin is motivating loyalty customers with some pretty attractive offers. At the Club Red tier, members earn flight miles and receive discounts on rental cars, airport parking, hotels and holiday flights. But as members rise in tiers, they get even more. At the Club Silver tier, members earn 50 percent more points on flights, access to expedited check-in, and priority standby seating. And once they reach the top, Club Gold members receive double miles, priority boarding and access to exclusive clubhouses where they can get a drink or a massage before their flight. Now that’s some serious incentive to keep coming back for more. Discounts are still part of the equation – but they are designed with innovation and personal value in mind, elevating them to more than just savings.

Amazon Prime: Pay upfront and become a VIP.

What if your customers only had to pay a one-time upfront fee to get a year’s worth of substantial benefits? It may not sound like the smartest business idea at first glance. But take a closer look. Amazon Prime users pay a nominal $99 a year to gain free, two-day shipping on millions of products with no minimum purchase. And that’s just one benefit of going Prime. It’s true that Amazon loses $1-2 billion a year on Prime. This comes as no surprise given the incredible value the program offers. But get this: Amazon makes up for its losses in markedly higher transaction frequency. Specifically, Prime members spend an average of $1,500 a year on Amazon.com, compared with $625 spent by non-Prime users, a ccording to a 2015 report from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners.

Patagonia: Cater to customer values.

Sometimes, the draw for consumers isn’t saving money or getting a great deal. The eco-friendly outdoor clothing company Patagonia figured this out back in 2011, when it partnered with eBay to launch its Common Threads Initiative: a program that allows customers to resell their used Patagonia clothing via the company’s website. Why is this program important to customers? And how does it benefit Patagonia? The company’s brand embraces environmental and social responsibility, so it was only fitting that they create a platform for essentially recycling old clothing rather than merely throwing it away. The Common Threads Initiative helps Patagonia build a memorable brand and fierce loyalty by offering its customers a cause that aligns with deep personal values. OK, so their customers get to make a little money, too. Everybody wins.

American Airlines: Gamify your loyalty program.

If you’re going to offer your customers a loyalty program, why not make it f un? After all, engagement is key to building a strong relationship with your customer. And what better way to achieve that goal than making a game of it. American Airlines had this very thing in mind when it created its AAdvantage Passport Challenge following its merger with USAirways. The goal: find a new way to engage customers as big changes were underway. Using a custom Facebook application, American Airlines created a virtual passport to increase brand awareness while offering members a chance to earn bonus points. Customers earned these rewards through a variety of game-like activities, from answering trivia questions to tracking travel through a personalized dashboard. In the end, participants earned more than 70 percent more stamps than expected – and the airline saw a ROI of more than 500 percent. The takeaway: people like games.

Stand out from the crowd.

Your approach to your customer loyalty program should align with your overall marketing approach. Effective branding is about standing out, not blending it. Being memorable is key. To this end, keep in mind that loyalty programs are no longer a novelty. That means that yesterday’s strategies won’t work moving forward, so look for ways to rise above the noise, setting yourself apart from the cloying drone of countless other cookie-cutter programs.

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Viva La Viral! Takeaways From 10 of the Web's Mega-Popular Moments

For much of the population, computer and mobile screens have replaced water coolers as the gathering place of choice for conversations about cool stuff. But rather than rehashing what happened last night, people are sharing links, congregating in office cubicles and clustering around smartphones to view the most compelling content over and over again. Score one for the Internet.

The Web is winning.

