I’ve got great news: an online content marketing plan is for any business that wants to make more money than they spend on their online content marketing plan.

Sometimes businesses assume that an online content marketing plan should be reserved for companies who specialize in web products or other such internet-based nerdery. After all, if you’re devoting a budget to online marketing, you ought to be dealing in online products, right? Not necessarily…

Ask Yourself:

1. What are YOU selling?
2. Does your business help people?
3. Would you sell more products if more people knew about your company?

One more question: are other companies in your industry marketing their content online, therefore getting a leg up on your niche market?

Home businesses, sports-franchise owners and CEO’s, carpenters, tax companies, lawyers, bridal shops, hockey academies, photography blogs, retail clothing companies – even the oil and gas industry – these are some of the businesses and industries I’ve had contact with in the past 2 weeks.

(Honest – email me and ask me the names of the companies and I’ll tell you how they’re using an online content marketing plan to drive new traffic to their services.)

Companies in every thinkable industry are creating revenue by publishing content online, but I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t happen by simply creating a website and then watching dumptrucks of money back up to the loading docks behind your office.

Exactly who benefits from marketing their content online?

Marketing your content online isn’t some new, progressive technique that obscure businesses are using to sell their products – successful content marketing campaigns are part of well-thought out plans with specific goals and actionable items that can be measured in time, money and effort. Consider Hubspot’s excellent roundup of 20 Revealing Stats, Charts and Graphs Every Content Marketer Should Know:

• 79% of online shoppers spend at least 50% of their time researching products.

  Planning your content strategy and getting your content online will educate potential customers.

• In 2012, 89% of marketers are increasing or maintaining their content marketing budgets.

  89%! Looks like marketing plans are working for a lot of companies out there.

• Inbound marketing costs 61% less than traditional outbound marketing.

  Hubspot says this is a data point that has remained constant over the past few years, and it speaks to our above point about making more money with a less expensive marketing plan. Who wouldn’t want that?

Social media and blogs generate real customers. – from Hubspot

 

• Percentage of companies who acquired a new customer through the following channels:

  Linkedin: 62%
  Company Blog: 57%
  Facebook: 52%
  Twitter: 44%

I urge you to check out the rest of Hubspot’s guide, it’s an excellent resource of online marketing statistics that are relevant and easy to digest.

The answer to the above question – who benefits from marketing their content online? – is easy: 1) the companies doing the marketing, and 2) the people who find helpful new products and services. Consumers find products and services they’re interested in online, and then if they’re compelled to do so, they buy them. Now, how do we compel them to do so?

Launch Pad: The Content Manager’s Guide to a Killer Online Content Marketing Plan.

I want your business to succeed – yearly, monthly, weekly and hourly. Function is built on helping businesses succeed. I want people who search for products online to not only find your business, but to be blown away by your helpful content, your expertise and your value so that they’ll buy your services.

How do we do that? Simple: a targeted online content marketing plan that offers true value and expertise. There are a lot of people out there buying new products that enrich their lives while sinking their hooks into helpful new ideas. Your business could be one seling those ideas.

I’m not selling anything here, all I want is for you to read Launch Pad: The Content Manager’s Guide to a Killer Online Content Marketing Plan. Launch Pad is a quick 3-part series of blog posts to get you asking the right questions before you dive in to an online content marketing plan that converts the fence-sitters into happy, appreciative customers and clients.

What say you? Could your business use a content makeover?

Read 3 Steps to Take Before Launching Your Online Content Marketing Plan.

Featured image by Flickr user Stuck In Customs.
Inset ‘arrow’ image by Flickr user B Tal.
Inset ‘road’ image by Flickr user mendhak.