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IntroAt the end of the day we are all marketers. We all have a story to tell. We allhave a target market waiting to hear from us. And, whether we are lawyers,nutritionists, retail shop owners, technology solutions providers, CPAs ormusicians, we are all aggressively attempting to edge out our competition.

In recent years, we have witnessed the turning of the tide with marketing.Companies have abandoned traditional, stale channels—such as printadvertisement, radio segments and direct mail—in favor of the new eraof marketing, characterized by search engine optimization, lead generationand social media, among other tactics.

But lately, the buzz has been about a different approach: content marketing.Earlier this year, the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) contended that if youare not leveraging content marketing strategies, you are not marketing. That isbecause 91% of B2B marketers are relying on content marketing—from creatingnews articles for their corporate website to populating social media accounts tocrafting eNewsletters and blogs—to sell their offerings, establish subject matterexpertise and remain a step ahead of their competition. In fact, more than halfof B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets over thenext 12 months.

You’ve Got a Story To Tell…Did your restaurant recently go green? Did you decide to purchase organicfood products that support the long-term maintenance of ecosystems andagriculture? Or perhaps your CEO just completed a voyage to Africa andsaw firsthand the literacy challenges facing third-world villages. Chances areevery month—if not every week— your company has a story to tell. Ready toput the pen to paper?

Thanks to the advent of content marketing, companies every day get to sharetheir chapters with the world. Simply put, content marketing is a comprehensivemarketing strategy that involves creating and sharing relevant, customized,insightful copy, with the end goal of helping a company bolster its brandawareness and profitability.

The type of content you produce should be linked to what you sell. Write whatyou know. Establish yourself as a subject matter expert. And, in so doing, forgea lasting trust with your customer that converts to sales and revenue.

“Content marketing must work to enhance or change a behavior. If it doesn’t,it’s just content,”explains Joe Pulizzi, founder of CMI.

While the phrase “content marketing” might be fairly new to the marketingvernacular, the concept actually dates back centuries. Since the dawn ofthe consumer age, from the introduction of the first-ever customer magazineThe Furrow by John Deere, to modern day times with the advent of tablets,social networking sites and IPOs, companies have been telling their storiesand advertising their offerings through content creation.

Content marketing mustwork to enhance or changea behavior. If it doesn’t, it’sjust content.

Joe Pulizzi, founder of CMI

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Therefore, it is not all that surprising that everyone from large enterprises tosmall- to medium-sized businesses to nonprofits to state and country agenciesare embracing content marketing. They’re turning the page on their specific tale.

Companies are opening their wallets to content marketing, evidenced bythe fact that 54% of marketers plan to increase their content marketingspending in 2013. But with 64% of marketers struggling to find time to produceenough content and 52% grappling with how to create engaging content,marketers are left with a big question mark as to how to develop a fully-bakedcontent marketing strategy and perhaps more importantly, one that iseconomically sound and creates time for executives to address otherpertinent matters.

The demand for content marketing is undeniable—and businesses need help.Their content marketing strategies are futile. They are overwhelmed with howto address the “The Three R’s of Content Marketing”—recent, reliable, relevant.They are completely lost in the new-age lexicon of “follow,” “pin it,” “share,”“#tbt,” “digg,” “embed” and “metadata.”

Content marketing is the driving force of thought leadership and brandawareness, inherently linked to profitability and customer acquisition.The question is no longer “Will my organization adopt a contentmarketing strategy?” It’s “How much longer can I remain competitivewithout one?”

Realizing the Benefits of Content MarketingBy originating and distributing custom copy—either in the form of a blog,newsfeed, infographic, tweet, or status update—you are taking critical stepsto reaching your company’s goals of brand awareness, customer acquisition,lead generation, thought leadership, website traffic and customer engagement,among other things. All without ever having to make a formal sales pitch.

Below, we take a deeper look at the main advantages afforded by thisavant-garde marketing channel and how they are intrinsically tied to profitability.

The chief reasons strategists flock to content marketing are:


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Brand Awareness: Who are You? B2B marketers agree: Brand awareness is one of their top content marketingobjectives, as cited by an impressive 79% of respondents in a recent survey.

So what exactly is brand awareness?

Brand awareness is the measurement of a company’s corporate identity andexistence. It looks at how well your consumers understand your corecompetencies as they compare to your competition. However, achieving anunmatched level of awareness for your brand is no small feat. Brand awarenessrelies heavily on a world full of content marketing genius that secures yourbusiness’ continuity and profitability.