In fact, score one billion for the Internet – and counting. The Web's most-watched video of all time, South Korean pop music artist Psy's over-the-top production for his song, "Gangnam Style," became the first ever to reach one billion YouTube views in December 2012, and its total on YouTube now stands at more than 1.5 billion. That’s more tracked encounters with a single piece of content than the world’s all-time #1 TV broadcast, top movie and most-played radio song combined. By comparison, London newspaper The Times reported that a verifiable audience of 984 million tuned in to some portion of the 2008 opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympics – the highest rating ever recorded. Average viewership during the ceremony was 538 million. According to Box Office Mojo, the most attended movie in history is “Avatar,” with approximately 270 million tickets sold worldwide. In 1999 BMI, the world’s largest music publishing rights organization, touted "You've Lost That Lovin’ Feelin,” as radio’s most played song of all time with more than 8 million plays. More recent estimates put that number at between 9 and 10 million total plays as of the end of 2012. These aren’t strict comparisons; one play on a radio station has thousands of potential listeners in a metro area, and a movie like Avatar’s DVD sales, rental and broadcast figures are not accounted for above. But one thing is certain: The Internet holds its own when big audience numbers are thrown around, and with every passing day, it’s wooing more of people’s time and attention away from more traditional media outlets.

“Going viral” has gone viral

To be sure, those outlets have taken notice. Watch an hour of network news or scroll through the headlines at any major online news source, and you’ll soon see a pattern: Whatever’s hot online is reported and given weight equal to other pop culture and business stories such as world tour announcements and new product releases. Viral Internet content has become a regular source of news in the standard media cycle. For example, a glance at Yahoo.com’s home page, which includes the day’s top stories in a rotating slideshow format, usually yields at least one article on a viral Internet event, such as this feature of a young athlete gaining attention for his incredible moves on the basketball court. 14-year-old Seventh Woods’s “highlight reel” on YouTube clocks in at about two and a half minutes – and amassed more than 5.5 million views in just five days. You’ll notice the story lead-in states “more than 3 million views.” Just a day after this item was first posted, the video had gained another two million-plus views, no doubt due (at least in part) to media coverage on Yahoo and elsewhere.

The common spark

Of course no one can predict the next billion-view video. But as more companies take a serious interest in the potential of viral content, there are lessons to be learned from the best the Web has to offer. In recent weeks online outlets have featured – and fed into – several viral occurrences we’ll examine here. We’ll also consider other content that has rocketed to Internet fame – some ubiquitous and familiar, some with more of a niche appeal. What they all clearly have in common is a spark that makes people want to tell others they saw something cool. It is this “shareability” that has the potential to take your brand to another level – whether that brand centers around a product, service or personality. Read more: The Anatomy of Viral Marketing

A word about numbers

Viral content has long since arrived as a pop-culture phenomenon, but as the Internet continues to evolve as both a marketing and entertainment platform, it is only natural that smart companies are figuring out better ways to crunch the numbers and quantify viral success more accurately. Measurables are in high demand, for good reason, as brands look to spend effectively in the ever-shifting Web marketing landscape. And it does get complicated. Any truly viral content pollinates all over the Web across thousands of outlets, from a singular genesis out to hubs like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Youtube up to news feeds and back down to countless personal blogs, emails and text messages. To add another layer of meta-marketing, you’ll often see YouTube ads featuring one leading viral piece from a big player (say, Dove’s “Beauty Portraits” docu-ad) inserted at the beginning of another, more organically generated one (such as up-and-comer Woods’s clip.) “Views” and “likes” are a good start, but new metrics like True Reach™ (which, according to AdAge, “includes clips uploaded by audiences across the web, showing the complete impact a campaign or viral phenomenon has online”) have emerged to give a more accurate picture. Using the True Reach™ metric, “Gangam Style’s” total approaches 3 billion actual views. It’s also worth noting that active-user metrics like shares, pins and re-tweets, while usually much lower figures than likes or views, are rapidly gaining respect among brands and ratings entities like Nielsen and Klout. The motivation to move content down the line is at the core of a viral event. That momentum originates from an accumulation of individuals, which then gains critical mass and enters a “feedback loop” as news outlets pick up the story and create waves of audience growth. Some of the numbers included below are given as an effort to highlight the first-generation element that really gets things rolling. So without further adieu, let's get to the list, in no particular order:

Oreo Super Bowl blackout tweet

Impact

Retweets: Over 16,000 (6,000+ Twitter favorites) Hashtag trends: #Oreo got a huge initial bump, and #DunkInTheDark is still active. Facebook: Almost 7,000 shares, over 21,000 likes

