Traditional advertising isn’t as effective as it used to be. There you go – that is my revolutionary lead statement. I wanted to kick off my blog today with the obvious because this is exactly why content marketing has become so important to large and small brands, even one-person shops. If you want to build relevant long-lasting relationships with your customers, creating useful content is the best vehicle to get you there.

Consumers have the power.
Consumers are savvy. We use DVRs to avoid commercials, fine-tune our Google searches to find only what we are looking for and we click out of online ads before they even start running. We have trained ourselves to ignore the noise being thrown at us on a daily basis. Why? Because today’s advertising world has empowered us by giving us the opportunity to choose what brands can communicate with us and in what manner. We are in charge!

It’s all about the consumer.
As a marketer, the first thing you should recognize is that all of your efforts need to be about your consumer, not you. Not long ago a company’s marketing materials revolved around their offerings, “We have the best products!” “We have the best people!” “We have the best price!” They spent their entire marketing budget pushing this information out to all who would listen. As you can imagine, that doesn’t work in today’s environment. Consumers want meaningful information to guide them while making purchasing decisions, not someone shouting at them. They want to be helped, not sold.

Build real consumer relationships.
Enter content marketing. According to the Content Marketing Institute, content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly-defined audience – and, ultimately, to drive profitable consumer interaction. To sum it up, it is the art of communicating with your audience without selling. You’re providing content with valuable insights that makes your audience more intelligent with the expectation that if you meet their needs, they will reward you with their business and loyalty.

Track your efforts.
There is measurable ROI with content marketing and it is being used by some of the biggest brands in the world, including P&G, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems, to name a few. Where are they finding the value for their businesses?

• Consumers are more receptive to the pull strategy of content marketing instead of the traditional push approach.
• Content marketing creates the opportunity for a two-way conversation, a real relationship with consumers.
• The content is dynamic, easy to change and update based on real data and feedback.
• Lower cost to produce versus printed elements.
• Thanks to the Internet, content marketing can have a much longer shelf life than traditional efforts and also has an extended reach as more and more consumers are able to find your information over time.
• Content marketing tactics are easier to measure than traditional efforts.
• Great content supports and increases effectiveness of traditional marketing efforts.

If you already have a content marketing strategy – great job! If not, don’t wait any longer to get writing. You may already have a good start on creating valuable content with your website, blog, or social media platforms. Now it is a matter of taking a step back and writing a strong strategy to make sure you have a comprehensive and consistent effort. And don’t worry – Catalyst is here to help. Give us a shout and we can help you build an effective strategy!