Content marketing is a hot topic in many circles these days and as a content writer and project coordinator, I’ve seen first hand how valuable a strong content marketing strategy can be. I also come across a lot of statistics about the field and here are some numbers that you might find interesting

• 80% of business decision-makers prefer to get company information through a series of articles rather than from an advertisement.
• 70% of business decision makers report that content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company.
• Content marketing costs 62 percent less per lead than traditional, outbound marketing.
• 91% of B2B marketers use content marketing.
• Per dollar, content marketing produces roughly three times as many leads as traditional outbound marketing.

My team and I build an online content matrix that provides our clients’ potential customers with a lot of different opportunities to get to know them and what they do. We tell our clients’ story in a lot of different ways and from a lot of different angles, but always from the perspective that we want people to get to know, like and trust the company so that they will start to engage in a conversation that might lead to a sale.

Why are we the right people to lead the charge? I, personally, am a career writer who started out as a reporter for a daily Canadian news organization decades ago. I garnered excellent experience in the areas of government communications, corporate communications, PR and marketing. I’ve written three books: one is a novel, one is a collection of creative non-fiction stories and one is a book about how to write more powerfully.

If you want more information about me, you are welcome to check out my credentials on LinkedIn. But the upshot is that I am a highly experienced writer with more than 20 years in marketing alone. I get this stuff. The members of my team are likewise highly experienced online marketing experts who are trained to notice the small details that make a big difference in a company’s online marketing initiatives. And we work well together!

As a marketing copy writer I’ve invested an enormous amount of time and energy in becoming really familiar with content marketing and social media marketing, and I’ve come to view what we do online as a really effective way of supporting a business’s other marketing initiatives in order to generate more leads.

Where does marketing fit into the business cycle of companies today? A lot of people I meet ask me that very question. And here’s my answer:

Marketing is the process of starting conversations with the people who are likely to buy from you.

Sales is the conversation itself and everything that happens thereafter.

So marketing aims to kickstart conversations for the sales force that they can stick handle to a successful conclusion.

Does this sound like something that would benefit your organization? Give me a call and let’s chat about it – I’d be happy to share what I know about content marketing to help your business generate the leads you need to meet your business goals this year. You can book yourself in for a free consultation with me at www.meetme.so/susancrossman. Or email me directly at susan@crossmancommunications.com.