Takeaway

Be ready to seize the moment. Oreo’s smart and timely reaction to the power outage during this year’s Super Bowl was a big win for the brand. The tweet and accompanying photo garnered instant raves and extensive coverage across the Internet and traditional media, with tech and marketing leaders’ immediate tweets followed up by a flurry of blog posts, articles and news spots in the days after. This story highlights the power and marketing potential of real-time social media, but it couldn’t have happened without an initial audience of some size to spread the word. Oreo had an established presence on Twitter (thousands of tweets and over 70,000 followers) and a Facebook page “liked” by more than 30 million people at the time of the blackout, which provided the opportunity to fire off this simple ad and watch it spread. Build your audience today, so you can harness its power to seize the moment tomorrow.

Dove: “Real Beauty” sketches

Impact

YouTube views: 26.2 million (89,000 likes) YouTube comments: Over 8,000 Facebook campaign video views: 1.7 million Hashtag trend: #wearebeautiful (Dove’s non-exclusive preferred hashtag), 1,900 Twitter uses, April 21-24 – up more than 500% from the week prior

Takeaway

Use your brand to make a statement for the greater good – and attract an audience who cares. Is there a compelling cultural element that relates well to your brand? Think about ways to engage directly in an effort that makes sense, rather than a “cause” that looks good but may not fit. Dove has created a unique space for itself in the beauty industry with previous campaigns like its successful “Real Women” series, which featured confident, striking women with body types and looks that don’t necessarily fit the Hollywood standard of attractiveness. Expanding on the themes of self-esteem and self-perception, last week the company launched a new set of documentary-style “Real Beauty Sketch” ads that immediately went viral. Dove has maintained an active channel on YouTube for more than two years, but more than 75 percent of their total overall channel views came in the week following the launch of this new series. While not all reaction has been positive, the ensuing coverage has been a noteworthy addition to the collective global debate about what constitutes “beauty.” With body image and appearance issues contributing to suicide and self-harm rates for girls and women around the world, Dove is to be applauded for this (albeit possibly flawed) effort to counteract stereotypes. The rapid spread of this ad series online and the ensuing media coverage are proof that Dove is contributing to a conversation that needs to happen.

Honda’s “Pintermission” campaign

Impact

Pinterest hits: More than 4.6 million people were exposed to Honda’s #Pintermission boards Repins: 5,000+ (nearly 2,000 likes) Media impressions: Over 16 million

Takeaway

Find a great fit for your brand in a new place. Seek out the places where people gather around shared interests that reflect your brand’s aesthetic and values, and carve out a niche for yourself there. Pinterest has exploded onto the social media scene in the last 18 months, reaching 10 million unique visitors faster than any standalone Web site in history in early 2012. As users come across lifestyle elements of interest on the Internet, they pin the items onto their personal Pinterest board. Many users take advantage of Pinterest’s instinctive environment to plan events and brainstorm remodeling ideas. The site’s uniquely aspirational feel lends many user’s pages a beautiful, collage-like look – perfect for any brand wishing to highlight its classic appeal and reach out to affinitive audiences. And here’s another fact that bodes well for Pinterest as a marketing platform: About 80 percent of pins on the site are actually repins. Compared to just 2 percent of Twitter content being retweets, that is some serious viral mojo. Just as Pinterest was reaching unprecedented momentum, Honda launched its presence in February 2012 on the site by engaging five prominent users who had garnered large followings. In other words, Honda identified people who created definitive Pinterest experiences and found a way to become part of that fabric. Honda invited these users to each take a personal “Pintermission” and live out some of the hopes and dreams adorning their Pinterest pages. Who could say no? Millions of hits and mounds of goodwill later, Honda stands as a cornerstone brand using Pinterest in a truthful, relational way that feels less like marketing and more like lifestyle collaboration.

