19October 2019CONTENT MARKETING INVESTMENT & ROIBy Clay Stobaugh, EVP & CMO, Wiley Why invest in content marketing? A content marketing strategy helps well-informed consumers enter the sales process closer to a purchasing decision. As existing customers and prospects become more educated through content marketing, they will begin to know, like, and trust the organization as a resource and brand hence increasing the likelihood of purchase. Ultimately, they'll buy more and become a brand ambassador. Together, sales and marketing deliver the right resources at the right time to the right people to progress and close new sales. Engaged customers will buy more and advocate, not churn. These were foundational tenets as content marketing emerged over ten years ago. Do they still hold today? In 2014, ISTMA asked recent B2B technology buyers how they consume information when making an investment. The most credible, trustworthy sources that informed a recent purchase were organization subject matter experts (SME) and websites, along with industry analysts. Sales people and peers/colleagues had the same rating, rounding out the top five. Valued information, whether delivered online, or in person by a SME or sales person builds trust and credibility and influences buying decisions. If your marketing team is not creating content that establishes credibility, authority, and leadership to build trusting relationships, you are missing an opportunity to deliver value to your customers and wider audience. Chances are you have a content marketing plan. The 2018 Content Marketing Institute (CMI) B2B Content Marketing survey found 91 percent of B2B respondents use content marketing, though only 37 percent have a documented strategy. Today, blogs, white papers, research, infographics, quizzes, videos, podcasts, webinars and lead generation forms abound. You may be finding it difficult to stand out. CMI also found that 44 percent agree that "it has become increasingly difficult to capture our audience's attention." We can't ignore `content shock,' an expression Mark Schaefer coined in January 2014 as a warning that the early boom in content marketing would create an unrelenting need to Clay StobaughCMO INSIGHTS
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