“Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action,” according to the Content Marketing Institute.

And it should be a vital part of your company’s marketing strategy.

Why? Consumer behavior is changing at an alarming rate. People are just plain busy and don’t have time for interruptions.

How so? Think of it this way. I can venture a bet that you and I exhibit the following habits in our own personal lives:

• We DVR our favorite programs or watch them via a third-party like Netflix or Hulu to skip the commercials.
• 200 million of us have registered on the Federal Trade Commission’s “do not call” list.
• Who wants to skim through pages of ads in a magazine to find that one article that caught our eye in the grocery checkout line? We surf the web for it, instead.

Yep. Guilty as charged.

If we don’t want our lives to be disrupted with loud radio announcers or telemarketers calling at supper time, then why do we assume our customers do?

Bottom line: They don’t want to be interrupted when they aren’t looking, but want us to be there when they have a need. And that, my friend, is the heart of content marketing.

Yet, many companies are stuck in those same old traditional marketing tactics –  because “that’s how it’s always been done.”

How can you convince your management that investing time into content marketing, like blogging and social media, is valuable to the company’s bottom line?

Here are 10 reasons to add to your marketing arsenal – to use when the time comes to talk to your boss about content marketing (thanks to HubSpot):

1. U.S. Internet users spend three times more time reading blogs and viewing their social networks like Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest than on email.

2. 70% of links consumers click are organic (not paid).

3. 55% more potential customers are likely to visit your site if you blog.

4. 57% of businesses have acquired a new customer through a company blog.

5. An average of 52% of companies get new customers through Facebook.

6. 42% of companies have acquired customers while using Twitter.

7. Inbound marketing costs 62% less than traditional marketing.

8. Blogging and social media is a two-way street and they open up a world of new, valuable conversations and relationships.

9. Your company can be accessible at their customers’ fingertips through writing educational articles or blogs that address solutions your customers’ pertinent problems. In turn, people think of you as a thought leader in your industry.

10. Your boss doesn’t have to do the work! Chances are, you have plenty of expertise in the offices or cubicles around you.  Utilize that talent!

Content marketing is the future of marketing itself. It’s up to you to ensure your company doesn’t fall off the radar with potential or current customers.  Now that you have your facts straight, taking the next steps can be easy once you have a plan. Read how to implement your content marketing strategy in five steps.  And get social!