Virgin Blue’s Twitter near-giveaway

Impact

1000 tickets: Sold out as fast as they released them, all through Twitter Lasting influence: Mainstay on “best-ever viral marketing campaigns” lists

Takeaway

If you’re thinking of offering a discount or giveaway as a way to gain lots of exposure, go big or stay on the ground. Make your deal memorable, accessible and easy to execute. The goal is to engage all the people who just miss out on your fantastic deal and keep the conversation going from there. As a way to celebrate its ninth anniversary and bump its brand’s profile, Virgin Blue airlines (now Virgin Australia) offered 1,000 tickets exclusively through Twitter for the unheard-of price of $9.00. People responded by the thousands in a flash, and the tickets quickly sold out. This one’s an oldie but a goodie, having taken place in 2009. It’s worth mentioning for three reasons: First, it helped establish the power of Twitter by taking place as an ad campaign exclusive to the site, then a young platform with more reach than proven value. Second, the discount was hundreds of dollars off a high-demand item – a combination sure to attract attention, raise brand awareness and drive motivated traffic to desired points of contact. Third, it went off as smoothly as it could have. The transaction tech worked flawlessly, and customers who were lucky enough to get in on the deal were left with a positive, seamless experience from end to end. That’s the kind of brand encounter that creates loyalty and trust.

K-Mart: Ship My Pants

Impact

YouTube views: 15.1 million (70,000 likes) in two weeks True Reach™: Over 20 million views YouTube comments: Over 13,000 Twitter: 8,600 uses of #shipmypants, virtually all of them occurring since the clip launched Related media: More than 30 official Kmart clips, each enjoying a mini-viral piggyback benefit

Takeaway

Yep, folks like to laugh. The key here is to get people laughing about your brand without…ahem…tainting your larger point. Sure it’s a little cheap, and plenty of folks are wrinkling their noses at this huge hit’s unsavory implications. But the risks seem relatively low and the comedic shock value has clearly translated into higher brand awareness for this traditional bricks-and-mortar mainstay. This clip accomplishes two things Kmart can really use during this uncertain time for big box retailers. First, the humor shows that Kmart knows how to laugh. Wide, bland product selection and longstanding customer familiarity may have led Kmart into a bit of brand fatigue – aka the shrug syndrome. “Ship My Pants” shakes that up. Second, the focus here is on easy shipping; this is Amazon and eBay territory. If Kmart wants to break into that market in a big way, it needs to alert its substantial customer base that they don’t need to look elsewhere for such options. And maybe, just maybe, those customers will share the good word even as they spread the...er…pants shipping.

OK Go’s Needing/Getting Chevy clip

Impact

YouTube views: 24.8 million (233,000 likes) Comments: 26,000+ Google+ shares: 5000+

Takeaway

When done well, collaboration can bring your brand to a whole new audience. If a raucous rock band can turn a shiny sedan into a musical instrument, your brand can find an unexpected partner and make a little marketing magic too. And you thought there were no more original ideas. OK Go seemingly breathes creativity, having released some of the Web’s most-viewed and most-beloved viral videos (at least six more of their clips have garnered more than 2 million YouTube views each). Chevrolet was smart enough to underwrite one of the best examples of brand synergy the Internet has ever produced. OK Go seriously upped its public profile by way of Chevy’s Super Bowl ad purchasing clout, and Chevy showcased its product to a young, hip online demographic that trusted OK Go to create another slice of awesome. Mission accomplished all around.

Cake resignation letter

Impact

Retweets: 7,000+ Twitter favorites: More than 2,300 Facebook: 6,000+ likes, 6000+ mentions Media coverage: Well over 100 features in major online news sources around the world

Takeaway

Serendipity is sweet. If your brand is captured in a candid moment that turns into a showcase, make sure you’re ready to meet expectations. And if you inject those moments with a little natural marketing flair, so much the better. On the brink of his 31st birthday, Chris Holmes decided to go all-in on his then-sideline dream job: creating fabulous cakes. So he did a classy thing and added a little smart marketing on top (note his business handle and Web address in the icing above). His genuine gift of a cake to his soon-to-be-former employers made a hard day a little easier and left co-workers with a great last impression. Then the Internet got involved, with a little help from Holmes’s brother-in-law. Dozens of interviews and thousands of retweets later, Holmes finds himself riding a nice wave of goodwill and publicity. And he was ready for it. A well-done website, a Facebook page with big, ooh-aah photos and a Twitter page stocked with more than 1,000 tweets before the cake photo went viral all add up to something built to last long after the sugar rush of headlines and hashtags wears off.

