Sumner Redstone, the American businessman and billionaire of Viacom, was the first person to coin the phrase "content is king" in 1994. This was just before the internet became more widely accessible, and both Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch reiterated this sentiment in the late 1990s.
Sumner Redstone passed away on August 11th, 2020. It feels like an appropriate time to see how the phrase "content is king" still applies to the internet and digital marketing today.
Some people think of SEO as a game that can be won by little tweaks here and there to please Google’s algorithms. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Google's ranking systems are designed specifically to find the most relevant and useful results in a split second, to satisfy the searcher’s intent.
This is what makes the combination of solid SEO strategy and high-quality, useful content unbeatable. Check out our post, SaaS SEO Strategy: How to Start Getting Results, to learn more about how you can optimize a website for SEO.
One major part of most digital marketing budgets is paid ads, like those on App Stores, Google Search, Facebook, and LinkedIn. Paid ads are the best way to find those people who are looking for your services right now – the people at the DO stage of the buyer’s journey. The ads provide that little nudge when someone is prepared to pull the trigger.
For all those other people, who are still in research mode, not for a specific solution, but for ways to solve a pain point or achieve a goal, content is the tool to attract them to your brand.
Video content, podcasts, strong visuals – no matter the format, your content should be tailored to your persona's pain points and help them on their buyer’s journey.This is why It still really takes creative people who are able to empathize with their target audience, craft a message, and a piece of creative that resonates. The marketing channels are simply getting better at delivering that message to the right people. That is what makes content king 26 years later.
Inbound marketing is the practice of pulling customers to your brand through your online presence by delivering valuable content and education about your products or services. In our post, Is Inbound Marketing Dying, we discuss more how inbound marketing works and why you need a comprehensive inbound marketing plan.
Useful and relevant content helps direct users to a path that may eventually turn them into a customer. From your perspective, the purpose of your site is to make sales and drive business. From a viewer's perspective, the purpose of your website is to provide something meaningful or worthwhile. If your site's content is consistently helpful to a person's business, they are much more likely to turn to you when they are ready to make investments in their business.
Creating high-quality content is about playing the long game and developing trust between your business and a customer. Simply put: inbound marketing cannot work without valuable content that pulls people in.
Although the phrase "content is king" is simple in theory, it can become a bit more complicated in practice. Visit our blog to learn about all things digital marketing, including more about how to create engaging content that will attract users to your site.
I lead the Content team and make sure the content you create is worth the effort. I help you grow and nourish your audience, and make users convert.
