Content Isn't What It Used to Be

Before the advent of social and other online media formats, businesses used to spend significant amounts of money on advertising placed in traditional media. These days, with significant audience fragmentation, some companies are changing tactics. Where once they were dependent on existing media, now companies can create their own content-rich media channels that arguably can be as engaging and informational as that provided by media brands.

That will come as a shocking notion, but a study by Kingfish Media suggests that nearly two thirds of marketers believe that content from a brand or company is perceived as having the same or more value than content from a media brand. More importantly, they feel that having their own original content will produce a better return on marketing dollars than traditional advertising, and they have reallocated their budgets to invest more in original content development. See this..

One might argue that, the effect of periodic adjustments for recessions notwithstanding, the advertising business is at the front end of a huge long-term change, where funds formerly earmarked for advertising are diverted to other customer channels, ranging from website investments to social media or content marketing of new types.

The typical business marketer spends 33 percent of the total marketing budget on "content," including brochures, white papers, Facebook, blogs, testimonials,  creating articles, newsletters, webinars, videos, events and so forth, according to the Content Marketing Institute. The "2010 Content Marketing Spending Report" from Junta42 found that 59 percent of marketers were increasing their content marketing spending in 2010, compared to 56 percent in 2009 and 42 percent in 2008.

According to ITSMA, nearly two-thirds of buyers (63 percent) report they conduct their own research when considering an information or manufacturing technology purchase, and then contact the vendor. About 37 percent of the time, a supplier contacts the enterprise before the enterprise starts conducting its own research. What that means is that, in most cases, before buyers have personal contact with any given supplier, they are already armed with information about the company and its products. This is true whether they plan to buy office equipment, software or machine tools.

One might argue that means an opportunity exists to educate potential buyers about an industry, possible solution choices, best practices, and the right questions to ask, before an actual "sales process" begins. In fact, one might argue that the key issue is not the "sales" process, but the "buying" process, which can begin before any sales entity is aware a purchase is contemplated.

Content marketing, some would argue, is about influence on the buying process, before the sales process begins. In essence, the potential customer has initiated a conversation with you before you even know they are interested in your products and services.

In the pre-Internet world, buyers relied on traditional media companies to fill their information needs. With today’s technologies, that is no longer true. In fact, discrete companies can become media. What makes that possible is not simply the Internet, blogs, social media and other content media. There also has been a change in buyer attitudes about the “credibility” of content.

Today’s buyers look everywhere for essential content in  order to make smart buying decisions, and those searches are not restricted to traditional media. These days, people use search engines, real simple syndication, Twitter, Facebook and blogs as part of their information gathering and learning strategies.

Businesses that provide that content will win. Whereas in the past, customers were wary about information that didn’t  come from a traditional media source, today’s savvy buyers can sniff out the good content from the bad, and they don’t mind if the information they engage in comes from a non-traditional source, be that a blog, micro-blogging sites and feeds, Facebook or even content marketing sites.

Traditional media sources also are less effective than they used to be. Some companies might have better information about their potential customers and prospects in their own databases, or can create such assets using content marketing.

Also, shrinking revenue streams mean media companies are less able to cover as much terrain as they used to, if only because the number of traditional outlets is shrinking, as well as staffs. Continued cutbacks in editorial staff and circulation size have created a void that non-traditional content  
creators can fill.

Selling to all customers also is becoming more challenging, because all buyers now have access to much more information than they used to. Some companies will develop a different relationship with potential customers because those firms already have become trusted sources of information about the issues, problems and opportunities any particular business segment has.  Such thought leadership "rubs off" on the firms that supply the knowledge.

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