If you have any doubts about the standing of content marketing in our digital world, consider this: In two years, the industry will be valued at nearly a half trillion dollars.
If you’re still not convinced, try this one: In 2016, it was worth less than $200 billion which, according to that 2017 forecastOpens a new window from market research company Technavio, means that the entire industry will more than double in the five years from 2016 to 2021.
With such impressive growth expected in the near future for the sector, clients often ask me and my colleagues this: “Is content marketing really so important? Is it really the next big thing?â€
Our answer is always a resounding “yes.â€
Ultimately, content marketing has been developing so rapidly in response to the growing demands of consumers. Any brand or company – B2B or B2C – will benefit from taking advantage of its promise. Opens a new window
What is content marketing?
At my office, we like to refer to content marketing as under-the-radar marketing.
Content marketing refers to an approach that an organization uses when creating and sharing some form of digital content online, be it blogs, articles, social media posts, videos or infographics. While that material does not explicitly promote a service or product, it is nevertheless designed to stimulate interest by providing informational or entertainment value to the audience.
It can take the form, for example, of a blog written by an IT security company about the top trends in its field. While the post will not promote the organization or its service overtly, it showcases the company’s value by highlighting its expertise and knowledge of that topic.
Here’s another example: The Lego Movie. The film didn’t address the supreme greatness of Lego toys. Rather, it was sclear to audiences that Legos are a timeless classic that bring joy to children of any generation.
What content marketing has to offer
What this genre of marketing offers is a more organic and authentic way to build trust and loyalty, engage consumers and shape customer-brand relationships.
Traditional sales pitches just don’t work anymore. Consumers don’t respond well when they feel like they are being treated as sales marks by money-grubbing corporations. It’s one of the reasons sales and marketing teams must work so much more closely togetherOpens a new window  to target customers.
And it’s also why the “non-sales approach†of content marketing works so well: Content that is useful and interesting, providing accurate information and answering questions. Ultimately, this high-quality material provides value to digital audiences.
At a time when people are struggling with information overload and fake news online, content marketing is the solution to meeting contemporary consumer preferences and needs.
No wonder that 91% of B2B marketers and 86% of B2C marketersOpens a new window are using content marketing in one way or another.
Marketers are embracing content marketing
When digital content marketing started developing, there were no best practices. Marketers used trial and error to identify what the most effective content for specific audiences.
Moreover, convincing the C-suite that content marketing was worth investing in was a tough sell. Content marketing is a slow burn, if you will: Generally, it takes months to see real results – for example, attracting a loyal audience, building trust and authority in the brand and performing better in search engine rankings.
But what really soured business leaders was that in those early days, nobody really knew how to prove ROI.
Skip forward a decade. Now, with the consumption of online content skyrocketing in recent years, businesses have invested significant time and resources to discover how to capture and convert digital consumers.
Most marketers are now fully aware just how vital it is for them to:
- Develop a content strategy
- Produce high-quality, trustworthy content
- Build the capability to track and gauge the reach and engagement of their content
- Measure ROI
And now they reasonably can do it all.
Consequently, marketers are able to define the benefits of content marketing, as well as measure their work to identify key data points that prove the value of the investment.
And investing, business leaders are. A report from GlobeNewswireOpens a new window found that the content marketing software market will more than double from $4.12 billion in 2018 to $9.59 billion in 2023.
Tech can help
One thing won’t change: Humans will always create the best content.
That said, an increasing number of tools and technologies are available to help with content marketing. For instance, web traffic analytics platforms such as FintenzaOpens a new window  are great for digging deeper into visitor data to optimize future content that better targets site visitor interests and improves conversion funnels.
Or text optimization tools like the aptly-named Text OptimizerOpens a new window , a device that uses semantic text analysis to offer suggestions for improving text-based content quality ranging from terms to use to concepts to cover for better engagement and search rankings.
And for social media marketers, there are publication tools like HootsuiteOpens a new window or ContentcalOpens a new window , which can be used to create an automated, cross-platform, content publication calendar.