In Gartner’s 2022 State of Marketing and Budget and Strategy report, CMOs reported that 10.1% of their marketing budget was going toward campaign creation and management, outranking their spending on customer analytics and digital commerce.
However, creating content that delivers a high return on investment (ROI) can be challenging, particularly for businesses that don’t have in-house content creation expertise.
At Horizon Peak Consulting, we specialize in creating content that delivers long-lasting benefits for enterprise tech startups. Our team of experienced writers and strategists works closely with you to understand your brand, your audience and the language your customers use, so we can create content that delivers the highest possible ROI.
In this article, we take a deeper dive into how HPC’s content delivers tangible results for your marketing program.
Increase audience engagement
HPC content creates a highly personal connection with readers — especially when compared to mass-produced copy or poorly edited AI output. And that personal connection leads to higher engagement rates.
What do I mean by “engagement”? The definition will be different for each type of content, but let’s use a blog post as an example.
Engagement starts with the first click, from a search engine, email, advertisement or other traffic source — but it really only matters when content is at least partially consumed by your audience.
Have you captured their attention so they don’t immediately bounce away from the page? Do they read through to the end of the piece? If your bounce rate is high, it means your readers aren’t truly engaging with your content, even if you’re attracting a lot of traffic.
Then the ultimate measure of engagement is whether the reader takes action after consuming the content. This could mean booking a demo, downloading a lead magnet, talking to a sales rep or making a purchase.
At Horizon Peak Consulting, we understand the importance of creating content that engages your audience and keeps them taking action on your site. We work closely with you to develop a deep understanding of your brand and your target audience, then create content that speaks directly to their interests and needs.
Truly engaging content that uses your customers’ language and creates a personal connection that draws your visitors in and reduces the likelihood that they will leave your site after viewing only one page.
To improve engagement, we also think about the entire customer journey when we’re writing a piece of content. We know we’re not just writing standalone emails, blog posts or e-books — every asset is part of an ecosystem within a larger campaign. When our writing team creates content, we always consider the entire experience the customer is having, including where they came from and how we can guide them toward their next step after consuming that piece of content.
And speaking of considering the customer experience …
Improving your customer experience with HPC
In a recent Gartner survey, nearly 50% of organizations claimed they can track the financial benefits of customer experience (CX) projects. Over 80% of organizations also said they expect to compete mainly based on CX.
However, the struggle to create a truly great customer experience is real. Over 70% of CX leaders are finding it challenging to design projects that achieve results and increase customer loyalty.
Lately, I’ve been talking with my team and clients about the importance of content in the customer experience — because the customer experience begins at the first moment of awareness of the brand.
Many companies believe the customer experience begins at the point of sale — but by that point, your lead is already pretty far into their experience with you. When a lead clicks through from search, that’s an opportunity to create a positive customer experience right there, with the marketing content they land on.
When we create content for our customers, HPC focuses on creating a positive CX that builds loyalty and drives conversions.
We also work with sales and marketing teams to ensure they’re in alignment. To create a smooth customer journey, your sales team needs to pick up where your marketing team leaves off when they speak with prospects. Otherwise, you’re leaving a big hole in the customer journey.
Through your marketing content, your potential customer has already had an experience with your brand. And if HPC is writing your content, that experience is likely a positive one — that’s why they want to take the next step and talk with a sales rep. But when your reps don’t acknowledge the prospect’s existing journey, you destroy trust in an instant. And once that trust is gone, it’s virtually impossible to get back.
That’s why HPC also helps startups create a smooth transition between marketing and sales, avoiding jarring disconnections that frustrate customers and make them feel like they’re starting from scratch when they speak with a sales rep.
Reap the benefits of long-term SEO
In his article, The Endgame for AI-Generated Writing, Nathan Baschez says:
“AI-generated content completely changes the economics of SEO in a way that is unsustainable and self-cannibalizing. If there used to be 10 articles competing for the top spot on a long-tail search term and now there are 10,000, then where previously 100% of the articles showed up on the first page of results, now only the top 0.1% do. If the 7,258th article is crappy, it doesn’t affect anyone! (Except the company that wasted money creating it.)”
But in a sea of generic or AI-generated content, HPC’s posts consistently rise to the top of the search engines.
But don’t take my word for it. Here’s what our customers have said about the long-term SEO benefits of publishing HPC-crafted content HPC:
Stephanie Webber, marketing lead at revVana, says:
“To this day, some of revVana’s highest performing content assets are the ones that Jessica planned and wrote for us two years ago. In fact, the most recent company that signed up as a revVana customer specifically referenced one of the white papers in the sales conversation. Horizon Peak’s approach with content simply works.”
Showcase Workshop president and co-founder Millie Blackwell says:
“A blog post Horizon Peak wrote for us in January 2017 is still to this day one of the top 3 drivers of traffic to our software company’s website.”
Here’s the real magic (if such a thing exists in the world of SEO): Neither of these companies gave us specific keywords to target for the assets we wrote for them.
Instead, we focused on creating useful content that addressed the genuine needs of their audience members. Horizon Peak Consulting works hand-in-hand with our clients to brainstorm the best possible topics for their audience, then uses those ideas to create content that connects and converts.
And it pays off — HPC assets continually pull in organic search traffic week after week, year after year.
Unlock the full potential of your content strategy with HPC’s ROI-driven approach
The benefits of HPC’s content go far beyond the initial investment.
With our content assets, our clients have attracted higher engagement, created a better customer experience, and earned a long-term improvement in their SEO rankings.
By investing in high-quality content creation, enterprise tech startups can reap rewards for years to come, as content continues to drive traffic, conversions, and revenue.
So if you’re struggling to get a higher ROI from your marketing campaigns, consider partnering with Horizon Peak Consulting to create content that delivers real, measurable results.
Get connected with us today to start the conversation.