Content Marketing Today

As The Price of Oil Skyrockets, So Does The Value of Content Marketing

A consensus is rapidly evolving. It centers around the concept of peak oil which theorizes that the world has already reached its capacity for production of oil.  Over the next several decades the level of oil production will diminish and eventually slow to a relative trickle.  Combined with increasing demand in China, India and other rapidly growing countries this means that high-priced oil is here to stay. 

I believe this phenomenon has increased the value of content marketing and will continue to do so.

Why?  Traditional sales and marketing has involved a lot of in person connection with customers.  That in person connection has become and will become even more expensive for both buyers and sellers. Here’s where content marketing steps in. 

Traditional sales and marketing under assault

This meant in the B2B world that sales reps would travel all over their region, be it their town, their state, the US or the world.  Going in the other direction, prospective buyers would travel to trade shows to sample the offerings of the vendors in their field.

In the consumer universe, customers are already curtailing visits to shops and restaurants.  When you are spending twice as much for gas in the summer of 2008 as you were 12 months before, you will think twice about traveling very far or very often to buy stuff.

Even when oil was still cheap in the late 90s and early 2000s, buyer behavior was changing thanks to the Internet.  As research from ThomasNet and others has shown, more than 90% of buyers will do their research on the Web before they ever have a connection with the seller.  In your face and in person selling became less important in a high percentage of sales situations.

Although the ThomasNet research was specific to the business to business market, very similar patterns are emerging in the business to consumer market.  The percentage of people buying directly from the Internet for all manner of products has grown a year after year.

As buying and selling patterns change, online content marketing prevails.

Enter peak oil and four dollar–and climbing–a gallon gas.  Suddenly, and probably forever, traditional sales and marketing outreach has become significantly more expensive at the same time it has become less effective. This is true whether you are talking about a personal sales call, printed direct marketing, and trade shows. 

This is not to say that traditional sales and marketing methods will vanish.  But it does mean that your content marketing efforts are more important than ever.  This is especially true for your online efforts.

Once you have made the initial investment to establish a Web presence, your incremental costs to maintain that presence can be lower than $10 per month.  It will be important to continue an investment in relevant and valuable content.  But this will deliver an increasingly visible return as you achieve critical mass with your content.

Essentially, it costs you no more to maintain a 100 page website than it does to maintain a five-page website.  If you have built a website that is designed to make it easy for your customers to buy, your return on that investment is likely to skyrocket in direct relationship to the skyrocketing price of gasoline.  As cars and trucks vanish from our terrestrial highways, traffic on the Internet highway should keep growing into the distant future.

Think for a moment of your own behavior.  How willing will you be to drive 30 miles to an outlet mall to save a few bucks when gas costs five or six dollars a gallon?  But, would you have any in hesitation of spending 30 minutes online to peruse an online store that gives you full visual access to a huge inventory–and that can deliver overnight if you’re really in a hurry.

The bottom line: Traditional sales and marketing will diminish in importance as the price of oil goes through the roof.  Content marketing online will have to take up the slack.