Here’s a fact to wake you up: according to Demand Metric, 70% of people would rather learn something useful or get information about a company from an article or blog post – rather than a traditional advertisement.

So given that your current and future customers are tired of the hard sell, where does that leave you if you’re not doing content marketing – and your competitors are?

The key is how you address this – and that means putting out high-quality, regular, useful content that solves your customer problems. Let’s say you own a gym: you should publish training tips, infographics, how-to videos and blog posts that aid better health and appearance.

Your content needs to be aligned with your offering and the problem your customers are trying to solve. Then, when they’re ready to sign up, it’s your company they turn to.

Don’t hand the advantage to your competitors!