Marketing's Future in One Word: Content

Used to be there was a distinct boundary between the interests of customers and the interests of the marketers that sold to them. It was a very simple equation: The customer wanted to pay the lowest possible price, while the marketer wanted to charge the highest possible price. Everything else about marketing strategy was a detail.

But that was then and this is now.

In our electronically transparent world, interactivity and social media have forever changed the way companies must approach the sales and marketing task. Customers now have immediate access to the tools and information required to make much more informed decisions, and no company will survive long without aligning its own interests with the interests of the customers it is trying to sell to.

In his very interesting book Nonobvious, Rohit Bhargava points out that the clout and power of the marketing function within companies is clearly growing. One widely cited statistic, for instance, is that CMOs will soon be spending more on technology than CIOs. However, he says, marketers themselves seem to be shying away from the “marketing” moniker more and more. Bhargava calls this a trend, and he labels it the “Reluctant Marketer Trend.”

Even with the power that information technology now places on directly their keyboards, the fact is that marketers have become reluctant to do the kinds of selling and promotion activities they used to do, for the simple reason that customers now see through these devices.

Instead, one of the most effective and increasingly important tools for today’s marketer is content marketing. Why? Because by dispensing more objective information for the benefit of customers a marketer can get on the customer’s side. Whether you’re a consumer marketing firm trying to promote your brand or a B2B company selling your product or service to large enterprise customers, putting out customer-oriented content will improve your standing with current and potential customers for the simple reason that you are giving them value without asking for something in return.

By speaking to the actual self-interest of customers (rather than trying to overcome that self-interest with ever more compelling sales messages and offers), today’s marketer can develop a level of trust and engagement with a customer that was never possible before.

If you want your content marketing efforts to be truly effective, however, then you need to approach it from the customer’s point of view. Your content needs to be oriented around the customer's own need, so that the customer gets real value from your content. Here are some suggestions:

1. Your content should be as objectively brand-neutral as possible. You want your customers to see you as an authority on the problem they’re trying to solve or the need they’re trying to meet. You’re not telling them the best thing to buy, you’re telling them the best way to solve their problem.
2. Make your content “snackable.” Produce it in bite sizes that can easily be consumed without a lot of effort. The more frictionless it is to digest your content, the more your customers are likely to rely on it.
3. Use research to figure out what topics and issues are of most interest to your customers. Bhargava suggests, for instance, that you could gain some insight into these topics by using Google's keyword analysis tools, or by scanning "most popular article" lists. 

4.  Pay attention to the headlines you use. Don’t expect most customers to give you more than a glance, so make that glance as effective as possible.

5. And finally, be sure to curate and re-purpose others’ content as well.  Don’t steal credit for anything, but by citing and summarizing others’ content and points of view (yes, even your competitors’ content, if they produce any), you will appear bigger than any mere contender. You will be speaking as an Authority.