What is content marketing, you ask?
Very simply, it’s when you publish useful, non-advertisey content (text, photos, videos, audio, surveys, widgets, reports, white papers, etc.) for your target audience to find. At the end of the day, your goal may be to convert some of the consumers of your content into customers or you may just be positioning yourself or your business as an expert authority in your field, but typically it’s content that draws people to you.
Traditional marketing is interruptive. You push advertising into people’s awareness on TV, radio, print, billboards, direct mail, directories, flashing ads, blimps and more. Content marketing is not interruptive and it’s not self-promotional or salesy. You publish great content that people seek out on their own. They discover you as they search for information.
The better your content, particularly digital content, the easier you are to find.
This may be the longest infographic I’ve ever actually read in its entirety but it is SO full of great information and statistics about content marketing, I had to share. Courtesy Demand Metric.
Some highlights:
- 90% of organizations do some content marketing
- 80% of people appreciate learning about a company through custom content
- Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing
- Per dollar spent, content marketing generates approximately 3 times as many leads as traditional marketing
- Blogs are responsible for 434% more indexed pages and 97% more indexed links
- On average, companies with blogs produce +67% leads per month
