Content marketing: a powerful trend

By Ahmed al-Akber/Manama

The word is out: content is king. According to a recent survey by Hubspot, 60% of marketers have adopted some form of inbound in their marketing. This form of customer engagement is increasingly becoming the standard in which most businesses ‘do’ their marketing.

What is content marketing?

Inbound, or content marketing, is simply about providing valuable information to customers for the purpose of building trust, awareness, education, and positive sentiment. Content marketing includes insights, how-to’s, and similar types of information in the following formats:

♦ Articles on blog posts

♦ YouTube videos

♦ E-mail newsletters

♦ Audio podcasts

♦ Webinars

♦ Presentations

♦ Online discussion forums

♦ Social media engagement

Why is it important?

It’s mostly about today’s access to information. Previously, a customer didn’t have any choice but to ask a seller for information about what was being sold. This is no longer necessary. In seconds, you can find a list of all the stores within a 2km radius that sell the latest iPhone, and how much they sell it for. Similarly, businesses looking to hire your company can find out which clients you have worked with, and whether they were happy with your services.

Google has caught on to this trend and in 2013 changed the way their ranking algorithm works, giving priority placement to sites with relevant and high quality content.

Content marketing can help your business by generating leads, educating customers, building brand awareness, positioning through thought leadership, and generating website traffic. It is also far more cost effective than traditional marketing, which has steadily faded for years, and the rise of content marketing due to its stronger ROI will only accelerate this trend.

How far can it take a business?

Prior to 2009, Marcus Sheridan’s swimming pool business was in shambles. With a tanking US economy, the need for luxury items like swimming pools were simply unnecessary. The company was also heavily in debt.

In March 2009 Sheridan turned to blogging about pools, answering customer questions about which types to buy, what materials are best, and so on. In sticking with this strategy, Sheridan generated more customer leads in 2011 than in the previous two combined. By then the company was free of debt, and even better, was on its way to becoming one of the most sought after pool companies in the US.

Sharing valuable information with customers is already a powerful way to build trust, relationships, and sales, and this trend is only going to get more powerful for the foreseeable future.

♦ Ahmed al-Akber is the managing director of ACK Solutions, a firm that helps companies to improve their marketing and sales results by offering more effective ways attracting customers and significantly better products and services. He has worked internationally in marketing, sales and strategic planning at companies such as the Coca-Cola Company, Philip Morris International and Dell. Questions or comments can be sent to Ahmed on ahmed@acksolutions.com