Seventh Woods highlights clip

Impact

YouTube views: 5.5 million (22,000+ likes) Comments: 7,600+

Takeaway

Do what you’re great at. Capture it. Then let the world take a look. If your brand is about sheer brilliance, the Internet is built to show it off. What would your highlight reel look like? We may well be witnessing the birth of a brand. This one’s too fresh to show up on a True Reach™ chart, but rest assured: it will be at or near the top in a matter of weeks. This clip is a great example of niche appeal (sports) transcending genre and breaking into the general culture. Woods’s age is surely a factor, as is his remarkable ability to soar above his peers. It is likely that many people are opening the clip because of his age, but staying through to the end and sharing it because the clip delivers on its promise of something spectacular.

Psy’s “Gentleman”

Impact

YouTube views: 214 million (1.7 million likes) True Reach™: Over 300 million views

Takeaway

Don’t repeat yourself, but don’t leave the ballpark either. If your brand recently enjoyed a bump in positive recognition for any reason, it may be time to play off that momentum in creative ways. Talk about a feedback loop – Psy’s global moment spilled over to his latest video almost by default. But he didn’t waste the opportunity. Psy established a worldwide identity with “Gangnam Style.” Given that the vast majority of his audience had no idea who he was before his rise to viral glory, it would have been foolish for him to release a folk ballad for a follow-up. Here Psy keeps his signature visual style, introduces another upbeat dance and ramps up the humor. The results gave Psy YouTube’s single day viewing record (more than 38 million views the first 24 hours) to go along with his top total views mark for “Gangnam Style.”

Veronica Mars Kickstarter campaign

Impact

Backers: Over 91,000 Money raised: $5.7 million Facebook: 227,000 likes Twitter: 25,000+ followers, 14,000 uses of #veronicamarsmovie YouTube channel: 16,000+ subscribers, 450,000 total related clip views Instagram: Over 11,500 followers

Takeaway

If your brand’s core demographic can be described as a “fanbase,” source that crowd and do something incredible – they could be waiting to fuel your vision. If your audience isn’t filled with fans yet, woo that crowd. Make something amazing that creates demand for a sequel. This is a great piece to end on: cross-platform synergy galore, record-breaking numbers on the crowd-sourcing website Kickstarter.com and a just plain fun project to learn from. Plenty of fine TV shows have shut down too early to suit their small but loyal groups of superfans. Most of the time things fade out in a dwindling cloud of blog posts and awkward, sparse comic-con flash mobs. Not this time. After enduring seven long years since the show’s cancellation, the “Veronica Mars” fanbase remained so committed to its creators and actors that, when finally presented with an opportunity to get involved with making a movie based on the series, they swarmed Kickstarter and shattered every record the burgeoning crowd-sourcing movement had previously posted. In less than 11 hours, backers had committed more than $2 million dollars to the project. 30 days later, the final sum stood at more than $5.7 million, and 91,000-plus backers record had jumped on board. To be sure, the show and the Internet are a perfect fit. “Veronica Mars” is the kind of show that’s rife with sharable clips (which have been endlessly passed around every known platform in the intervening years), and its central star, Kristen Bell, is adorable, funny and tech-savvy. Her enthusiastic involvement and level of fame (more than a million Twitter followers) fueled the campaign in a way few others could. But crowdsourcing didn’t appear out of nowhere when Kristen Bell posted her first tweet about this movie. Kickstarter, Indiegogo and other similar sites have hosted thousands of campaigns in the last few years, most of them raising modest sums that fund less glamorous projects. But every one is a passion piece. Every crowd-sourcing success story starts with a few believers. Who knows – your brand could be one Kickstart away from the next level. *Twitter hashtag statistics obtained using Topsy.com

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8 Business Growth Goals You Can Conquer with Great Content

Content, content, content

Let’s be honest: creating great content on a regular basis can be a real drag.

