Reasons Content Marketing Works

Content marketing, it's everywhere. The term has become ubiquitous in today's marketing world which is a little bit ironic given how few people seem to understand it, or at least put that understanding into tangible action. One of the fundamental reasons that people don't go all in on their content marketing is that they don't fully understand its value or why it comes across so effectively. Today, that misunderstanding gets corrected, as we explore just what makes content marketing so appealing to consumers in the modern world.

It's higher value.

Let's face it, for years we as advertisers and marketers have been in the business of getting people to pay attention to things they don't really want to pay attention too. Advertisements have been breaks in continuity that take people out of the experience that they're currently in. Do you know what people do now when a commercial comes on TV or when they can't skip a Youtube ad? They pull out their phones and pay zero attention to the ads because they only bring value to the advertiser, they don't actually tell the consumer anything useful.

Content marketing done correctly is actual interesting, engaging, and something that people want to read or watch, which instantly sets it apart from your traditional banner and newsfeed ads.

It gives your target market a chance to engage.

People aren't satisfied with one way communication anymore. If you think that you can get away with creating content that offers no room for response, critique, or even simple agreeable engagement, you're in for a rude awakening.

This could be in the form of a comments section, or on a social media platform that allows you to create other types of content in response to the original. Those who do content marketing correctly also will likely respond to every response - response-ception! - that they get in order o make sure their customers or viewers know their interaction is appreciated.

It builds a brand, not just a product.

The absolute best brands in the content marketing game have done something drastically different than those that are trying to replicate their success and fail miserably. That one thing is that they are creating a brand that's less about selling its own product, on the surface anyways, and more about becoming a hub for content that their target market would find interesting. For example, if you sell shoes, your social media posts and video content should be less about the shoe you just released, and more about stories that sneakerheads and other relevant audiences would find interesting.

Think about how you yourself choose which pages to follow on Facebook: You don't like a brand page because they bombard you with sales pitches, you like pages that constantly share content you laugh at, can agree with, can debate, can share with friends, etc.

This is the real advantage of content marketing: You can build a behemoth of a brand whose reputation and clever content moves volume for you, in spite of it not being your primary focus, and that's pretty neat.