If You're Not Helping Your Customer, Don't Bother With Content Marketing

Corporate peer pressure is forcing companies to become content marketers on a seemingly weekly basis. But keep this caveat in mind before freeing up budgets for storytelling: If the content you create doesn't help your customer improve their lives, don't do it.

It seems like a no-brainer but when you're creating a new editorial destination, a series of videos, podcasts, publishing books, or producing a live stream on a social network, you're asking consumers to take time out of their busy schedules to check you out.

It's what happens afterward that matters most.

If your audience doesn't like what you're putting in front of them, they're not coming back. They just won't. It's human behavior.

But here's why they may not like what they see: It doesn't do anything for them.

The problem I see with most content marketing efforts is that brands just don't get why they're in the space in the first place.

The content I see still looks and feels like marketing. It's still a hard sell. It has no personality. It reads like a press release.

That's a big turn off.

And that's exactly what my team and I have stayed away from at Marriott International as we've turned Marriott Traveler into the hotel industry's most popular online travel magazine.

Our focus has always been on storytelling first -- but stories that help people arrange their travels and leave a destination with a much better experience that generates amazing memories you'll want to share with family and friends. Even strangers on social channels.

The moment you achieve that is when you start seeing your audience grow -- and watch your content drive commerce.

Marriott Traveler has grown every single month since it launched in early 2015, not because we pushed where people should stay, but took the stress out of planning travel. We introduce people to the unique personalities that bring a destination to life, which makes a place more approachable. We spotlight the experiences people can consider that will make a trip more memorable. We're helping, not selling.

Successful content produced by any brand should help someone:

• Save money.
• Save time.
• Learn something new.
• Cut steps in accomplishing what's normally an annoying process.
• Feel inspired.
• Forget the stresses of everyday life and entertain.

Let your traditional marketing campaigns do their job and remind people that you exist. The role of content marketing is to make your brand better than another, your company one that consumers can't ignore. Content should get your customer to come back to you.

And if you get them to come back, you'll get them to spend more money.

It works every time.

READ ALSO: Can't Find a ROI in Your Content Marketing? You're Doing it Wrong

Marc Graser is Senior Director of Creative + Content Marketing at Marriott International, joining the company as its first Editorial Director. He previously was a Senior Writer and Editor at Variety and covered the content marketing space while overseeing Advertising Age's Madison + Vine.