Boomer Elmsdale
Content is king, said Viacom founder, Sumner Redstone. Then, he built a billion dollar media business and was quoted millions of times by every communications professional in the land.
Why? Why did anointing content as king result in an eternal motto, perhaps more well known to marketers than John 3:16, or other words to live by? Why couldn’t cool tools like sales process be king? Or, just having a nice handshake.
One reason is that content and information is really hard to produce regularly.
Information never stops changing. Therefore, there is an unlimited demand for information. It evolves with the world. Change is constant. With costs of distribution dropping to zero, there is always new, relevant, potent, revenue driving information to organize and express. One person companies can shred multi million dollar companies with one swift article, garnering attention for their product.
The ability to surface information and explain it to people, in order to improve readers lives is extremely valuable. Without it, nobody understands your product. If nobody understands your product, then nobody buys it. If nobody buys it, then you have no income. If you have no income, then you have no job. If you have no job, then you have no family. And, as stated by Jack Nicholson in The Departed, ‘This is America. If you don’t make money, then you are a douche bag.’
Communicating new information is more important than ever. Now that an unlimited amount of infomration is available without thought (other than a few swift taps on your phone), consumers – AKA – people shopping for your product – expect a swift explanation.
If you want to compete, you need content.
The big change is that content is not just for media companies anymore. The world is so competetive that all businesses need content to prove their value to customers.
It used to be that timing was the most important thing in reaching new customers. Now buying cycles are longer. It is not immediate unless you are on a trusted site. How do you get the trust. How do you manage this process for customers.