It’s ready for the taking. The question is: Are you reaching?

Content marketing is the first step towards augmenting awareness ofyour brand. When you create the kind of tailored copy your customersare looking for—that which is specifically attentive to them—you notonly showcase what you have to offer but you also attract andconvert prospects.

There are a number of ways to leverage content marketing to create brandawareness, including:

• Blogs: Producing captivating, targeted posts will help land your brand on Google’s Blog search, which ranks fresh, relevant content from millions of bloggers all vying to make it to the top.

• Infographics: Creating a visual representation of your brand is engaging,insightful and gives customers a holistic view of who you are as a company and how you differ from your competitors.

• eNewsletters: There is no better way to optimize your brand than by showing customers you have a finger on the pulse of your industry. eNewsletters arean excellent way to showcase your corporate identity and to highlight your chief differentiators.

But producing content is only the first step to enhancing brand awareness.The next step is to develop a comprehensive social media strategy to actuallyshare those blogs, infographics and eNewsletters with your customer base.

Recent research shows that 49% of strategic social media users integrate socialplatforms into their marketing agendas. In today’s interconnected age, Twitter,Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, among others, are all housed under theever-widening brand awareness umbrella. If you’re not utilizing social media toshare your content, you’re part of a group that is already behind in the game.


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Take Twitter, for example—100,000 new tweets are sent every minute, whichcan translate into thousands of sales. According to a 2012 infographic:

Traditional publicity and advertising efforts are antiquated and incompatiblewith today’s evolving customer expectations. After all, only 14% of customerstrust advertisements, which is a stark comparison to the 90% who trustpeer recommendations.

“We don’t have a choice on whether we do social media, the question ishow well we do it,” explains Erik Qualman, author of Socialnomics.

Show your true colors and you will achieve the four C’s—content, conversation,community and connections—and, of course, sales. The only way to do this isthrough content marketing. More than two-thirds of CMOs are planning toincrease their content marketing budget in 2013. Are you?

Thought Leadership: Pave the WayThere’s a reason the phrase “follow the leader” is part of our lexicon.We admire leaders. We trust that wherever they’re going is where weneed to be.

And so it goes in the business world. We admire those who innovate, thosewho own successful ideas and those who aren’t afraid to put them out first.We applaud those who show others how it’s done.

So, how do you become a thought leader? By freely sharing ideas andknowledge of your industry and the direction you see it going. By being unafraidto take chances. By admitting you’re wrong when you are. By being human.

How do you fail at thought leadership? By being anonymous. By being afraid.By being self-serving and failing to explore the bigger picture. By notdifferentiating yourself.

Content marketing bridges the gap between being anonymous and beingan influencer. It allows a company to make its voice heard through a varietyof platforms, from social media to blogs to newsfeeds.

Companies that are thought leaders will be followed on Twitter. They’ll be likedon Facebook. Thought leaders will see that their online outreach continues tocrescendo. Their messages will spread to an even wider audience who will knowthat what they contribute and what they say is worthy. We’re cursed with finitetime and resources—and inundated with superfluous content that doesn’t addto the conversation but rather mars or distorts it—so when we come across qualitycontent, we have a heightened appreciation for it.

But leaders don’t spring up overnight. In order to lead, you’ve got to set anexample time and time again.

We don’t have a choiceon whether we do socialmedia, the question is howwell we do it.

Erik Qualman,author of Socialnomics

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Why Content Marketing Leads to Thought Leadership

So how does a company become—and more importantly remain—a thoughtleader? By continually disseminating ideas that spearhead changes in the waywe think.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges many businesses face today isthe simple lack of time to produce engaging content containing such ideas.So while the ideas might be there, the time to showcase them is not.

According to a recent survey, companies are increasingly developing contentmarketing strategies to establish themselves as thought leaders. In fact, 64% ofmarketers are actively trying to become thought leaders, which means morethan half of your competition is already a step ahead.

Customers want to follow those who blaze the trails, not those who blindlytraverse those which others have forged. So be a pioneer. Once they’veidentified you as a thought leader, they’ll realize the value you provideand become loyal to your brand. They’ll evangelize on your behalf.

In this light, thought leadership should not be considered a revenue stream inand of itself. Forward-thinking business owners realize that the intangible priceof brand value outweighs money itself.

