In 1996 Bill Gates wrote an article titled, “Content Is King.” Fast-forward over 20 years, and those words are truer than ever. Gates predicted that the “big money” would be made with content. The growth of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and blogging clearly illustrates the wisdom of one of the greatest business minds of our era.
Since Gates wrote his famous words, the internet has vastly grown, and the importance of content has increased immensely. At the same time, the attention span of humans has tremendously diminished. According to various studies, humans these days have a “shorter attention span than a goldfish,” and this means it’s not just enough to have content — but instead we need material that is everywhere our clients go. If your perfect client is on Facebook for 15 minutes, then 10 minutes on YouTube and later 20 minutes on Google, it’s ideal to have content on each medium, thus increasing your impact, reach and likelihood to make sales. Having more content these days is essential to business. In fact, a recent study from Demand Gen Report found that buyers now like to consume four to seven pieces of content before engaging with a sales representative.
Understanding that content is crucial to sales isn’t new; many of us already know this. The hang-up for most entrepreneurs and companies isn’t creating content, but rather what kind of material to make. On top of that, the dilemma of our current time is how to make content that helps us be everywhere possible. As one of my friends and colleagues, Scott Oldford, says, “Being omnipresent is the key to online sales.” Ideally, we’re everywhere our perfect customers are, and when they’re ready to buy, we’re there.
Start with one type of content.
Whatever your forte with content is, I suggest you start now. If you enjoy writing, start putting words to paper. If you enjoy doing video,…
