Content marketing is king!

A recent feature article in Ernst & Young’s publication, “Performance”, talks about the importance of ‘Content Marketing’ in today’s context.

The contention (and accurately so) is that the advent of the internet and more importantly platforms such as Facebook & Google+ have made sharing of personalized content and insights effortless. This has had a far reaching effect on the importance of content in marketing. Some of the important points worth highlighting are here:

• “In the battle for consumer attention, businesses that offer their customers compelling, high-quality content generally enjoy greater brand awareness and increased sales.”  – Rachel Fielding, author of the article
• “There’s a movement toward thinking about what customers need rather than pushing messages out to them to encourage them to buy.” – [says Antony Mayfield, author of Me and my Web Shadow and founder of digital strategy firm Brilliant Noise]
• A 2012 Content Marketing Institute (CMI) report revealed that 60% of business decision-makers said branded content helped them make better purchase decisions
• 61% of consumers were more likely to buy from companies that offer customized content
• Companies that fail to invest in creating useful and unique content are in danger of becoming less visible on search engine results that favor “rich” over “thin” content