After all, you didn't get into this business to be a writer any more than to be a salesperson, an accountant or a lawyer. However, just as you can't neglect to fill your sales pipeline or pay your bills or protect your company’s assets, you can't ignore your content.

Why is content so important? Because it's the fuel that propels your business growth engine. Whether you call it a blog, a magazine, a resource library or a newsletter, your content is the one weapon in your arsenal that can help you conquer nearly every challenge of growing a company in today's marketplace:

1. Increasing visibility and driving traffic

You can’t win a customer that can’t find you. And more often than not, today’s customer is looking for you online, which is why it’s critical to optimize your organic search ranking.

People tend to think of SEO as if it's some occult form of black magic. While the practice of SEO is certainly complex, the one thing you must remember is that even though search engines are driven by intricate algorithms, all of those metrics and calculations are founded in delivering high-quality, relevant results that will be the most useful to real people.

Real people value good content. As a result, so do Google, Bing and Yahoo.

There’s no more rock-solid SEO strategy than publishing great original content on a regular basis. As you develop valuable, (legitimately) keyword-rich content that becomes popular through page views and inbound links, your level of perceived authority on that subject will increase in the eyes of the search engines, which in turn will boost your ranking in searches that pertain to your core offering. And the higher you climb in the rankings, the more potential customers will be able to find you.

2. Attracting more targeted traffic

If all you want is to send your site visit stats through the roof, there are plenty of attention-grabbing stunts you can pull to draw sheer numbers.

But numbers don't necessarily equate to dollars. For your business to grow, you need to consistently attract the types of people to your site whose needs and interests are the most closely aligned with the products or services you have to offer.

This is where your content steps up to the plate. When you publish unique, insightful information that appeals to your tribe, you'll attract visitors that will become your fans, spread the word about you, bring their friends and, ultimately, turn into customers.

3. Building trust and converting customers

Bringing visitors to your site is just the first step. Your job isn’t done until you convince them to entrust their hard-earned dollars to you.

The task of building trust with a prospect when you're standing in front of them is a relatively straightforward proposition.

However, you don't always have the luxury of a face-to-face encounter to make a first impression. Instead, more often than not, you're relegated to building trust through a computer screen. And thanks to all the Internet con artists and shysters out there, the burden of proof you must overcome to establish your trustworthiness is a large one.

So what options do you have? You can always sing your own praises in the most flattering and superlative fashion. Of course, that doesn't hold much sway in the absence of solid evidence to support your claims.

Don’t just cross your fingers and hope that your customers will buy into your sales pitch. Instead, let your content make the case for you.

Your content is the proving ground for your expertise. If you’re a big phony and you don’t know what you’re talking about, it will become obvious pretty quickly. But if you have something of genuine value to offer, and you give it away willingly upfront before you ask anyone to spend a dime, that’s where real online trust-building begins.

4. Differentiating your company from your competitors

Your company doesn’t exist in a vacuum. There are plenty of other people who do what you do and sell what you sell. For your business to grow, you must be able to make a compelling case for why people should buy from you rather than the other guys.

This is a challenge that dates back to the genesis of marketing, but in the Age of Information, it’s one that great content can go along way toward helping you overcome.

Make no mistake: your content is not your sales pitch. But if you can provide truly useful information that your customers can’t find elsewhere, you’re making an implicit case for the benefits of doing business with you.

For example, let’s say you’re a general contractor, and you’ve created a comprehensive online resource library for homeowners that covers all things home improvement-related: the latest renovation trends, how-tos for simple DIY projects, advice on upgrades that deliver the best ROI, etc.

This is the type of information that your potential clients will truly value. And by demonstrating your authority, you’ll prove that what you have to offer is much more than just a common commodity, which will even help you fend off lower-priced competitors. Your customers won’t care as much about saving a few dollars if they feel more confident knowing their project is in the hands of a trustworthy expert.

