<p>If you not currently engaging in content marketing, make 2013 the year that you and your business invest in the concept. If you are unsure how content marketing will help you then read on!<br />
<strong>What is content marketing?</strong><br />
According to Wikipedia, content marketing is <em>“an umbrella</em><em> term encompassing all </em><em>marketing</em><em> </em><em>formats that involve the creation and sharing of </em><em>content</em><em> </em><em>in order to attract, acquire and engage clearly defined and understood current and potential consumer bases with the objective of driving profitable customer action”.</em><br />
In other words, you have identified your primary audience – the people most likely to buy from you – as well as a secondary audience – people who may buy from you – and you use a variety of well-known and accessible formats to engage with them and is another way to drive ‘profitable consumer action’.<br />
<strong>But why should you do it?</strong><br />
Content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers, and prospective customers without selling.<br />
Sounds odd, doesn’t it? Surely all marketing has its grounding in selling to customers. In essence this is true but investing in content marketing is looking to <strong>create brand loyalty</strong> among your customers; it is a constant, uninterrupted marketing and helps to create the idea that as a company, you deliver consistent, ongoing and valuable information to buyers.<br />
You need to <strong>invest</strong> in content marketing is you intend on being a serious player in your industry because it is changing expectations.<br />
A great example of this is the global franchise McDonalds. They started an instantaneous online ‘answer my question’ feed on their Canadian website. One customer asked a pointed question regarding which parts of the cow they used in their burgers; only a short time ago, such a question would have sent shiver of fear down the spines of marketing people but now, companies are now positively embracing such hard-core questions about their products. McDonalds Canada answered the question, naming the parts of the cow they use 9and don’t use) and hence the slogan ‘100% beef, not 100% cow’ was born.<br />
You don’t have to be a global company to harness the power of content marketing; small businesses and individuals are doing it – because it works.<br />
Consumers are <strong>switching off from the traditional marketing world</strong>; they can skip the adverts of the Internet, take no notice of the scrolling banners, they can block ‘pop ups’, they glance past magazine adverts. You need to market smarter.<br />
<strong>What do you need for content marketing?</strong><br />
Simple.<br />
You need relevant and valuable content; otherwise it will just be a heap of informational garbage. Excellent content marketing makes a person <strong>stop&#8230;read&#8230;think&#8230; and behave differently.</strong><br />
So make 2013 the year that you are your company make the leap into elite content marketing.<br />
This article was written by James Merchant who blogs frequently on the improtance of contact marketing. For info on copy writing and to outsource your article, web site copy or press releases visit, www.elitecontent.co.uk</p>

Why 2013 Is THE Year For Content Marketing
