"Content is NOT King": The ULTIMATE Reason Content Isn't King!

Content is a channel which brands, marketers, businesses, and content creators communicate and educate their audience.

It is also one of the fastest channels to reach your ideal target audience without paying thousands in paid or social media ads.

Unique content will help you attract and educate your ideal customers or clients, build trust (through a content marketing funnel), and get them to take action.

Marketers use content to attract readers or viewers around a specific idea and hopefully get them to purchase your products or services.

Digital agencies and startups today leverage content to distribute information and get the right marketing message to the right audience.

You see, billions of people are searching for solutions and asking questions online. Think about the number of Google searches that go on each minute.

That's a lot of possibilities for content thus why content is king.

But over the past decades, with the evolution and change in the digital and content marketing space is content really king?

Some of the latest companies like Facebook, Twitter, Netflix, and Google still leverage content to grow it's userbase massively. These companies have billions of users!

Content is regarded as one of the easiest ways to get your marketing and sales messages out there. And unlike paid ads, you can create unique and helpful content for your customers.

It is simply an organic channel to get your brand message out there.

Startups like Buffer, UniclixApp, Hubspot, etc, have built a platform strongly using content. But in this short article, I want to explain to you why "Content" alone is not king and also share what actually is king.

In short, I am going to show you why creating the best content only may generate little to no leads or sales.

Why 'Content' is NOT King!

Years back, the phrase, "Content is King" was coined by Bill Gates (at least to the best of my knowledge - and research) in 1996. The phrase has si xr been widely popular amongst businesses, marketers, companies and brands.

Fast forward, content is unarguably one of the best ways to generate revenue on the internet as predicted by Bill Gates decades ago.

You see, during those times, you could simply publish content and it would rank on Google without much effort at all. That was why content alone was actually king.

But today the case is different, and I'll explain...

Here's a practical example;

Go to Google right now and run this search;

"how to reduce weight"

Now there are over 10 million search results, results for just as such term alone.

These are millions and millions of results showing.

Imagine creating content on how to reduce weight and hoping it will beat these results and rank on the first page.

That's almost impossible because of the high level of competition for that keyword.

Now, the case wasn't like this decades ago.

There weren't so many websites to compete with; though you would easily create any type of content and easily rank.

But today, billions of websites are also creating content. So I'll leave you with this question;

"Is content really king?"

I mean, if you just create content which does not rank and does not generate traffic, is it really king?

Why would you create something? Why would you put effort to creating something that would not generate sales, customers traffic, and leads to your business or startup?

You literally get zero traffic, zeros subscribers, and zero sales.

The problem here is there is so much competition.

Now, if 'content' alone cannot generate sales or leads, it is definitely not king.

Now I know what's on your mind right now...

If content isn't king, then what is?

In short terms, content marketing is king in 2023, even as we approach 2024.

But how well is my statement? Correct?

I'll tell you as much as possible to touch every angle of this topic.

Now, content marketing is basically the process of promoting a piece of content to a specific audience in order to achieve a goal or an objective.

This could be through emails, ads, etc.

Content marketing on the other hand, means promoting that very content, which could be video or written content or graphics that you've already created for a specific audience that you've published online.

The marketing aspect of this is actually the most important part.

Companies like Buffer and Hubspot didn't build a content based just by publishing content and hoping it'll rank.

What did they do?

They created content did research and promoted it a lot.

Now think about it...

If you publish any form of content and do not promote it, how can you generate sales or how can your sales phone or be filled up?

How can you generate leads?

Well, you could get two or three or 10 signups, but is that enough to run your business or startup?

What is the aim of creating content if it does not generate sales?

I mean, the aim of content is to market your business. The aim of marketing is to generate sales. So if your content does not generate sales, then I would see content isn't king.

Content without an effective promotion would not cut through.

You can have the best content, can create the perfect content on the internet, but if you do not get it to the right people, then you would be missing out on a lot of traffic leads, sales and customers.

Here's the thing...

Content marketing is not just about sharing your articles on social media networks, Twitter, Instagram, and the rest.

These strategies do not longer work today and are not as effective. You need a very powerful content marketing plan to be able to promote every single post that you publish.

Like my friend Rob always says, treat every content like a business on its own.

Finally, this is sort of a controversial post, so if you, if you have a different opinion or you want to add up to what I said, then feel free to drop a comment below and join in.

Feel free to also join my newsletter.

If you have a startup and you want me to run your content writing or marketing, you can hit me up.

You can contact me through the contact page or send me an email and I'll get back to you within 24 hours.

Thank you for reading this far;

Simon Taki Zaku

Founder, SimonZaku.Com

Email: simonzakucom@gmail.com