Is Content Marketing Worth it?

With all the different types of social media advertising available now a days, it’s hard to decide which type is best suited for campaigns within the different industries. Content marketing is one of the newest forms of digital marketing and is sometimes over looked. Companies are wondering if content marketing is worth putting a budget into, and if it is an effective way to reach consumers. Not only does it reach consumers on a personal level, it turns browsers into buyers and buyers into influencers. What is better then having someone who loves your product or service be the ones to sell/market it for you? This makes it seem less like marketing and more personable or real. Every company should have an online presence.

As written in Ann Handley’s book “Content Rules”, content marketing gives businesses a chance to “converse” with their consumers, to know what they like or don’t like about the product/service. Knowing your customer better then they know themselves is the best way to reach them and be on their level. Making sure the content is related to them in either: a problem solving way, a helpful way, or a knowledgeable way can help to keep customers engaged. This conversational feel is what makes the customer feel safe and wanted. Consumers in this age can look up the answers they want on the Internet, making sure your content is creative and relative will make them come back to you.

“Boasting cannot ignite a real conversation the ‘look at my product’ approach also fails because it leaves nothing to talk about.”-This is known as interruption marketing. This approach doesn’t work anymore. People expect more and are learning that marketing sometimes isn’t always true.

One of the main cornerstones of content marketing is to tell a story with the content. Telling a significant, creative story will then build buzz and can then create a fan base. Look at what Snickers accomplished. They launched a global campaign that Mars wanted to give Snickers “more of an emotional appeal by taking a ‘storytelling’ approach.” This campaign was the “you are not you when your hungry” involving Betty White the famous actress. The Betty White spot went viral and gave a lot of free media to the candy. This type of story telling places Snickers as the hero and solution. When you are hungry and become ‘grumpy’ or ‘snappy’ eating a Snickers bar can help cure that feeling, bringing you back to how you usually are when you are not hungry. It helps to crave the hunger until you can eat properly. Snickers candy bar was inventive and insightful to the wanted target audience. They used tone, message and tactics to reach consumers in a different way. Competitors of the brand now want similar ads. Snickers would say it was worth it.

According to marketing interactions blog post on September 22 2013, the top five priorities for B2B marketing are as follows:

1.     Lead Generation

2.     Brand Awareness

3.     Customer Retention

4.    Content Strategy

5.     Lead Nurturing

As it states content marketing and achieving performance outcomes is more than just publishing it also requires intent. A big part of content marketing is to help customers learn how to be more involved with a business. The two top things talked about in this blog post are customer engagement and personalization. Engagement helps to determine what each type of interaction they want to achieve with the customers. The goal of each content type will show where the customer should go next or what to do with the content. Without personalization it is hard to engage effectively. Knowing your audience or consumers is what will make the content relevant and valuable. “Content strategy based on personalization is what results in customer engagement that drives business relationships.”

In Mitch Joel’s blog post “The end of privacy…the beginning of personalization” he acknowledges knowing people can help to create better content and an overall experience for them. One of his examples is Amazon. They have a great ability to create very high quality personalized content, which is key to their success. Knowing their consumer made the content relevant and impressive. “The ability to generate, distribute and engage in much more personalized advertising as a way to compliment the user's experience.” This can bring the true benefit of online marketing to the surface.

93 percent of marketer’s use content marketing this year compared to 91 percent last year as said within Joe Pulizzi’s blog post. He also says that business-to-business marketers are using social media to display and distribute content more frequently as well. SlideShare, Google +, and Instagram have all seen increases in usage. 58 percent of B2B marketers are planning to make their content marketing budget increased in the next 12 months. More B2B marketers are creating more content then ever.

In conclusion, is content marketing worth it? If I haven’t convinced you after reading this blog post its time to do some extra research and see the results for yourself! Not only can you tell the difference with brands and the weight put into content but you can see positive results when there is good, creative, quality content to be shared.

Popular content sharing sites: Blogs, videos, websites, social media mediums, forums and so on.