The core transformer of any marketing strategy is its killer content. Over the years, content marketing has step up to new levels of success. It will be interesting to know how it has evolved over the years.
Stage 1- How initially content was used as the main tool for marketing?
Advertising has always been the conventional method to promote a product. However, it was first used as a marketing weapon in 1891, when August Oetker sold small packages of his Backin(baking powder) to households with recipes printed on the back. This lead to the first step towards his business success, the dissemination of information through the mode of content (recipe) reached a new level in 1911, when he started publishing his cookbook. The very cleaver and innovative approach of Oetker to communicate with his audience triggered well for his business.
One of the very initial results of content marketing were seen when the company of
Jell-O saw a record breaking rise in sales to an approx $1 million in 1906. This was the result of the backbreaking work done by Jell-O salesmen who went from door-to-door, distributing his free cookbook in 1904. Since then, content marketing has evolved into a must have tool for marketing.
Stage 2- Dawn of the Online Content Marketing
If you don’t know about a product, it’s hard to retain trust in it and therefore, for any business content works as the vital component to gear up the knowledge of the audience.
The term “content marketing” was used in the early 1996.
This started when John F. Oppedahl conducted a conference for journalists at the American Society for Newspaper Editors, where the term “content marketing” was used for the first time. Jerrell Jimerson held the position of “ Director of online content marketing ” in 1998. Thereafter, came a flood of books and papers, proclaiming the importance of content marketing. A prominent writer in 1999 Jeff Cannon said,“In content marketing, content is created to provide consumers with the information they seek.”
Stage 3- The ascending success of Content Marketing
In 2008 Seth Godin, a renowned American author and marketer stated that “content marketing was the only marketing left.”
The art of communication through content is a unique one, ruling down the generic customary pitching of the brand. Perhaps, it loads consumer with the information thereby, boosting their knowledge about the product.
According to a blog post published in the Forbes Magazine’s website, a company uses content marketing in seven different ways. The blogger points out that the content marketing had a jump across corporation from 60% to 93% in the year 2013.
Content is definitely the king of marketing. Still have a doubt? Clear them, get ready to knock your socks off with some more jaw dropping statistics:
- Everyday more than 27 million pieces of fresh content are shared on the Web.
- Only 10% of website’s content drives about 90% of the traffic and just 0.5% of a website’s content drives more than 50% of its traffic.
- An average office worker checks his mail 30 times and hour
- In 2014 about $135 billion was spent on new digital marketing collateral (content)
- 72% of “Pay per Click” marketers increased their budget in 2014
- With videos the landing page conversions are increased by 86%
- The inbound marketing delivers 54% more leads than traditional outbound marketing
- Visual data works 60,000 times faster in the brain than text.
Stage 4- Forecast for newer records
As more and more marketers find ways to outreach their target audiences, technology continues to evolve. Hence the future of content marketing continues to get brighter.
Also, the area of content marketing will dictate the principal changes in the technology and how it flourishes. Regions: SEO, Social Media and Web Analytics will see new records.
The upcoming forecast for next 12 months proclaims that, more big companies (1000+ employees) and small companies (10-99 employees) will strategical increase their investment in the field of content marketing. This amounts to 58% of increase in content marketing budget by B2B marketers.
The chart of marketing technology is entirely overpowered by the dominant content marketing for this year and for the upcoming years.