Writing for Forbes, Russ Alan Prince and Bruce Rogers define a thought leaderas an entity recognized “as one of the foremost authorities in selected areasof specialization, resulting in its being the go-to individual or organization forsaid expertise.”

The second part of that definition? Thought leaders are those who“significantly [profit] from being recognized as such.”


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Website Traffic: Attracting More Eyes Increasing traffic is one of the most important elements in ensuring the successof your company’s website. Sixty percent of B2B marketers employ a contentmarketing strategy to drive website traffic, which increases the number of visitors,click throughs and overall impressions. This directly leads to sales and, ultimately,outperforming your competitors.

The most advanced and captivating website doesn’t matter if it’s not visited.

There are many ways to get eyeballs on your website, namely throughthe creation of custom, provoking content. The most popular techniques cited by B2B marketers include:

As opposed to more traditional methods—which are slowly becoming obsolete—capturing and analyzing your website traffic flow is vital to ensuring the healthand overall continuity of your business. Being able to identify who visits your siteallows you to more accurately capture who is interested in your company.Doing so gives you an accurate snapshot of the audience who preaches onyour behalf, allowing you to tailor your content marketing approaches to them.


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How Content Marketing Boosts Website TrafficTraditional public advertising has quickly become the Achilles’ heel of onlinemarketing. It just doesn’t work anymore. Companies know that getting onlineis the most successful way to promote their brand and get customers to know,like and trust them. But these companies may not know that customers arescouring the Internet every day for unique content. And countless companiesare drowning in the sea of static, outdated websites.

Customers want valuable information when making purchasing decisions.But before you can see the benefits of high website traffic, you must first find away to effectively share that information. Content marketing creates urgency.A successful strategy will have your customer base routinely visiting your websiteto read your latest blog posts, check out your new product landing page andview your latest videos. Once you have compelling content, the search enginespiders will find you and rank you higher on the search results, increasing thelikelihood that your next prospective customer will stumble across you.

Getting your customers to your site once is no small feat; getting them tocontinually come back is the real challenge.

Lead Generation: How to Get Customerson Board How does a company compete against an army of competitors to establishthe first contact with a customer? After all, that’s the moment that creates aspark that can be nurtured into a long-term, mutually beneficial relationship.

You need a hook. And you need to be able to cast well.

Responding to a survey, 82% of B2B marketers leveraged content marketingstrategies to engage customers and prospects; 55% of those respondersemployed those tactics to drive sales. With this in mind, it’s evident businessesare beginning to see that setting the table is becoming more important thanthe dinner itself. Sure, you better still deliver a fine feast, you have to getcustomers to accept the invitation first.

Successful content marketing helps potential customers feel as though they arepart of something. It engages them, it entertains them and it piques their curiosity.

Once that curiosity is piqued, it empowers them to follow through. And theyopen their wallets.

Many people shopping for blenders probably don’t care about brands. They justwant a machine that will do the trick. So how does a blender vendor differentiateitself from its competition?

Take a look at Blendtec, a purveyor of the kitchen appliance. They’re different.Why? The company leveraged a key content marketing strategy, creating avideo series called “Will It Blend?” in which Founder Tim Dickson throws objectssuch as pool cues and iPads into their blender and successfully mashes them up.Blendtec’s video of an iPad being turned to mush has been viewed on YouTubemore than 15.7 million times since April 2010. That’s 15.7 million leads, many ofwhich turned into sales.


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According to Forbes, businesses do not follow through on 71% of all leads thatoriginate on the Internet. Who do you think is ready to swoop in and feast uponthose non-pursued leads? Your competitors.

This 71% tragic figure can be attributed to a simple lack of time. Marketing andsales teams are pulled in tremendously different directions each day, and with theirenergies scattered across an array of responsibilities, it’s impossible for every task tobe masterly completed.

In fact, companies on average take 46 hours and 53 minutes to respond to a lead.That’s eons of time in the realm of on-boarding a customer. That’s eons of time foryour competitors to reach a potential customer. By taking tasks off your team’scollective plate, that unacceptable duration will be significantly reduced, andyour team will be able to follow up on potential leads in real time.

Customer Retention: Your Work is Never Done You’ve made the sale—so what’s next?

In our ever-connected world, your loyal customers’ simple curiosity could quicklyresult in their decision to support another company. Your competitors’ products—and all their unique differentiators—are always just a click away. With socialmedia’s ability to have the sentiments of consumers spread like wildfire, youcan’t afford to lose a single customer. A theoretical tweet from a recently-lostcustomer could inflict serious damage to your brand by driving business elsewhere.

