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Why is content marketing so important right now?
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Content Marketing: Vendors as Publishers
What are the specific business drivers and market dynamics that make content marketing so important now?
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16 Answers
Content marketing is about educating your markets. Your prospective clients MUST understand exactly how and why your solutions will benefit them before they’ll even consider buying. This means you must help them recognize the business value of your solutions and differentiate your solutions from the alternatives.
Your prospects typically believe they’re doing the best they could with the available solutions. So you must show how your solution uses emerging technologies to add value and differentiate it. Examples of these technologies include Cloud Computing, Mobile Commerce, Data Analytics, Social Media, and Intelligent Systems.
As described in Geoffrey Moore’s seminal book, "Crossing the Chasm," the Innovators and Early Adopters already understand these technologies and how they will benefit from them. All they want to know are the particulars of your solution, your business model, and your pricing, and they’re ready to make their buying decision. The problem is that the Innovators and Early Adopters comprise only 10% – 15% of any given market.
The other 85% – 90% still doesn’t understand these technologies. Because they don’t really comprehend exactly how they’ll benefit from them, they aren’t ready to buy.
The question is: who should shape their understanding – you? Or your competitors? It is a waste of time to try to sell the benefits of your solution to a prospect who doesn’t yet recognize why they need it. Before you can sell them, you have to educate them. That’s the opportunity – and the challenge of content marketing.
Done properly, content marketing generates more qualified leads, reduces sales cycle times, increases sales team productivity, and improves close rates. These combine to accelerate revenues. For more details see "Educating Technology Markets" (http://http://www.e-com.com/why-educate).
Hello Scott,
I would like to answer you astute question literally and directly as Helen. One primary driver making content marketing and more importantly content strategy important right now is the sea waves of changes occuring in buyer behavior. In this limited space, it is hard to recite the evidence but suffice to say that buyers clearly are researching and self-directing their own purchase decisions. Whereby in the past they relied on information directly from sales, the buyer now has an expansive network developing that involves people, social networks & technologies, the Internet, and Enterprise 2.0 to gather information.
My own research shows that the "rush" to tactical content marketing is resulting in content proliferation which is causing even more shifts in buyer behaviors. Meaning that there is much bad content out there as there is good content - with bad content reflective of promotional information that has little relevance overwhelming buyers. Marketers are still learning how to become the research and learning vehicles for buyers. Jack Shaw alludes to this with his response focused on how to educate.
Why it is important right now in 2012 is that the stakes have actually increased to do it right - for content proliferation is causing buyers to be even more discerning about what they will spend their time finding, reading, and sharing that has proof of relevance to what they are attempting to accomplish. No doubt, a challenging time for marketers.
Tony
Actually, content marketing has been around for some time, in the form of by-lined articles, expert source quotes and and interviews. The difference is that the way people are looking for service providers and products has changed because of the Internet. The first thing they do is open up their browser and type in a series of words, hoping to surface someone who will exactly meet their needs. Those who deliver high-quality, targeted expert content that matches the what their audience is looking for (this is what search optimization is about) are rewarded with a higher page rank. The biggest challenge of content marketing is not the creation of a content strategy, that is pretty straightforward. It is the scrupulous adherence to the plan that emerges from that strategy. Most people completely underestimate the time commitment and skill sets required to achieve the publishing consistency needed to see results.
Content marketing has become so critical because:
- 41% of your audience says they engage with a sales rep only AFTER they do initial research.
AND
- 24% of your audience engages with sales only AFTER they've already established a preferred list of vendors.
(http://bit.ly/contentearly)
As mentioned above, you MUST start educating your audience early in the sales process, so they learn about the benefits of YOUR category of solution. If you can reach your prospects earlier in the sales process, you can show them HOW to evaluate different solutions. And don't you want to be the one dictating the key features to look for, rather than your competitor?
You also want to reach your audience earlier in the sales process to ensure they put you on their "possible suppliers" list when they're ready to talk to solution providers. They're unlikely to contact you early in the sales process. So you must reach those doing the research, by providing white papers, special reports, videos, checklists, evaluation tools, webinars, etc. -- all of the various tools of content marketing.
These content marketing tools can be used as offers designed to capture the prospect's email address. Then you can use your email conversion series of messages to educate and "nurture" these prospects over time.
