It’s exciting to be a content marketing believer.
And if you’re like me, once you’ve discovered the benefits of shifting your marketing mindset to selling your story above your services, you want to share that discovery with the world.
Sometimes, however, that’s easier said than done. Sometimes, your enthusiasm is eaten up by nonbelievers and spit out by the traditional thinking of “We’ve always done it this way.”
So how can you convert these skeptics into content marketing champions?
Here are some of our favorite arguments that make the case for content marketing, from the industry’s best and brightest:

Why Content Marketing?

“Traditional marketing talks about people. Content marketing talks with them.” – Doug Kessler, Velocity Partners
“Your customers don’t care about you, your products, or your services. They care about themselves, their wants, and their needs. Content marketing is about creating interesting information your customers are passionate about so they actually pay attention to you.” – Joe Pulizzi, Epic Content Marketing
“Best way to sell something: don’t sell anything. Earn the awareness, respect, and trust of those who might buy.” – Rand Fishkin, Moz
“Text is the backbone of the Web, and it’s often the backbone of any content you watch or listen to, as well. … Words matters. Your words (what you say) and style (how you say it) are your most cherished (and undervalued) assets. Yet, so often, they are overlooked. Think of it this way: If a visitor came to your website without its branding in place (logo, tagline, and so on), would he or she recognize it as yours? Are you telling your story there from your unique perspective, with a voice and style that’s clearly all you?” – Ann Handley, MarketingProfs
“Why do content marketing? The answer of course is that you should do it because it works. The answer is that you should do it because most of your marketing is getting less effective. We know that if we create content our customers want, content that is helpful or entertaining to them, then we will attract buyers. We will earn their trust. And ultimately that will translate into business value in the form of revenue and loyal customers.” – Michael Brenner, SAP/B2B Marketing Insider
“The paradox is the more info you give away, the more people will buy what you have to give.” – Brian Clark, Copyblogger

The Benefits of Content Marketing

“Traditionally, marketing campaigns are about renting someone else’s audience: the marketer goes to media (who has the audience) and pays to have their message displayed to that audience. Content marketing turns this on its head. Now, you get to own your own audience and over time, owning versus renting is much more cost-effective.” – Toby Murdock, Kapost (via SEO.com)
“Unlike almost every other marketing tactic every devised, content marketing continues to pay dividends forever. Smart content creation doesn’t have an expiration date. It generates Web traffic (via search and social media linkages) and helps remove purchase impediments every day of every month. It’s an information annuity that can’t be replicated elsewhere.” – Jay Baer, Convince & Convert
“The highest ROI Internet marketing channels, including SEO, email marketing, social media marketing, and most forms of paid advertising, all market great content that answers customer questions, solves their problems, entertains and leads them down the sales funnel. Our experience has shown that when an organization really understands and grasps the importance of content marketing, all Internet marketing channels have significant boosts in performance.” – Jeremy Dearringer, Slingshot SEO (via SEO.com)
“Where brand publishing has the most profound impact is in empowering organizations to create, facilitate, and leverage the ownership of ideas. That’s largely because great sponsored content is born from a company’s exchange of proprietary knowledge. When it’s done right, brand publishing encourages companies to mine internal resources and expertise in order to become intellectual agents.” – Alexander Jutkowitz, Harvard Business Review
“When you produce extraordinary content that compels people to share, the result is an engaged community, which leads to more traffic, mentions, links and conversions. But content marketing isn’t easy and it isn’t a short-term campaign; it requires an investment in time and resources. Smart marketers understand the value of gaining a consumer’s trust and interest before asking them to buy.” – Monique Pouget, Thunder SEO (via SEO.com)

Content Marketing By The Numbers

Content marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing and generates about 3 times as many leads. – Business2Community/DemandMetric
61% of consumers say they feel better about, and are more likely to buy from, a company that delivers custom content. – Custom Content Council
B2B companies that blog generate 67% more leads than those that don’t. – WebDAM
Website conversion rate is nearly 6x higher for content marketing adopters than non-adopters (2.9% vs 0.5%). – Business2Community/Aberdeen
42% of consumers look to blogs for information about potential purchases; 52% say blogs have impacted their purchase decisions; and 57% of marketers have acquired new customers with their blogs. – InboundWriter/LeadersWest Digital Marketing Journal
“The average buyer completes 57% of their buying process before ever contacting a salesperson.” – Corporate Execute Board

Content Marketing ROI

“Content is the means, not the ends. Frame your motivation for content marketing with that in mind. The goal isn’t to be good at content. The goal is to be good at business because of content. Measuring content comes down to how well it achieves business goals.” – Convince & Convert, A Field Guide to the Four Types of Content Marketing Metrics
“At the very least, content gives your company something to talk about. If you’re tired of firing off the same boring press release to whichever journalists will listen and parrot your dry copy to an audience of half-opened ears, then for goodness sake do something new and different. It’s a crowded market out there, with more and more channels and voices adding to the noise everyday. It’s not enough to have a high-budget advert placed strategically on prime-time television, you need to provide something that an audience will actively engage with online through sharing. And that audience are only going to do that if your content is entertaining, engaging or useful.” – Christopher Ratcliff, EConsultancy

The Courage to Start Content Marketing

“Discomfort brings engagement and change. Discomfort means you’re doing something that others were unlikely to do, because they’re hiding out in the comfortable zone. When your uncomfortable actions lead to success, the organization rewards you and brings you back for more.”
― Seth Godin, Linchpin: Are You Indispensable?
Sold? Great! Need more convincing? Check out our series “The Case for Content” for more ammunition in the fight against traditional marketing think.