So how do you retain your customers after they’ve given you money?

By introducing even more value into the mix. By proving your commitment tothem doesn’t stop once money has been exchanged.

Content created with the expressed purpose of selling a product does nothingfor the person who’s already part of your customer base. You’ve already madethe sale.

In order to retain them—and ensure they choose you for their related businessneeds—you need a steady stream of content catered to them which willsupplement the sale that’s already taken place. This proves your company isworthy of your clients’ business. This takes your relationship to the next level.

Take FixYourDLP.com, for example. The company provides replacement light bulbsfor digital light processing televisions. According to Arnie Kuenn, president of theInternet marketing firm Vertical Measures, the company had about $100,000 ofrevenue during its first year in existence. Six years later, it raked in $24 million.

How?


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“They did it all by producing hundreds of how-to videos and PDF manuals thatshow consumers how to install the bulbs they sell in specific TV sets," Kuenn says."That was their whole marketing effort, and it worked because they producedhelpful content that consumers needed, then sold them the product that wouldsolve their problem."

It’s easy to see how content explaining how a product can be used adds value.But supplemental content created to retain customers isn’t confined to the“how-to”—it spans across a broad spectrum. Introduce executives to yourcustomers with profile pieces. Let your customers get to know you as a brand—what you stand for—and not just as a logo. Build relationships with your customers.Interact with them.

According to Ardath Albee, CEO of Marketing Interactions, Inc., customerretention is realized by introducing new ideas, which oftentimes can result inadditional sales via product enhancements or further solutions. There are avariety of content marketing approaches any company can use to assurecustomers that they’re making the right choice to remain loyal.

Here’s a look at three of them:

• Blogging: Show your customers who you really are while at the same time learning who they really are. Get to know those who are supporting yourendeavors, what they like and what makes them tick. Find out which postsresonate, and craft content you know your customers desire. A majority ofyour competitors who have blogs—65% of them—only update them oncea month because they don’t have time. You’re better than that.

• Social media: Eighty-seven percent of businesses that market their contentonline do so through social media. If you’re in the 13 percent minority, your competition is actively trying to steal your customers each and every day—while you sit idly. But all hope is not lost. Of the questions fans pose on Face-book to companies, 70% of them are ignored. On top of that, 25% of global companies close their walls so fans can’t even ask questions. Your customers are trying to reach out to you, so you’ve got to reach back. Don’t stopat a sale. Engage your customers and show them that you’re there.

• Email marketing campaigns: Your customers love you enough to give youone of their most prized possessions: their coveted personal email addresses. Show them how thankful you are and how much you care about yourrelationship by offering special discounts and exclusive deals available toonly those on your email marketing lists. Your customers will feel special,and you’ll retain them.


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SEO: The Rebirth of Ranking Last year, Adam Torkildson, one of the United States’ top search engine optimization (SEO) consultants, told Forbes in a highly contradictory article,“Google is in the process of making the SEO industry obsolete; SEO will bedead in two years.”

SEO was once placed on a pedestal when it came to identifying trusted sourcesand exposing certain brands. As we know it, SEO refers to the process of searchengines ranking websites that they think are most reputable and relevant byanalyzing a list of criteria, including page content, word choice and website traffic.

For more than a decade, gaming the algorithm and securing high SEO rankingswere top of mind for marketers looking to lock in sales. Today, though, employingtraditional SEO tactics is a way for companies to stick their head in the sand and,by doing so, miss out on more proven methods of customer acquisition and sales.

Regardless of what happens to SEO practices, one thing remains true: Searchengines are constantly on the lookout first and foremost for real content on theInternet that people want to—and do—read and share. We’ve all heard theage-old saying: “Content marketing is king.” But how does one manage to wearthe crown? Think of it this way: Great content is king, and communities of avidfollowers appoint their king.

Old SEO practices of keyword stuffing, paid advertising and content farming arenow being phased out. Content marketing is a fresh way to enjoy SEO as searchengines reward you for organic, dynamic and original content. If SEO is dead,content marketing is its reincarnation.

So how do you start using content marketing to rank your website?

• Avoid keyword stuffing: Choose a select few keywords and naturally weave them throughout your content. Search engines are smart. They recognizewhen you are trying too hard.

• Get a blog—ASAP: Research shows that INC 500 companies consistentlyoutnumber Fortune 500 companies with corporate blogs. A blog is an ideal marketing platform for differentiating yourself and producing the kind of thought-provoking content that gets highly ranked.