5. Generating word-of-mouth marketing

You live in the world of your products and services. You eat, breathe and sleep your business. Talking about what you do is second nature to you.

The same does not hold true for your customers. They don't go through life looking for opportunities to be your walking, talking billboard.

However, great content has the power to get people talking. Everyone loves information that gives them ways to save time and money, makes life easier or gets their creative ideas flowing.

And in the culture of the Web, we're all hard-wired to be like-button-pushers and retweeters. So when you give your customers good stuff that sparks their interest, they’ll be instinctively inclined to share it with others, and your name will travel far and wide right along with the content you’ve created as it passes through their networks and their friends' networks, too.

6. Expanding your customer base

The interminable task of business growth is identifying sources of new potential customers and finding ways to get in front of them. This quest is what's kept the purveyors of mailing lists in business for decades.

But in today's Web marketing universe, you don't have to shell out thousands of dollars to gain exposure to new customers. Communities exist everywhere around the Web, and your content is your foot in the door.

All you have to do is identify those whose tribes’ interests align with your products or services, and offer to provide content for their websites. In exchange for giving away your valuable expertise, you'll have the opportunity to take the stage in front of a brand new audience of potential customers, who will be more receptive to what you have to say due to the cache of trust conveyed to you by the established leader of that tribe.

If you’re an event planner, for example, you could approach the owner of a popular local blog targeted to moms and offer to write an article on a timely topic of interest, such as “10 Trendy Summer Birthday Party Themes.”

Without ever having to make a direct pitch for your services, you’ll suddenly have a new tribe of potential customers who know who you are, and if you’ve done a good job, will likely be inclined to click through to your website to see what other ideas and information you have to offer. In terms of exposure to your target demographic, your content-driven approach will deliver a greater ROI than traditional advertising ever could.

7. Building community and keeping customers engaged

You wouldn’t hand a customer a brochure and expect them to wake up every day excited to read it over and over again.

The same holds true for your website. You can’t expect to build community around a vanilla site that’s all about you and your product or service offering. No matter how beautifully crafted it might be, there's nothing to keep people coming back. They'll get the basic information they need, and they'll move on.

Great content is the key to transforming your company’s website into the hub of a thriving online community. People don’t want to interact with brands; they want to interact with other people. Content puts a human face on your company and makes your brand approachable. It’s the common ground between your company and your customers.

And not only is your content the spark that ignites conversation, but it's also the fuel on the fire that keeps it going. When you recognize and respond to those who comment on and share your posts, you make them feel like they’re part of something meaningful and give them added motivation to invite others to join the party.

8. Driving innovation

One of the best fringe benefits of the task of researching and writing top-quality content is that it forces you to keep up with what’s going on in your industry.

When you’re trying to build your business, it’s easy to get tunnel vision. You get so deeply immersed in the day-to-day nuts and bolts that you don’t make time for the big-picture thinking that’s required to reach the next level.

Creating content requires you to be a perpetual student of what you do; to be constantly reading and exploring so that you have fresh, exciting ideas to share with your readers.

This, in turn, makes you a sharper, more confident, more agile businessperson. Rather than doing things as they’ve always been done, you’ll be on top of the trends and ahead of the curve, with an overabundance of inspiration for what to try next.

What you put in is what you get out

Just like anything else, what you put into your content it is exactly what you'll get out of it.

If you want your content to help you meet your business growth goals, it has to be the real deal. It has to be meaningful. It has to be unique. It has to be too valuable to ignore. It has to address real problems and issues that are relevant to your customers. It has to offer practical solutions and insightful tips that are so good they’ll eagerly await your next post and gladly pass along your links to others.

Creating content of this caliber takes time. It takes hard work. Most importantly it takes discipline and commitment. If you don't make yourself buckle down and hammer out the good stuff week after week and month after month, you’ll quickly lose your audience to someone who will.

On the other hand, when you faithfully publish the type of content your customers crave, the reward is a sales engine that’s so powerful and so robust, you’ll put your company in a competitive position anyone would envy.

Read more:

Shut Up and Blog Already

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