It's NOT about you, it's about the customer!

I find myself talking about Content Marketing because as Bill Gates said in 1996 'Content Marketing is King.' However, is content everything it is said to be?

I sat in on a lecture by Amber Gupta where he spoke of Content Marketing being a new trend in the Digital Marketing world. Content Marketing can come in various different forms; it could be through blogs, webinars, videos and podcasts, to name a few. For content to work in your favour, it is best to devise a strategy. The lecture referred to Bill Gates' statements from 96, and seemed to sell the idea that creating good contact can help a business connect with their customers, as well as try to improve on their SERP position. Having said that, reading an article by Israel looking at content marketing from a different perspective, you can see there are two sides to content marketing.

Israel brings up the fact that content marketing does not really consider the fact of 'conversation' with your customers. Nowadays with the likes of Facebook, customers can engage with you much easier, and you can respond to their queries etc, much quicker and efficiently. However, content marketing is more about the one way conversation with everyone. It seems it is the business talking to their customers, but not listening to the replies or feedback. Israel considers that, with the likes of Facebook's 'likes', you could consider that as a form of listening, however it is not building and maintaining the personal relationship, which is one of the main aims of social media.

I'm personally not sold on the pros or cons of content marketing. I will probably need to read more into it, however I do see both sides of the argument in this case, but I will have to go with the side of pro content marketing as you can create content which engages with custoemrs, as well as improve upon your SEO.

Sources used:

Israel, S. (2012) 'Why I hate 'Content Marketing' and 'Blogger Outreach' Forbes [Online] <http://www.forbes.com/sites/shelisrael/2012/12/07/why-i-hate-content-marketing-and-blogger-outreach/> [Accessed 10/05/2014]
Gupta, A. (2014) 'Digital Marketing Strategy.' [Lecture Notes] Brighton: University of Brighton Business School, Unpublished.