Everyone in marketing has heard, or even used the phrase, “content is king!” Whether you believe in the power of organic traffic from SEO, or prefer the fast results of PPC, we can all agree that creating content is essential for every digital marketing strategy.
However, unlike humans, content isn’t created equal. Have you ever tried to read an article and just logged off the website because it spiraled without answering your search intent? Well, those are the consequences of cheap content!
On the surface, cheap content looks like it’s saving you money, but, as we’ll see in this article, most of the time you’re actually losing money. Keep reading to learn why you should fight the urge to use cheap content and invest in premium, high-quality content.
Cheap content pitfalls
With the rise of generative AI, cheap content is not just more accessible, but also cheaper than ever. All you need to do is type into Chatgpt, “Write a 500-word guide on how to assemble a 2JZ engine.” And, in just a few seconds, you’ll have your free blog.
You can also spend a small amount to have an inexperienced content agency do it for you. However, cheap content is more expensive than you might think.
Here’s how cheap, low-quality content affects your business:
Misaligned branding
One of the most important goals of a good content strategy is to boost your brand reputation. A strong brand image will boost your marketing efforts by attracting new customers and generating organic buzz.
However, cheap content is often lazy and generic, so it does little to establish your brand and set it apart from your competitors. Additionally, cheap content like AI-generated text is often fraught with misinformation and errors, which hurt your business reputation.
Think about a reputable business publication like Forbes. What would be your perception of their brand if you read one of their articles and found that it was full of cooked statistics, grammatical errors, and kept going off-topic? They’d probably lose most of their readers, right?
Low customer engagement
At Penmo, we love people-first content! This is where you focus on the user’s needs to create content that resonates with them, solves their problems, or answers their questions. This engaging content often increases their interest in the brand or encourages them to share their opinions.
Low-quality content tries to provide basic information in the least appealing way possible. In most cases, it just tells the audience what they already know. As a result, they don’t feel compelled to engage with your brand.
Bad for SEO
Search engine visibility is the vehicle that gets your content to new, organic traffic. Therefore, you can’t afford to ignore SEO in your content plan.
Low-quality content providers rarely consider SEO content quality, and when they do, it is implemented lazily by plastering random keywords throughout your text. Instead of helping, this can flag your content as spam, which will send it further down the SERP.
Low sales and leads
As a result of the above, low-quality content is less likely to reach new traffic, and when it does, it will only damage your business reputation. Therefore, low-quality content might be cheap at the beginning, but it will lose your business’s potential customers in the long run.
Why you should invest in premium content
Now that we’ve discussed cheap content pitfalls, let’s look at what you’ll gain by investing in high-quality content.
Increased visibility
Creating people-first content will help you achieve good SEO content quality. Google’s algorithm is continuously tweaked to prioritize high-quality content. One of the ways it does this is by monitoring websites’ bounce rates. If your quality is interesting and relevant to visitors, they’re bound to stick around. This will bump up your site’s position on the search engine results page, making it more accessible to new visitors.
For example, if you search for a medical question on Google, most of the first results are always from reputable clinics. This is because they always publish data-driven information that users find helpful.
Better customer engagement
Customer engagement is important, not just for feedback, but also to establish brand loyalty. The more customers engage with your content, the more they’re likely to interact with other aspects of your business, and eventually convert.
Premium content increases customer engagement by encouraging the audience to interact with the brand. For example, good blogs and articles always have a call-to-action that ensures visitors don’t just leave the site once they’re done reading. Good social media posts also entice viewers to comment or share.
Improved brand credibility and customer trust
Valuable content focuses on providing facts and solving problems for visitors. Imagine you were searching for how to make strong and tight knots for your fishing line and found a great article that helped you do just that. Now, if you learned that the same website sold fishing hooks, wouldn’t you trust the quality of their products?
High-quality content establishes your business as an industry leader, boosting your brand’s credibility and customer trust.
Higher conversion rates
Of course, with the premium content benefits above, you’ll have more people visiting and trusting your online business. Additionally, the conversion rates will be higher because of the increased brand reputation you get from popular content.
If the content addresses your visitors’ pain points, they’ll be more open to trying what your business offers.
Increased ROI
Finally, the higher conversion rates will increase your revenue, and by extension your return on investment. While cheap content has the appeal of low initial costs, its returns are minimal and short-lived.
When you invest in high-quality content, you’ll pay more initially, but it will generate you much more conversions for a long time. It’s, therefore, safe to say that quality content offers better value for your money.
How to find the right content provider
There are two ways to create marketing content for your business: in-house, and through content agencies. While both have their pros and cons, you have to work with a professional agency if you want high-quality content that will grow your business.
Although there are thousands of marketing agencies out there, not all of them are suited for your business. Here are a few things you should consider before settling on a content provider:
Portfolio and case studies
One of the best ways to assess an agency’s expertise is by reviewing its portfolio and case studies. Doing this will give you a sense of the types of businesses they have worked with, the strategies they have used, and the results they have achieved.
Look for case studies that demonstrate success in areas relevant to your business, such as SEO, social media marketing, or PPC advertising.
Team expertise
The quality of an agency’s team can be a good indicator of their expertise. Look for an agency with specialists in the type of content you’d like to use for your business.
For example, while AI is quickly advancing in its capabilities, it can’t create authentic, people-first content that requires human experience and opinions. However, some marketing agencies use AI-generated content, which often fails to convert.
Therefore, it’s important to work with an agency like Penmo which uses experienced human writers to create custom
Client testimonials
Reading client testimonials can provide valuable insights into an agency’s performance. Look for specific and detailed testimonials describing the agency’s approach, communication, and results.
Reliability
Content marketing is a continuous process, so it’s essential to find an agency that delivers reliably. Some agencies have unreliable teams that will delay your marketing strategy by taking too much time, or submitting low-quality content that needs more work to match your vision.
A good content provider has a big, qualified, and reliable team that works to meet your deadlines, ensuring that all the content is consistent with your brand’s goals.
Industry experience
While some content marketing strategies are universal, others are specific to certain industries. For example, local SEO strategies for a restaurant will differ from those of a law firm.
It’s important to work with an established content agency with years of experience in different fields. That way, they’ll know the best content for your kind of business.
Save money with premium content today!
In conclusion, the premium content benefits heavily outweigh the initial cost. While low-quality content is cheap to make, it will hurt your business reputation, reduce your leads and conversions, and consequently diminish your ROI.
However, not all content marketing agencies that charge a premium will benefit your business. It’s therefore important to work with a reputable agency that understands the content game to help you focus on good SEO content quality. Penmo is a one-stop shop for high-quality content. Whether you need a blog, whitepaper, social post, e-book, or any other content written, you can rest assured that we can handle it.
We use experienced human writers who are not only well-versed in different fields but also great at research. This abundance of writers also means you can have multiple projects running simultaneously and completed in a short time.
So, what are you waiting for? Sign up now to explore our budget-friendly pricing for high-quality content!