Content Is King, Or Is It?

By Perry Rearick, Chief Editor, Follow Your Buyer

Most of you will recognize the phrase “content is king” and will correctly attribute it to Bill Gates. It is often quoted by those of us who practice the art and science of digital content marketing to bolster our profession and sometimes grab a seat at the big table where decisions are made.

Its origins are the title of an essay that Mr. Gates wrote in 1996. He imagined that the internet and the unlimited content it would hold, organize, and help distribute would spawn numerous new industries, and it has: personal computers, smart phones, programs, social media communities, digital marketing, apps, and a multitude of supporting technologies. New career fields were created: programmers, developers, IT support technicians, digital content creators, and social media influencers. And the list goes on.

Bill Gates was right, most of these industries and careers did not exist before the 1990s. He also described the internet as an exciting place where anyone with a PC and a modem can be a publisher. But publishers need readers and B2B content marketers need engaged target audiences who become buyers.

If anyone is functioning like a monarch with absolute power, it is our target audiences, and content is their realm.

Who is your content serving? If the buyer king doesn’t care about your content because it doesn’t serve their interests, you may find yourself in a forgotten part of the kingdom.

When it comes to content development, follow your king, the buyer!