Marketing is much different than it was 20 years ago. Heck, it’s much different than it was even five years ago, and in no small part due to the combination of content marketing and marketing automation. Only a few years ago, marketing automation was considered by many (those that were even remotely familiar with the term) as principally email marketing, i.e. tools like Constant Contact and MailChimp. Today, marketing automation, while certainly including the important aspect of email marketing, is dramatically more powerful and inclusive than just that one component. (See our recent blog post detailing some of the many features of marketing automation tools like HubSpot.)
As amazing as these new tools are, to be truly effective they depend upon the constant production of amazing, instructive, and insightful content. That content can come in many forms, including:
- blogs
- articles
- white papers
- e-books
- website pages
- landing pages
- infographics
- guides
- videos
- podcasts
- magazines
- books
As our prospective customers have changed the way they shop, it is critical that we, as marketers, respond in such a manner as to give these folks exactly what they want, i.e. rich information that can help them make informed decisions about the products and services they buy. Not only does the constant production of quality content help our customers learn how we can help them, it also helps them find us, because increasingly search engines rely upon fresh, keyword-rich content to drive search engine rankings.
Email marketing is an important tool to have in your marketing arsenal. But all of us as consumers are being bombarded every day with e-blasts that frustrate us with insultingly useless information we care little to nothing about. Constant content paired with powerful marketing automation tools can help companies get found, help them present themselves as experts, help educate and motivate prospective customers, and help drive revenues to new heights.
