The Paradigm Shift to Content Marketing in the USA
Now that you have established a website and spent some time marketing in the U.S., it’s time to take your content marketing strategy seriously. The reason for this is because of the paradigm change in how prospects look for solutions in your market.
Old Paradigm
Sales representatives and advertising had control. Enterprise buyers would get numerous sales calls to learn about the technology sales reps were offering, or they would see an ad that related to something they needed. Customers would go to trade shows and spend hours visiting all the booths.
New Paradigm
The buyer is in the driver’s seat. They are making their own decisions about what products to explore and purchase. They use Google and other channels to discover what they want.
This new paradigm is showing up in marketing stats for the U.S. As an example, 91% of prospects unsubscribe from automated emails, 20% of direct mail is never opened, and 48% of prospects in the U.S. are on “do not call” lists—and so on.
Content Marketing in Today’s Market
You need to create content that will attract buyers. Buyers are researching solutions to their problem or need. The idea of creating content to attract prospects for your technology product or service might give you pause, however, when you consider some of the following stats:
1. There has been a content explosion over the last few years.
There has been an 800% increase in blog posts created by companies over the past 5 years. For the most part, only a very small portion of this content is shared. The chances of someone reading your content is pretty slim.
Source: Trackmaven
2. In 2017, 1,440 blog posts were published every 60 seconds.
Your competition is probably publishing a lot of articles, every day.
Source: Martech
3. Almost 95% of newly published pages don’t get to the top 10 ranking in Google within a year.
As a matter of fact, the average “top 10” ranking in Google is 2+ years old, and position #1 is in the 3-years-old range. The whole purpose of content marketing is to get found by prospects who use keywords or keyword phrases that define what they are looking for. Given these stats and how long content takes to rise and be noticed, it may be years before you get traction.
Source: HREFS
4. 83% percent of B2B buyers find themselves “overwhelmed” by the amount of content available.
Your content is only adding to their feeling of being overwhelmed.
Source: DemanGen
5. Companies spend 25–43% of their marketing budget on content, but only 23% of CMOs feel it is the best content for the right audience at the right time and in the right format.
Knowing where, when, and what to publish to whom is very hard to figure out.
Source: Business2Community
6. The average reader spends 37 seconds reading an article or post.
Prospects may find your content but spend very little time absorbing it, let alone following up on it.
Source: NewsCred
7. Paid content promotion (basically, AdWords) is up 5x since 2014.
That’s because 98% of businesses choose a business on page 1 of Google, whether it is paid or organic. Your content on page 7 will not make the cut.
Source: Orbit Media
So, there is some bad news about content marketing, and you may have heard other things as well. But, what’s the good news?
