The Rise Of Content Marketing

In 1995, journalist Esther Dyson asked an important question about the burgeoning web:

“What new kinds of content-based value can be created on the internet?”

Dyson observed almost 30 years ago that as the internet becomes more populated with all kinds of content, the value of intellectual property will depreciate. “The likely best defense for content providers,” she argued, is “to distribute intellectual property free in order to sell services and build relationships.”

What worked in marketing in the past won’t keep working in the future. And it isn’t, we know it. In a world with unlimited competition for attention, we must find a way to deliver value to our customers before they ever make it to a pitch to sell them something. Because if you don’t, someone else will. The modern era of marketing has been an entire shift from advertising what we do to teaching what we know to help the most people. Businesses today are treating their information as the product to attract people interested in learning about their field to add value and gain the attention of the customers we want.

The Rise of Value-Rich Content

Subject matter experts today are standing out by providing the most useful, easy to find content to create a community around the passion they share for their subject matter. It’s NOT about producing content for the sake of promoting content for our business. It’s about providing beneficial information that informs & delights people who are searching for what you know that can help them.

The term content marketing isn’t new. It was simply adopted by the marketing industry wishing to put a stake in the ground in 2007 to highlight the shift away from annoying traditional interruption advertising to the maturing discipline of differentiated value-oriented content creation. To help people not just sell people.

78%  of CMOs believe custom content creation is the future of marketing, which isn’t surprising given how it influences 61% of consumer’s buying behavior with a 6x higher conversion rate compared to marketing without a digital content strategy. Businesses today that produce the most relatable content. Win.

The content marketing funnel is the new sales funnel. 75% of people visiting a site are just seeking useful information. 23% are comparing solutions they are looking for, and only 2% are ready to take any immediate action. That means we need far more content to attract and engage people into our funnel. Create episodes, videos, articles that help your customers overcome the conflict stopping them from achieving their goals. Create articles on examples of other people or companies reaching the goals you can help them achieve to get them interested in those results. (The mountain they want to climb).  Then create content that outlines every step they need to obtain what they desire and the tools and resources they need to reach their ultimate goal (be the guide).

Instead of interrupting the content, your potential customer is consuming. Produce the content they want to consume.