• Quality over quantity: It may seem that the more content you produce,the higher your SEO will be. But search engines are looking to rank qualitycontent that is authoritative, innovative and, above all, not repurposed.

• Embrace social media: Social media helps content get indexed faster(tweeting cuts indexation time in half). Keep in mind, “shares” and “likes”can trigger a refresh of your keywords in search engine algorithms, whichyields higher rankings.


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McDonald’s applied the above to its Canadian-based content marketing programcalled “Our Food, Your Questions,” which allowed its customers to ask questionsabout the company’s products on a variety of social channels. In doing so, thefast-food brand gained large volumes of unique, valuable, high-quality contenton its website, which in turn, demonstrated proven SEO benefits. It even gotMcDonald’s Canada to be named “Marketer of the Year 2012.”

Content marketing is vital to SEO. You need to keep things fresh with custom copyin order to stay on top. The easier you make it for customers to find you, the betterposition you will find yourself.

The Dawn of a New EraThere is no disputing the fact that the sun has risen on the content marketinglandscape. Marketers are sharpening their pencils and fitting content marketingstrategies into their budgets; content creators are brainstorming their blog topics,eager to let the words flow; and social media managers are a click away fromtaking the great leap towards thought leadership and brand awareness.

Now is the time to tell your story. The time to put out a compelling message thatwill unequivocally result in your consumers evangelizing on behalf of your brand.

The time to convert leads and drive sales. Your pages are bare and are ready forink. Now you just have to figure out where to start.


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Sources: INTROhttp://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/ http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2013/02/top-content-marketing-questions-quick-answers/ http://www.slideshare.net/fullscreen/CMI/b2b-content-marketing-2013-benchmarks-budgets-and-trend-snorth-america-14855770/1http://contentmarketinginstitute.com/2012/07/balanced-formula-for-effective-content/

BRAND AWARENESShttp://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/The_average_Facebook_user_is_getting_olderand_more_13483.aspx# http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzsQkMFgHEhttp://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-fortune-500-social-media-statistics/http://www.forbes.com/sites/marketshare/2012/11/27/5-big-brands-confirm-that-content-marketing-is-the-key-to-your-consumer/http://pinterest.com/pin/112097478197601845/

THOUGHT LEADERSHIPhttp://visual.ly/igniting-content-marketing-thought-leadershiphttp://blog.marketo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Thought-Leadership-1.jpghttp://www.fastcompany.com/3003897/golden-rules-creating-thoughtful-thought-leadershiphttp://www.forbes.com/sites/russprince/2012/03/16/what-is-a-thought-leader/http://www.g2msolutions.com.au/blog/bid/113008/How-To-Be-A-Thought-Leader-In-Your-Industry-A-B2B-Marketer-s-Guidehttp://www.cmswire.com/cms/customer-experience/5-reasons-your-company-blog-fails-at-thoughtleader-ship-020652.php

CUSTOMER RETENTIONhttp://www.pardot.com/content-marketing/content-customer-retention/http://www.business2community.com/content-marketing/b2b-content-for-customer-retention-tells-a-different-story-0330800http://www.inboundwriter.com/content-marketing/7-types-of-customer-retention-content-2/http://www.cio.com/article/725818/What_Is_Content_Marketing_and_Why_Does_Your_Business_Need_It_?page=3&taxonomyId=3148http://blogdotcontentboostdotcom.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/blog-picture.jpghttp://www.socialbakers.com/blog/655-70-of-fans-are-being-ignored-by-companies-now-what

CUSTOMER ACQUISTIONhttps://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/b2b-content-marketing-2_b40474http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/12/the-black-hole-that-executives-dont-know-about/http://www.cio.com/article/725818/What_Is_Content_Marketing_and_Why_Does_Your_Business_Need_It_?page=3&taxonomyId=3148

SEOhttp://www.forbes.com/sites/kenkrogue/2012/07/20/the-death-of-seo-the-rise-of-social-pr-and-real-content/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQzsQkMFgHEhttps://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/b2b-content-marketing-2_b40474http://www.cio.com/article/725818/What_Is_Content_Marketing_and_Why_Does_Your_Business_Need_It_?page=2&taxonomyId=3148 http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/infographic-fortune-500-social-media-statistics/http://www.marketingmag.ca/news/marketer-news/marketer-of-the-year-2012-mcdonalds-canada-70067

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