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As the marketing world gears up for Inbound 2014, spectators on the outside looking in once again find themselves asking the question, “Does content marketing really work?
One does have to wonder why 7,500 marketers, business owners, and execs would make the journey to Boston this year if content marketing didn’t work. Content is the crux of the inbound methodology, after all. If it fails, then the whole methodology is doomed.
Luckily, that’s not the case, as this company and this company and this company have demonstrated. The skepticism is warranted, however, as many marketers who devote their efforts to content creation have failed to see results. Content creation as a stand-alone effort will always fail.
The key to content marketing is that it’s not a stand-alone effort. Producing great content won’t get you very far if you don’t have a plan to convert your captive audience. Amazing content is only part of the puzzle, albeit a very important, absolutely essential part.
So, why is content marketing here to stay? The answer to that question is about to be outdated in T-minus 10 days when #INBOUND14 kicks off. There is expected to be over 7,500 attendees at this year’s conference to hear Malcolm Gladwell, Martha Stewart, Simon Sinek, and a plethora of other brilliant speakers and visionaries offer their thoughts on that subject and many others.
Though the reason why may be broad, the answer to the spectator's question is brief: Yes, content marketing does work. You can't learn content marketing in a day, but you can start somewhere. Specifically, you can start by reading this book about inbound marketing written by the founders of HubSpot. Click here to sample the book and download the first chapter. Or, better yet, attend the conference!
