---

---

June 28, 2016

Let's get right to the point. Here are the three reasons:

1. It is not a fad and it's not going away anytime soon.
2. As the years go on, the numbers of people doing research online and on their phones increases.
3. You need to understand content marketing and how and why to work your content marketing into your press release plan to be the expert in your industry.

Content marketing is not a fad.
Nor is it this year's fancy buzz word. It is here to stay and the reason is quite simple. People continue to do their research online. They listen to experiences. They listen to whom the experts are. If you are an expert within your niche or industry, you will build trust amongst your audience. Trust = conversion.

Here is an example of why content marketing is important. Let's say you are interested in investing and are looking for an investment advisor online. If you came across a number of articles about economic trends, written by the same investment advisement firm, would you not start to pay a little closer attention to that firm? And if you were following the firm for a while and saw that what they talked about was actually happening within the economy, would you likely think to yourself "hey, this firm really seems to know it's stuff!"' When it came time to pick an investment advisement firm, would you not consider this firm?

The point is that content which showcases a business' expertise and track record encourages people to use that business's products or services.

Content marketing can almost be viewed as a form of advertising. The difference is that you are not limited to 140 characters or to brief text, as you usually are with advertising. You have the opportunity to publish more expansive content that tells a stronger and more complete story. Your main cost is the time you invest in creating content that tells a good story.

Your content may come in various forms. At 24-7 Press Release Newswire (http://www.24-7pressrelease.com), during the past couple of years we have recognized a new style of press release that is being distributed by businesses. Although it still falls within the realm of being a press release, the writing of the press release is slightly different from that of a traditional release. This new kind of release includes quotes from people respected in your business field, but you are also positioned as a subject matter expert on the topic in question.

The reason sending out a press release in this style through the 24-7PressRelease.com network can be effective is because it gets your information to key websites that people visit. This becomes particularly effective if you are using our Mass Media Visibility package. The reason for this is because of the wide net of information that is cast when your press release is distributed. Your content is published to major sites like finance.yahoo.com, the BizJournals and many other high profile locations increasing your visibility.

Time Goes On
We used to think of the Internet as the world that primarily young people were familiar with. But the younger generation of ten years ago has now grown up and is increasingly making important decisions. They are familiar and comfortable with the Internet, social media and mobile devices. Even journalists are looking more than ever for information online.

This makes content marketing, including the use of social media, that much more important. If you are one of these individuals that "just can't be bothered" with setting up social media for your business and investing a little bit of time getting valuable content online, then your competition will certainly leapfrog you in becoming highly visible on the internet.

Even in local markets, gaining "mindshare" is becoming more and more competitive because of internet search engine intelligence. You need to be thinking about using content marketing to strengthen your business' online visibility, because if you don't, your competition is likely to gain your market's attention and take business away from you.

Tools like the yellow pages are pretty much now only found in museums. Online search has become such a convenient way for people to learn about a topic that they really do their homework before they buy a product or service. This makes telling a good brand story through content marketing that much more important. If you're not online with good content, you won't be found.

As previously mentioned, 24-7PressRelease.com has seen a number of our customers incorporating content marketing strategies within their distributed press releases. They still include proper attribution. They still make their press release interesting and they follow some basic rules:

1. Keep your headline short. The reason this is important is because it allows your press release to talk to the world of Twitter. It is also easy reading for a journalist who may be interested in your news story. While your title should be short, ensure it also grabs your readers' attention.

2. Stay away from the jargon train. Sure, there may be a very select few individuals who understand your Nano-technology and gizmo mechanism; but the reality is that Google likes easy simple reading, because most people who use Google also prefer the same. Don't get technical. Don't use jargon. Simple is better.

3. Mix up your stories. When you distribute your next news release, think about the length of your previous press release. Typically, a shorter press release is easier for journalists to absorb, particularly if you are incorporating lots of white space, bullet points and media. As we mentioned in a few weeks ago, today's readers now have an attention span of only 8 seconds. If your story warrants 1500 words, so be it. However, the next time around, try to limit your press release to around 400 words. We have found a 400-word press release to be the ideal length.

4. Do you have a call to action? If not, you may want to think of one. Are you not sure what a call to action is? This is a description from Wikipedia: "In marketing, a call to action (CTA) is an instruction to the audience to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as 'call now,' 'find out more' or 'visit a store today.'" More may be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Call_to_action_(marketing)

So our advice is: Write good content, engage your readers and don't forget to add a couple of images to grab your reader's eye and break up the content. With these tips in mind, you will be sure to be on the right track to a successful content marketing strategy.