A sleeping giant that is stirring from its slumber – that’s how MarTech analysts have described content marketing, and data from the Content Marketing Institute’s latest report certainly bears it out. 44 percent of businesses say they spent more on content marketing this year than last, and a remarkable 66 percent say spend will be higher still in 2022. So what’s behind the focus on content marketing, and why now?
Turning strangers into buyers
There are digital marketing tools and strategies designed to attract visitors to your site, and there are others that focus on converting clicks into sales. But when done well, content marketing can do both at once. Experts at Neon Ambition describe content marketing as “the best way to turn strangers into customers.”
In a commercial environment that has been suffering from the absence of face to face interactions, it seems that plenty of businesses have suddenly decided to invest in content marketing as a way to speak to customers. Even more to the point, having done so, they are looking to step up their efforts going forward, having seen the power of content marketing to keep a brand firmly on its target audience’s radar.
Unique challenges
Stephanie Stahl is the General Manager at the Content Marketing Institute. She introduced this year’s annual report by describing the “unique changes and challenges” that have faced content marketers since early 2020, but went on to describe the discipline’s business pros as “some of the fiercest around,” in facing these challenges head on.
Ann Handley of MarketingProfs picked up the theme. She explained that effective content is not about selling at all. On the contrary, it is about capturing the attention through empathy and understanding of the target demographic. Get that right, and the sales take care of themselves.
This echoes the sentiments of Neon Ambition, mentioned earlier, and it serves as a reminder of what ought to be Content Marketing 101 – that the focus needs to be on what the customer needs, not on what the company is selling.
More than words
The CMI’s report also gives us pause to think more broadly about the true nature of content marketing in the 2020s. The phrase tends to conjure up images of blog posts and news articles, much like the one you are reading right now. Yet that only scratches the surface of content marketing’s potential.
Every marketer, for example, knows the value of infographics, but their power lies in conveying punchy information-rich data. They are less effective in projecting those qualities of empathy and understanding mentioned earlier. Yet right there is where such media as videos and podcasts really come into their own.
To describe content marketing as a slumbering giant might be fanciful, but it is certainly a vitally important and far-reaching area of digital marketing. It will be intriguing to see how it continues to develop as we move into 2022.
