There are over 25 million new pieces of content being shared on the web daily. This huge deluge of information flowing to consumers affirms that content is still king. Speaking of the saying that content is king, this saying was first said by Bill Gates in 1996 when he gave an opinion in an essay on the future of advertising.
The daily volume of content being posted to the web is massive, and the practice of content marketing is still in its infancy.
Even in its early days, content marketing has begun to aggressively replace the traditional ad type with fresh responses, targeting, and information for the consumer.
Leading your marketing with content is not just a new trend used by small businesses that want to connect with the consumer. It is also being used by some online giants. The following are four online giants that also use content to do their marketing.
1. Sears has created Fitstudio. Fitstudio is a fitness resource that you can access online. This website offers fitness information from experts.
2. General electric uses more than one online content marketing source to showcase its skills. One of his sources is his ecomagination website. Ecomagination offers a fresh and interesting conversation about clean technology.
3. General Mills offers its Tablespoon website. This website offers recipes.
4. Colgate offers its Oral and Dental Health Resource Center. This resource offers articles and videos that address oral health topics.
If you assess the success of the content marketing practice right now in its early stages, you will agree that it will become more popular and more powerful in the future. The value you add to the industry along with the relevant and free help you give people will not be easily separated. People love content marketing so much that 67% more people become business leaders who blog. People love to blog. They enjoy reading them and benefit from the free relevant information that many blogs offer.
86% of business-to-consumer companies have started using the content marketing practice. Savvy companies have taken note that consumers are turning more to social media. In fact, eight out of ten Internet users are reached by social networks and blogs.
Nearly 87% of business-to-business companies use social media to share content. Publishing informative and highly relevant content on your website is good, however it does not reach the masses. To reach the masses it is necessary to use social networks.
There are plenty of freelancers and companies writing blogs and running social media campaigns. However, more than 60% of companies prefer to run their blogs and social networks in-house.
Content marketing addresses the many consumer questions and returns much-needed relevant answers. The thirst for information is not likely to leave the consumer. One might then assume that neither will the need for content marketing.