According to a study conducted by Knowledge Storm, personalization by industry improves a content pieces effectiveness by 82%. The study states that in 2012, content marketers will become completely aware of their target audience for most of their content. What content marketers must remember is that customers today are not readers, but discoverers and are savvier about doing their own research and preliminary evaluation. For marketers the biggest challenge would be converting the first time visitor into a customer, and this will drive them to move their content strategy from the fringes into mainstream. Algorithms such as Googles Panda will force marketers to focus on quality of content and not just quantity, eliminating mass production of content.

Universal Orlando Resorts in Florida launches a new theme park by telling only 7 people, that within two days grew to over 350,000,000 people
A dentist in Boston grows her business from $150K to over a million dollars per year using content marketing

Examples of Content Marketing:

Blog Marketing
White paper Marketing
Article Distribution
Press Release Distribution
Social Media Marketing
Events, Videos, and Other Fun Stuff

Ages ago, it was enough for marketers to use basic link building to easily boost search engine rankings for their website. Today, when search engines are smarter and tried and tested methods dont yield the same results, marketers find their means limited. For instance, Googles new Penguin update has introduced an algorithm change that brought down the rankings of thousands of websites in a single day, regardless of their SEO strategies.

Getting your target audience to notice you has moved beyond building links and keyword play. Content marketing, done smartly, and the quality and context of your content are what determine a competitive digital strategy today. Great content helps you increase visibility by grabbing attention and getting the audience interested enough to listen to you. Sharing content is how you can influence decision-making among target markets. And thats why, if you arent marketing your content, you arent marketing at all. When created, targeted and distributed right, your content is one of the best ways to increase your profits.

So why is the old concept of content marketing sparking new interest? Valuable content helps your marketing efforts with:

Subject Matter Expert Positioning Providing your expertise on a subject or industry proves to any target customer that you actually know what youre talking about.
Better Chances of Getting Found Good content and smart content marketing helps you stand out and not get missed in the ever-increasing needles that are in the Google haystack.
Reaching Out to Customers White papers, press releases, email campaigns etc are great ways of reaching out to a relevant audience.
Lead Generation Its quite simple. When someone downloads a white paper or a case study from your website, they will fill out a form on a landing page which requires them to enter in their contact information. Offer informative content that makes your prospects job easier, and might willingly share all contact info.
Traffic Generation Any form of highly-engaging content will attract readers and increase traffic to your website. Shareable content is even more effective in guiding viewers between multiple online branding platforms giving marketers the benefit of additional exposure as this content gets syndicated and shared around the web. For example, an infographic featured on a well-known website will often result in dozens of re-posts and shares, leading to many tens of thousands of impressions.
Social Media Engagement Referring traffic from social sites has grown exponentially, and gives brands a global platform to connect with their target audience. Users of major social networks are fast becoming content curators and contributors. A visitor could be Tweeting something youve created while also posting it on their Facebook timeline. The novelty of new content and the ease of sharing content within social networks has become popular, and a great branding tool. Newer sites like Pinterest, Reddit, and Stumbleupon are responsible for some of the largest volumes and also represent unique communities.
Immediate Conversion That right! Specific types of content marketing campaigns can result in direct conversion of customers. Naturally, your content must be spectacular and should contribute something new to your customer community and educate them. Tailored content that helps solve business problems and includes clear calls to action allows marketers to facilitate and track immediate conversion. Be it infographics or guest posts, interesting and new content that establishes your organization as an industry though leader helps generate and covert leads.
Though leadership and Competitive Positioning Each piece of content should build the story of your brand and your competitive positioning, solidifying your position as an industry leader in the minds of potential customers. Great content and superb content marketing will set you apart from competition and build your brands value. Best results are achieved when marketing campaigns are begun as part of a fully-realized content marketing strategy. Your content establishes trust and authority to search engines through the acquisition and building of links and continued exposure.
Affordable Marketing Option Content marketing is ideal for smaller enterprises with no large budgets to spend on traditional advertising. It can be delivered online and is more affordable.