Content marketing is king, because the consumer is queen and we all know the influence women have on men.
Bad joke.
But seriously. Part of the reason that content marketing has emerged as a full-on category of marketing is because of its direct relevance to the way that consumers are shopping. While Joe Schmo and Jane Doella shop for products, compare prices, and ultimately make a purchase decision-marketers want to be there for every step of the way. A moment missed DOES mean revenue lost.
Companies that are integrating content marketing into their digital marketing strategies have seen a 6-fold lift in revenue. The few companies that are lagging behind (only 1 in 10 B2B marketineg departments) are inadvertantly sacraficing profit growth in their companies.
And that's just today.
With the advent of mobile pay options, and the physical web, there will be a continued demand for higher quality, larger quantity, more compelling content across industries and verticals. Content will not only be an added incentive in marketing to drive buyers to your site, it will also be the actual physical location where transactions happen. Indeed, content could become vendor's modern point of purchase.
You're scratching your head, like "what?" I can feel it. Let me walk you through this.
The Future Marketplace & How Content Is Fundamental
Mobile payments are the idea that people will be able to pay for products and servces without paper money, checks, or credit cards. All they'll need is their mobile phone-which they can simply swipe at the grocery to check out all their groceries. Mobile payments will bring purchasing decisions for all items as immediate as Amazon has been for years.
Combine mobile payments with the emergence of the Physical Web-Google's newest idea to get rid of apps at large, and just intuitvely know what people want (and when they want them) based on other big data. This could make shopping literally one tap away.
Sounds glamorous for any company selling any product-but here's the catch-companies need to make something that the buyer can "tap" in order to buy.
Q: Dear reader, what do you think that something is?
A: Content. Duh.
Content is the creative production of buttons, the messaging on the buttons, the landing pages, the UI/UX of that page....etc.
The future marketplace is digital, mobile, and literally in the palms of buyers' hands. Get your content production aligned and strategize, because you'll need to meet your buyer there for deals to happen. Just like in the video above.
If you're in marketing I implore you to share this video with your friends, family, and colleauges. It will help them understand the crazy line of work we are in, why content is at the center of not only marketing, but the marketplace landscape at large. Set your company up for revenue jumps.