It’s time for richer content
Around 2003, as blogs As the internet psyche began to permeate, it became clear that these writing tools could be more than an outlet for one’s musings – they also had enormous potential for business and marketing.
Hubspot was launched in 2006 as a way to capitalize on the trend, by giving marketers a platform designed to get inbound leads through blog posts. That meant that customers came to your website, drawn to the content on the blog, without having to explicitly call a sales team and ask them to buy something.
Around the same time, David Meerman Scott, a marketing professional tired of business, wrote a roadmap for marketers to understand this new way of delivering content. That book, “The New Rules of Marketing and PR,” was published in 2007 and proved to be a groundbreaking work in the field. It helped marketing teams understand that they needed to produce compelling content, not the slick brochure copy of the past, reproduce on the web.
It turns out that writing a corporate blog was just the first step in a longer, broader media journey. Over the past few years, we’ve started to see content marketing take a leap forward as SaaS companies like Salesforce, Hubspot, and Shopify started to act more like media companies, putting content at the heart of everything they do.
But why is it happening? And can startups imitate the kind of content production we see at established SaaS companies?
It’s time for richer content
While content marketing evolves, as with any technology, the old doesn’t just disappear. The venerable blog post isn’t going anywhere anytime soon, but over time, companies have added more layers to richer content like podcasts and video.
Last year, Salesforce took it to another level when it announced a massive media arm called Salesforce+. The company built a Hollywood-style studio to produce entertaining content with the ultimate goal of attracting customers.
In another example, Hubspot, which has expanded over the years to offer a range of sales and marketing solutions, bought Hustle last year. The deal included a free newsletter with 1.5 million subscribers, a subscription newsletter called “The Trend” and a podcast called “My First Million.”