Why is Content King?

In digital marketing we often hear “Content is King” in today’s marketing buzz-phrases. But why is that? What does this mean? The truth is, content is good because its the way people find you. Content is the way someone can identify easily with your brand. Content is how you humanize your branding. Knowledge is not power in the information age, sharing knowledge is. Say what?

Digital marketing is becoming more about education, training and self-improvement in our often changing roles in society. Social authority is emphasizing the importance of social capital. Gone are the days where people work at the same company for 10 years, lucky if it’s 3 now. So while we only skim content, we are looking to profit from it, certainly not just as a prospective buyers, but as an information sponge. Because that’s how you survive in the digital world, that’s how it conditions you.

With mobile marketing in full-swing, video on the upswing, PPC dying, competition in your industry is likely booming, your marketing department is only as good as your copywriters. If your marketing skills are behind the curve, your company has a problem.

• Content is at the heart of digital marketing because of the proliferation of channels, media, devices and the emphasis on the customer experience. 

Reality in 2015

1 – Traditional advertising is dead, response does not justify the considerable costs

2 – Your 3 year old website is not generating leads, heck it doesn’t even have a snazzy video on the landing page.

3 – Your branding sucks, nearly as bad as your product packaging.

4 – Telemarketing efforts are getting stonewalled.

5 – You don’t know how to use social media, despite having them.

6 – Your client base is small and you depend too much on customer retention and loyalty.

7 – Your sales pitches amount to a favourable reviews of misleading promises

8 – Your company lacks credibility in your industry against high powered established corporate brands.

Welcome to the new age, you are not alone. Should you be worried? Do you have copywriters who blog, create Newsletters, engage on social media? Are you on social search engines, like Youtube or Pinterest? Notice how these two both have a huge self-learning aspect.

Art of Digital Persuasion

Digital persuasion whether you like it or not, depends upon the quality of your Inbound lead generation devices, that is, their content. This can be measured in:

• Emotional intelligence & ability to connect with people emotionally, socially and on a human level
• Shear entertainment value for your audience.
• Information value to readers.
• Anything that boosts credibility, authenticity and enthusiasm for the products & services your business offers.
• Mobile readiness and appropriateness to casual skimming browsers.

What You Should be Doing

• Create the type of information your buyers actually do and want to consume.

Ah so there you have it! What do your customer personas like anyways? Have you surveyed them, taken the time to actually listen and harvest their preferences?

They may actually like what is currently popular, infographics, videos, podcasts. Who wants to download another white paper? Who has the time?

Engaging with real people requires contests, promotions, offering something for free for a trial run of services. People require incentives, a gamification strategy layer in your content-marketing. They want to have fun while buying and doing business, they want it to be socially-shareable.

What’s cool? User-generated content is cool, video contests are cool. Seeing companies give something back to society is neat. Being a pioneer on the front-lines of new media is impressive.

Adopt the new

You aren’t sure if Instagram is appropriate for your business, maybe it will be. You don’t think people would be interested in a behind the scenes look at your company via Periscope? You never know. You think video blogging is too technical, maybe someone in your marketing team is a start in the making and would enjoy the challenge. If you don’t adapt, you don’t get respect by consumers. In the next 20 years, Millennial buying power will increase so in a sense, you have to cater to your existing clients and your future clients. 

Bottom Line

Valuable content can help you sell. Demonstrate your helpfulness, expertise, usefulness, and how your products can solve problems. Establish your company as a “go-to” place in your industry, as an exciting brand that is young, positive, altruistic and appealing. Demonstrate that your brand actually cares about the community, it’s employees and the world at large.

Forget your old-school sales mentality, how is your company truly customer-centric? Emphasize that, go the extra mile with your content.

I’m going to leave you with some content quotes, I hope you enjoy!