Is the Main Job of Marketing Today Publishing?

I had the pleasure of attending the BtoB NetMarketing breakfast about a week ago while I was in New York. I was really looking forward to this, especially when I saw the panel:

• Jon Carero, VP, Interactive Marketing at CIT
• Bill Stabile, Sr. Director, Brand & Marketing Communications at Siemens Corp.
• Chris Boylan, Director of Internet Marketing at Information Builders
• Eric Andrews, VP, WW Demand Generation at IBM

Here is a link to the videos from the event.

My key takeaway was this: Leading marketing organizations such as IBM and Siemens are focusing the majority of their time, attention and resources on the creation and distribution of their own content to customers and prospects.

Don't get me wrong, companies like IBM buy plenty of TV and online "space", but those buys are part of an integrated communications plan that direct the buyer to their own content.

This is especially important in the business-to-business buying cycle where it may take six to 24 months for someone to make a purchase decision, and involve from six to possibly 20 people who have a say in the final choice (ouch!).

Marketing today is all about publishing.

Considering the vast changes in buyer behavior, these marketers understand that their marketing function is not about getting prospects to buy now (which is impossible in a b2b environment).  It's about getting the prospect engaged in the information provided...making it relevant to their lives and jobs, and motivating them to come back for more (by creating more relevant content).

By providing this type of content marketing and setting up the building blocks for a long-term relationship, the opportunity is now available to actually sell your solutions, because they trust you, have a stake in your brand, and believe in your solutions-oriented message.

The whole idea of this, even ten years ago, would seem like the hard way to increase sales. Today, it's the only way.

I'll have more on some specific takeaways from each presenter tomorrow.

Related Articles:

• To Publishers: Your Customers Don't Need You Anymore
• Media Companies Are Waiting to Make You Publishers
• Corporate Content Will Take Over Media as We Know It

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