You’ve heard of content marketing, right?

Clearly, when it comes to the world of B2B, the importance of this form of marketing shows no signs of slowing down. Last year, 70% of marketers in that field said it performed more successfully than any year prior.

It’s not new, either. The premise of content marketing (which is to essentially give away free, brilliant advice and gradually earn the trust of would-be customers) is as old as marketing itself. It’s just changed, big time, in recent years.

What has changed with content marketing?

Google has largely driven the positive change we’ve seen in content marketing.

Once, you could stuff a web page full of haphazardly-placed key words - even if the resulting text was garbage - and watch as your search rankings soared.

Not any more. Google’s too smart for that; they want to read good content as much as we all do.

As a result, content marketing now relies on the creation of good quality, unique and genuinely engaging words, images, audio and video. And for as many forms of content marketing there are, you’ll find just as many channels through which it can be published - another significant change.

So, why should I invest in content marketing?

I appreciate you might still need some convincing, so here’s 5 quick-fire reasons why you should invest time and money in content marketing.

1. You’ll genuinely make the lives of prospects better

The whole point of content marketing is to provide advice on which your prospects can act.

In doing so, you’ll answer a burning question or solve a challenge they’ve been battling with. The result? A happier prospect - and happy prospects might be in a better mood to make a purchase!

2. You’ll become an authority in your field

What’s that you say? You’re already an authority in your field? Cool - but how does anyone beyond the handful of people you meet and talk to each week know that’s the case?

By regularly blogging, vlogging or podcasting, you’ll demonstrate to the world that you know what you’re talking about. And in the digital age, that’s powerful stuff indeed.

3. People will want to engage with you

We’re far beyond the days when cold, hard sales tactics would be a sure-fire thing. These days, potential customers need to be wooed and gently nurtured.

Content marketing remains one of the best ways to do this. By giving away genuinely useful stuff, you’ll make people want to engage with you, and that could result in plenty more juicy leads and sales.

4. It’ll create awareness of your brand

Creating brand awareness is a hard thing to master, but a consistent approach to content marketing will raise the awareness of your brand considerably.

The more vocal you are digitally, the more you’ll appear above competitors in Google search results and the more likely you are to remain in the minds of people who might one day turn into profitable customers.

5. Search engines love it

We’ve spoken a lot about Google today, but every search engine loves great content.

Some people might suggest otherwise. They’ll tell you it’s more of a ploy to get everyone creating content and spending money on pay-per-click advertising. Keywords, they’ll say, can still be ‘gamed’.

This simply isn’t the case. In my considerable experience, great content always, always wins the day. It’s king for a reason.

Where do I find decent content?

You’ve got plenty of choices here, thankfully. For instance, you might have someone in-house (it could be you!) who is a dab hand at content creation. If so - brilliant; get cracking.

If not - don’t panic. There are places online where you can source the best content out there, and there’s one platform in particular that has caught my eye recently - Content Director.

Built by marketers, this website promises to revolutionise the process of selling content if you're a creator and make it far easier to find content if you need a blog, graphic, video or audio ident for your website. I highly recommend checking it out if I’ve inspired you to finally get into content marketing.