Content Marketing is a term that gets bandied about a bit these days, but what does it really mean and how can it work for your business?

The philosophy behind the strategy is simple: create content (for example blog posts, photos and videos), that will engage your audience, inspire them to share and eventually become customers.

It all sounds great in theory, but a recent infographic from Wishpond reveals some compelling reasons why you might want to consider including content as part of your overall marketing strategy.

Money talks

More brands are investing in Content Marketing strategies. US $118.4 billion will be spent on Content Marketing, Video Marketing and social media in 2013, with marketers allocating 25 per cent of their total budget on content. 

91 per cent of B2B marketers and 86 per cent of B2C marketers use Content Marketing. While 78 per cent of CMO's believe custom content is the future of marketing.

Engagement

Oddly enough, users respond more favourably to custom content than annoying pop up ads. Interesting content is one of the top three reasons people follow brands on social media, and a whopping 90 per cent of consumers find custom content useful.

78 per cent of consumers feel that organisations producing custom content are interested in building good relationships.

Visionary 

Good content gets shared. Articles with images received 94 per cent more views than those without, and video is share 12 times more often than text-updates on Facebook. 

Link love

Compelling content makes you more visible. Blogs give websites 434 per cent more indexed pages and 97 per cent more indexed links, meaning websites will rank more highly on search engines like Google.

Plus brands that regularly blog generate on average 67 per cent more leads per month.

To see the full infographic visit visual.ly/state-content-marketing-2013.

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