The Content Opportunity

In recent decades, business and technology have undergone massive changes.

Firstly, technology for business has become so sophisticated that old marketing methods are simply inadequate.

The sophistication of the technologies available, plus their combination and application, has become so complex as to require detailed and skilled description to properly put forward their value proposition. Advertising alone is not enough to get across the true utility and value of what is on offer.

When added to this is the trend towards everything as a service (XaaS), and the situation becomes even more challenging. Gone are the days when an organisation simply bought a licence or accessed a service and did not interact again until renewal or upgrade. Now, tailored services with individual service agreements mean that organisations now engage in deep relationships with suppliers as they consume applications, services and facilities.

All of this has led to the need for a means by which organisations can not only communicate their business value to clients, but also what it is like to work with them, their partners and wider ecosystem.

Content marketing is a means by which an organisation’s domain experts can display their expertise, tackle topical issues, and set out thought leadership. Business leaders can set out their approach, culture and philosophy, describing how they can enable clients to succeed. Content marketing allows the key people in an organisation to assemble a range of content across multiple media to establish a credible, compelling and engaging public profile, cultivating a preconceived notion of excellence. This positive profile shortens engagements, improves perceptions and instils confidence.

A content marketing strategy allows an organisation to build and maintain a positive profile that makes doing business easier.

Analyst IDG creates an annual Technology Content Marketing Report, and perhaps unsurprisingly, the 2020 report found the effects of the pandemic made organisations invest more heavily in content marketing.

The report survey found that 41% of companies have a documented content marketing strategy, but that this rises to 59% among the top technology performers.

Nearly half (46%) of those who have a content marketing strategy report it is mature or sophisticated. This rises to nearly three quarters (72%) among the top technology performers.

The implications for this are clear: technology companies are increasingly turning to content marketing to properly express their business value. Furthermore, the more successful companies are twice as likely to employ content marketing and have an established, mature strategy.

However, most organisations need some help, even if they are comfortable with the concepts and have a strategy to implement and operate content marketing.

 

The IDG survey found that among large companies, more than two thirds (67%) outsourced content marketing activities, with almost the same (62%) among medium sized companies, though falling to less than half (44%) among smaller companies.

An external view can help organisations to critically assess their value proposition. A dispassionate view can help an organisation see itself as the customer, supplier, partner or competitor sees it, with all the benefits of such an independent view.

Engaging an external content strategist to help shape, direct and develop content can be that shortcut to making content work for your organisation.

Engaging content makes for successful engagements.

Submit an inquiry from the contact page for a free consultation to see how content can be made to work for your organisation.