Electronic Highway Happenings

Recently, I was part of a group discussion focused around content marketing, and had the opportunity to walk the group through an overview of content marketing. One of the first things we covered was simple enough - what is content marketing, and why is it hot?

We then went through a few research statistics around the growth of content marketing, some content marketing strategies and tactics, and ways to measure your efforts. It was a great session, I got a lot out of the other presenters and I think everyone received good feedback from the group as a whole.

The session made me think - I'm often asked why I am such a big supporter of content marketing. When you look at the facts, it's a no-brainer. Here's a quick set of statistics that will put things into perspective:

According to the Custom Publishing Council and Roper Public Affairs, 80 percent of business decision makers prefer to get company information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. 70 percent say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, while 60 percent say that company content helps them make better product decisions.

These statistics show loud and clear that people want to hear about products from thought leaders, not salesmen. Content marketing helps businesses establish trust, which lead to sales, and best of all, loyal customers.

We all know that the age where you can shout at an audience to buy something is over. Buyers want to educate themselves, and using your content to provide that education and let them make more informed product decisions (as outlined above) is critical to your success. While this is true across all channels, it's especially so in the B2B environment.

A good content marketing strategy is so powerful because it runs across multiple channels - blogging, email marketing, search engines, social media (You can't say much more than headlines here without solid content to take people to!), white papers, testimonials and on and on. A lot of the time, businesses already have good content, but haven't distributed it well.

The point is, that for many businesses, content is your best asset. Whether on your own or by engaging outside help, make sure you have a content marketing strategy and plan in place to unlock that content rather than keeping it siloed in your website. Spreading your content around the web makes your company into a generous thought leader, and hey, you might just get what you give.

About the Author:

Will Davis is Managing Partner of Right Source Marketing. Follow @willdavis on Twitter or drop by Right Source's blog for more commentary like this.

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