By Darrell Cuthbert
This nicely put together infographic from the team at curata briefly describes the process, and some of the milestones along the way, that modern marketing has followed in its evolution from the internet bubble of the late 90’s and the subsequent dotcom crash to the current obsession with content marketing.
I was especially interested in two things:
1. The statement that 71% of marketers are increasing content marketing spending.
I have also seen similar claims recently from other sources. Although the exact percentage differs according to who conducted the research, how and where, the overall message remains the same – the marketing community is placing more and more emphasis on content marketing.
Savvy business people need to realise the importance of this trend and find innovative ways to share valuable content with their customer base. This can be a challenge, especially for smaller South African companies that don’t have a marketing agency or in-house marketing team
2. The section titled Content Overload that states “content marketing trend increases, resulting in too much content.”
Let me say upfront that I love the concept content marketing because it seeks to gain customer trust with useful information rather than simply advertising and delivering a sales pitch at every opportunity. I both agree and disagree with the statement in the infographic though. I don’t believe there is too much content out there, that would be like saying customers are too well informed. Instead I would say that there is too much low-quality content out there.
However, the increasing popularity of the term Content Marketing has unfortunately led many well-intentioned but misinformed small and medium sized business owners in South Africa to believe that content marketing simply consists of:
Creating high quality, relevant, engaging and original content targeted at your business’s customers and potential customers requires a passion for words and writing expertise coupled with knowledge of SEO (search engine optimisation) and marketing principles and a thorough understanding of South Africa business practice.
This is a task best performed by a specialist web content writer with both copywriting and business experience. If your business does not have or require a full-time content writer then outsourcing is the ideal solution.
This nicely put together infographic from the team at curata briefly describes the process, and some of the milestones along the way, that modern marketing has followed in its evolution from the internet bubble of the late 90’s and the subsequent dotcom crash to the current obsession with content marketing.
I was especially interested in two things:
1. The statement that 71% of marketers are increasing content marketing spending.
I have also seen similar claims recently from other sources. Although the exact percentage differs according to who conducted the research, how and where, the overall message remains the same – the marketing community is placing more and more emphasis on content marketing.
Savvy business people need to realise the importance of this trend and find innovative ways to share valuable content with their customer base. This can be a challenge, especially for smaller South African companies that don’t have a marketing agency or in-house marketing team
2. The section titled Content Overload that states “content marketing trend increases, resulting in too much content.”
Let me say upfront that I love the concept content marketing because it seeks to gain customer trust with useful information rather than simply advertising and delivering a sales pitch at every opportunity. I both agree and disagree with the statement in the infographic though. I don’t believe there is too much content out there, that would be like saying customers are too well informed. Instead I would say that there is too much low-quality content out there.
However, the increasing popularity of the term Content Marketing has unfortunately led many well-intentioned but misinformed small and medium sized business owners in South Africa to believe that content marketing simply consists of:
- Copying and pasting (duplicate) material from other sites, for example those of suppliers, onto their own
- Sending out blog posts or newsletters that consist of nothing more than pure promotional material
- Buying badly-written articles at $5 each from content farms that make use of unskilled writers, many of whom are not even fluent in English and lack passion, expertise and experience related to the language
- Delegating content creation and strategy to a junior staff member, who sees it as just another task and lacks both the business and writing skills and experience to do it properly
Creating high quality, relevant, engaging and original content targeted at your business’s customers and potential customers requires a passion for words and writing expertise coupled with knowledge of SEO (search engine optimisation) and marketing principles and a thorough understanding of South Africa business practice.
This is a task best performed by a specialist web content writer with both copywriting and business experience. If your business does not have or require a full-time content writer then outsourcing is the ideal solution.
Infographic source: http://www.curata.com/blog/content-marketing-history-infographic/
WordTiffie Copywriting and Web Content is a commercial writing business focused on providing high-quality written material to small and medium sized businesses.
WordTiffie is based in Durban, South Africa, and is owned and operated by Darrell Cuthbert – South African writer, blogger and online marketer.
Get in Touch now to discuss your content and copywriting requirements
WordTiffie is based in Durban, South Africa, and is owned and operated by Darrell Cuthbert – South African writer, blogger and online marketer.
Get in Touch now to discuss your content and copywriting requirements
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