The underestimated role of content marketing in lead generation

How important is content marketing for lead generation? Research has been attempting to produce the solution since quite a while.However, it additionally shows that the definition of content promoting matters which content (marketing) can be underestimated from a lead generation perspective.
Here is why and a special approach of viewing the content for lead generation.

According to MarketingSherpa’s 2012 Lead Generation Benchmark Report (click for excerpt, PDF opens), the most used lead generation tactic is email marketing, with 81% of respondents.
SEO accounts for seventy-fifth and social media for seventy-two. Next follows another broad class, website optimization, management or design (68%).
Content promoting is employed by fifty-four of respondents, outperforming PPC and tradeshows.

Of course, it’s not because a tactic is most used, that it’s also the most efficient one. End of last year MarketingSherpa’s Daniel Burstein answered some questions of readers about the findings with more data about the effectiveness of tactics and channels in driving leads.
According to the surveyed marketers, search engine optimization, ranks highest when it boils down to the most effective lead generation tactics.
29% of respondents say email promoting is extremely effective and fifty nine somewhat effective.
Website optimization ranks higher than email marketing too with 30% of respondents answering it is very effective in generating leads. Mobile promoting is extremely effective in keeping with 12-tone system of respondents and somewhat effective in keeping with a thumping hr.

What does all this mean? In the end, the channels and ways we tend to use, are important.
However, they should be adapted to the preferences and behavior of target audiences.

What about the effectiveness of content marketing? 

The best thanks to generate leads could be a sensible cross-channel combine whereby the various aspects and dimensions of target customers square measure king.
The survey additionally shows the importance of content and content promoting, as well as its effectiveness for lead generation purposes.
Content promoting is extremely effective in keeping with twenty-eighth of respondents and somewhat effective in keeping with fifty six.

However, here again, it’s important to remember that content marketing, email marketing, website optimization, and all other tactics are closely related and intertwined.
Email promoting is extremely economical if the content/offer is good/relevant and if it fits in an exceedingly customer-centric overall approach.
There is no email marketing without content.
The same goes for mobile marketing and social media marketing. Content is a social object we interact with and spurs interaction in different possible forms and it plays a crucial role in all decisions we take, regardless of the channel as mentioned in my post on content marketing personas.

Where does content marketing end?

Let’s cross-check some examples from a lead generation perspective. Content, lead generation and social media. When you share content with a community of individuals, for instance on social media, you might want to achieve different goals: relationship building, retention, loyalty and, indeed, lead generation.
However, is sharing content with communities on social media marketing or content marketing? And what about blogging? Or creating and sharing audiovisual content or presentations via social channels?
How can we split creation pay from social spend? Is it even possible? Content, lead generation and email marketing. When you conduct email promoting programs in an exceedingly cross-channel approach whereby individuals square measure invited to register for a webinar or to transfer a paper in an exceedingly specific a part of
the method, you need good copy for the emails and your goal is driving leads through email and content. Is that content marketing or email marketing? And what regarding content for various customized, segmented and triggered emails in a scenario-based marketing process?
There’s a lot of content to create in order for these emails.
In fact, there's a large demand for relevant and timely content for email promoting and cross-channel promoting.
So, is that this extremely regarding content promoting or email marketing?

Content, lead generation, and marketing optimization. A final example: optimization, including website optimization, search engine optimization and in general marketing optimization.
We simply saw however vital they're from a lead generation perspective within the chart.
What is one of the key elements we test and improve in order to have better converting websites? Indeed, content. What is search engine optimization increasingly about? Indeed, content (marketing).
I could continue for a while and say that for mobile marketing (which means many things) you need the content too but my point is that it’s very hard to separate
content within the broad sense as a ‘discipline’ from all the opposite ways MarketingSherpa mentions.

What is content marketing?

Are all the examples I simply gave excluded from it? How do respondents even grasp that once asked however effective they suppose content promoting is? I guess you see my point. Content marketing in the broad sense of providing content to improve marketing outcomes by focusing on customer needs and preferences seems underestimated in the survey. I think the chart below makes that clear, especially as in the report excerpt it’s announced as “evaluating the use, difficulty and effectiveness of various lead generation channels, to help you identify your optimal, multichannel mix”. Is content (marketing) a channel?
Is it even a separate maneuver, taking under consideration what I wrote before?