Scott Paton

Intro to Content Marketing

Precision Media - February 06, 2014

Although the phrase "Content is King" has alternately been attributed to Microsoft founder Bill Gates and business mogul Sumner Redstone, its true originator is unknown. It's first documented appearance is in an obscure book about magazine publishing from 1974, but the expression didn't become a familiar staple of parlance 'til the mid-1990s, as the Internet achieved ubiquity and the era now commonly referred to as "the Information Age" was born.

Of course, even the humblest of writers heartily embraced the notion that "content rules" as, theoretically, it elevated our status in the firmament. But like nature, the Worldwide Web abhors a vacuum, so this new medium immediately sucked up every last dollop of info on virtually every subject, theme or topic imaginable --good, bad or indifferent-- and suddenly, everyone's a writer. So the phrase "Content is King" was largely lip-service...until recently.

It's widely acknowledged now throughout the Sales & Marketing world that the "hard sell" and the "cold call" are antiquated, 20th Century tools of business. With a world of information at their fingertips, prospective consumers of almost any product or service are at least three-quarters of the way through the decision-making process in executing a purchase before they are interested in having a conversation with a salesperson. And the way to making that customer receptive to you at that juncture is by having provided the information and resources that led them through their discovery and investigative process. The approach is best described as "consultative selling," and the mechanism is what's known as "Content Marketing."