Content marketing is only new to companies who don't understand the value of a "low commitment" offer early in the sales process. If you want prospects to give you their email address for future contact, you need to offer them something of value in a low commitment situation. Those websites that rely on the ultra-high commitment "Contact Us" are not capturing 98% of visitors to their website -- and so have no way to educate and nurture these visitors over time, if you can't capture their contact info.
Because more than ever, people are using digital technologies (e.g., Facebook or even the basic search engines) to initiate their buying process research, Therefore, digital content marketing becomes a critical battle ground for attracting and engaging prospects to your brand, your company and your solution. e.g., Rather than calling my family in L. A. to research available shuttles to take me from my folks' home to LAX, I'm about to hop online to do that reserch myself in order to get the most comprehensive and up to date info, assuming the Fly Away shuttle people and its competitors did a good job with the "content marketing" execustion.
Content marketing is so important because it helps:
Establish Credibility & Trust
Position the individual and firm as the Expert in the niche field
Prospects access relevant quality info they are searching for.
Drive more leads, traffic, and sales
"Content marketing" has become a real buzz phrase because businesses are operating in crowded and verycompetitive markets, often facing customers who are highly informed and, thanks to the internet, can quickly gather information about requirements and suppliers.
Not surprisingly previous "lack of content" marketing - such as big ads, shiny brochures and lots of schmoozing - is not having the impact it used to.
The question isn't "Why is content marketing so important right now?" but "Why is Quality content marketing so important right now?" Just ask Overstock.com - Hamadi got it right
Content marketing is all about sharing content that answers buyer questions. But in recent years, content marketing has moved from the fringe to the mainstream. This is why differentiation is so important today. Two events might help.
5 Ways to Differentiate Your Company in a Competitive Market http://fearlesscompetitor.com/2012/01/28/webinar-5-ways-to-differentiate-your...
Mad Marketing TV with Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners UK "Leaping from the Content Ocean" - publishing soon.
http://www.youtube.com/madmarketingtv
Content Marketing helps the local expert controls his/her digital assets and helps also educate the prospects about their services/products. She/he becomes the expert in subject maters.
Leon F
www.TaxMamba.com :: the Expert location platform for the Tax+Accounting community.
No doubt that it's important.
The problem is that everybody sees it as grueling gruntwork labor.
I've been teaching people to write for their blogs for 6 years. They get it. But, most won't DO IT.
Rather than beat my clients into writing, I'm using the carrot approach.
If the local radio station called up my client and asked her to speak on her favorite topic for a 10-minute talk-radio bit, she would JUMP at the chance. It's easy, fun and she doesn't have to write anything. Since it's her favorite topic, she doesn't even need to prepare. If we took the transcript of that interview, it would contain about 1,500 words. That's a meaty article or blog post.
So...we built a business out of it. We use professional radio interviewers and have our clients speak their expert content into existence in fun, monthly recording sessions where they record 4 or 5 interviews for weekly podcast/blog posts. We professionally edit the transcripts into readable and SEO friendly posts. Eventually, they can be repurposed into books, presentations, training, etc.
If you know that content is important, but you can't seem to find the time to write, we can help extract it from you. It's Easy Blogging for Busy People.
www.shortcutblogging.com
Industry research says that 50% of qualified leads who visit a web site are not ready to buy. We need to provide them with information to ease through the decision process and eventually persuade them to buy.
Content marketing has never been this critical in this age when people frequent the social web sites to interact with other people for ideas. Content is for information and sharing with others who are seeking it.
This year, our company should be able to help small and medium business owners consider our call center services to achieve their business goals. Content is something we will capitalize in the coming months.
http://www.magellan-solutions.com
Content marketing has ALWAYS been important — but the most important aspect of doing it well is to DIFFERENTIATE your product/service from what the competition is offering.
Very few marketers seem to understand this, but if it's not differentiating you it's not really marketing you.
Al Shultz
http://www.alshultz.com
what i believe personally that the content is something which can work great to bring huge attention from the users if we help them to provide really good assistance in the form of digital media content curation!
Simple. Content marketing is "so" important right now
because of the many choices, advances, and intense competition
that people have started to become more meticulous...
hence, it'd be to an organization's advantage if its site
were educating, entertaining, and easy to use/understand as well.
Marketing Tip: Simplicity and Impact is key to easy recall.
This is @TheGreatLight.
Because google sets your content as one of the most important thing for your seo
www.agencebetterway.com
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