Content marketing is no more a buzzword. It is a game. Should it be played only in letters, or in spirit, too?

Content  Is King And Marketing Is More Than A Buzzword. It Is A Critical Element In Digital Marketing Plans And  Brand Success. 

Today, content marketing is more than a buzzword. It is a critical element in digital marketing that has grown to emerge as an indispensable tool in almost every field of human activity. 

It is in widespread use, to connect businesses with businesses, and businesses with customers through the internet. Content marketing is offering a plethora of benefits. That is why companies are finding it hard to ignore, and vying to reach out to their prospects every moment.

Statistics reveal that out of all the content marketing tactics, social media occupies the most prominent position. And, there are articles, e-newsletters, blogs, in-person events and case studies in the same order of popularity. Then, where does the problem lie?

Site owners have experienced that content marketing generates more in-bound traffic to their sites. It increases engagement with their targeted audience, generates leads, increases sales, builds up natural link popularity, builds brand awareness, establishes them as thought owners, and is definitely cheaper than the traditional forms of marketing.

Understanding the need for a strategic, two-way marketing approach.

Having acknowledged all these facts, the game is fast changing in favor of such companies and organizations that have a different level of thinking altogether, different from the league of the ones pitching their products and services, not caring much about truly relevant information to their prospects and customers so as to help them solve their issues on their own.

The companies with a different level of thinking, the prominent organizations around the world are resorting to and understanding the need for a strategic, two way  marketing approach which lays great deal of focus on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, consistent-quality content that works as a powerful medium to attract and retain their clearly defined audience and to get their honest feedback to build upon it and ultimately provide the much needed customer satisfaction leading to higher profitability.

But here is a word of caution! Content marketing is virtually impossible without great content matching great efforts. The power of quality and consistency of words fails in the absence of concrete marketing results. There may not be concrete results even if great words ultimately show up in the process of search engine optimization, or in driving in-bound traffic and leads for pay per click work.

The biggest example in recent history.

How content marketing can change the game can be best illustrated with the biggest example in recent history, the 2016 US presidential elections. Donald Trump’s social media strategy has been a major focal-point when he heralded his business acumen as a key highlight of his election campaign.

The moment he launched his campaign, Twitter was the place for the budding politician, an established businessman, to express his thoughts and feuds. All the time he maintained consistency, tweeting at least ten times in a day and played directly into the hands of the people active online.

He kept a constant flow of messages, constantly resonating, and his natural voice behind the message made his audience to believe he was an authentic addition to the political process. But, despite the comfort of a screen, what people were looking for was the humanity behind digital content, the only way to connect with the audience.

His campaign slogan, ‘Make America Great Again’, with just four words, connected a viable message with millions of voters showing simple, direct content has a better chance of reaching a wider audience.

One thing more, he never backed out from a chance to respond to criticism, negative or positive, keeping himself on the forefront of conversation. Trump was successful in marketing himself with the use of great content marketing strategy that eventually changed the game in his favour.     

How the content part is taking care of all the genuine efforts that good businesses are in search of in today’s marketing environment.

And to begin with, I am tempted to not to dispute that ‘A good picture is worth a thousand words’. Everyone agrees and no one would ever dare to disagree that there is no hidden meaning or an element of doubt contained in this small statement. It aptly conveys the heart and soul of the matter, the convincing power of a nicely snapped photograph.

It speaks for itself without describing it in a thousand words. It is the basic food for thought for everyone. The now acclaimed photographers must have reckoned with and acknowledged it right. The budding ones must be getting awe-inspired by this quotation or filled with a renewed dose of motivation. In any case, this one simple written statement is sufficient enough to make them sit-up and rework their abilities every time they happened to read it.

But what if words were never written in the first place, or the ones written here, and now?

Hold on! Wordsmiths need not despair. Content marketing is here to heed to their situation. Now it is there to stay. The power of the written word is being acknowledged once again. This time, like never before. This time there is absolutely no convincing reason where words should hold the second place.

In this world we live in, it would be virtually impossible to tell why and how anything is good, if it is good. It would be impossible to tell why and how something is bad, if it is bad. Giving heed to something before actually experiencing, can be difficult in the absence of words,.

It needs an altogether different level of thinking.  

Having acknowledged this fact, the game is fast changing in favour of companies and organizations that are developing an altogether different level of thinking. These are different from the league of the ones regularly after pitching their products and services. Such businesses do not care much about presenting the truly relevant information to their prospects and customers.

The companies with a different level of thinking, the prominent organizations around the world are, resorting to and understanding the need for a strategic, two-way marketing approach. And, in doing so, there is a focus on creating valuable, relevant, consistent-quality content that works. This acts as a powerful medium to attract and retain their clearly defined audience. It helps in getting their honest feedback to build upon it, and ultimately provide the much needed customer satisfaction leading to higher profitability.

Words make people internalize and understand and that, finally, affects their behavior.

To sum up, I would prefer to reiterate that in this murky world of content marketing, once again, even Shakespeare’s famous phrase, ‘What in a name? A rose will smell as sweet even if called by any other name’ stands to lose weight. Those who have seen the beauty of this flower and experienced its titillating aroma; for them the very use of this genuine word makes it the object of their conscious reflection. Words make people internalize and understand and that, finally, affects their behavior.

Basically, we all are hard-wired to take words seriously and attach tremendous significance to writing. As such the choice of befitting thoughts, words that legitimize and validate our ideas and actions, have an important role to play. Let’s change the content marketing game, for better.

Content marketing is a double-edged sword and can change the game in any direction.

Inside this topic, there seem to be four hidden key-words, content, marketing, change and game.  I foresee the trickiest word, and choose to begin from the reverse order. The word ‘game’ has varied connotations. For some, it can be an exercise to launch a social media hate-campaign. For some, it can be an exercise to launch a political campaign. For some, it can be a tirade to malign the image of an elected and effectively acting political party. For some, it can be a mission to spread messages for the sake of a positive social change. For some, it can be an honest effort to convey one’s achievements or marketing products and services for the sake of maximizing profits.

The games can be many, and content marketing can be used for any, irrespective of the efforts of the content writer. But one thing is definite. Content marketing is a double-edged sword, and can change the game in any direction, unless otherwise used by the user for their genuine intentions.

With the all-pervasive internet as a catalyst at the root of this change, the game eventually turns out to be a bigger one, global to be precise.

And, so has to be the deliverable, in letter and spirit.

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