Content marketing isn’t new, but today, it’s more important than ever. Consumers have tuned out from paid ads, misleading clickbait, and the disruptive onslaught of promotional emails that go straight to spam. People expect more from companies than they used to – they want authenticity, transparency and real conversation. In response, businesses are turning to content marketing to reach their target audiences. According to a joint report by content marketing software company Curata and LinkedIn, 75 percent of companies are either “increasing” or “significantly increasing” their content marketing budgets in 2017. Organizations now recognize that hiring employees who understand content strategy is essential to success. Content Marketing is where it’s at. Here are five reasons why:
- Content Marketers are in Demand: Forty-three percent of respondents surveyed by Curalate and LinkedIn said that they are increasing content marketing staff levels in 2017. There were a whopping 19,156 content marketing jobs advertised on LinkedIn in the fall of 2016. To put that number into context, it is 2.8 times the number of product marketing, 5.5 times the number of brand marketing jobs, and 9.4 times the amount of demand generation jobs listed on LinkedIn.
- Big Budgets: According to a recent report by the Content Marketing Institute, 29 percent of a brand's total marketing budget is spent on content marketing alone. Effective digital marketers plan to increase their spending by 39 percent over the next 12 months. By the year 2019, content marketing will be a $300 billion industry, more than double from 2016. Talk is cheap, but the numbers don’t lie. Content marketing skills are valuable, and companies are dedicating bigger budgets toward effective content strategies.
- High Salaries: Content strategists are projected to receive a 5.4 percent increase in their base compensation in 2017. Salaries for skilled content marketing professionals range from $81,250 to $115,250 depending on the region and experience level. New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, and Seattle are the cities with the most content marketing jobs. Certification or experience in project management (PMP® Certification), technical writing skills, web development and SEO all boost salaries.
- High-Quality Content is King: Thanks to changes in search algorithms, specifically Google Panda, websites with poor-quality content are now penalized. The spam-fighting update, now part of Google’s core ranking algorithm, addresses the problem of duplicate content. Gone are the days when webmasters banked on keyword stuffing, paid links and directories. Without these SEO shortcuts, businesses now rely on skilled content marketers to build trust and drive profits.
- Fake News: The number of pages indexed by Google has grown from 1 trillion to over 30 trillion in the last seven years. Social media has enabled anyone to post anything, true or false, and have it spread like wildfire through social networks. Clickbait articles cash in on advertising revenue by manipulating reader’s emotions. Burned out and resentful of disruptive ads that interfere with their online experience, people have tuned out. Content marketing treats audiences more respectfully than traditional advertising. Great content marketing offers informative and enjoyable web content, without attaching obligation to it. Content marketing is designed to create genuine trust between businesses and their target consumers.
Content marketing is here to stay. Companies are looking for people who can write and edit original content, curate websites that meet audience’s needs, and make smart data-driven business decisions. Developing and executing an effective content strategy isn’t easy. On average, Americans consume 34 gigabytes of content and encounter 100,000 written words from various sources in a single day. By employing content marketing, brands can cut through the noise to build engaging interactions, and deliver focused, valuable content that engages customers and keeps them coming back for more.