Online Community Advisor publishes some worthy (and free) resources for social media and online marketing, and its offer of a free white paper on Lean Content Marketing appealed to me.
Most of us don’t have great resources for content marketing, but the message behind its importance becomes crystal clear based on this assertion:
Today?s buyer is different. A pitch from the sales team is no longer the first contact a buyer has with your company. Instead, due to the abundance of information on the internet, your buyers will do their own research first. In fact, 66?90% of the buyer?s journey is complete before he or she even reaches out to a sales person. So, it is your job as a marketer to help your customers self-educate through their buying journey. High quality, educational content marketing helps you become a trusted resource for your buyer. It helps your brand stand out from the noise, and it also reduces risk for the buyer because you are creating a lasting relationship.
There are no magic bullets in the white paper; there is an advocacy for planning, systems, and integration — and you’ll likely discover you are doing many of the suggested things if you have any degree of content marketing consistency (and if you don’t then, well, you certainly need the advice.)
