--- title: “Content Marketing” is About Value, Not Sales description: Content marketing can boost sales but only with the aid of thought leadership. image: https://blog.jconnelly.com/hubfs/Content_marketing_is_about_value_not_sales.jpg --- [![JConnelly Logo 2](https://blog.jconnelly.com/hs-fs/hubfs/JConnelly%20Logo%202.png?width=600&height=600&name=JConnelly%20Logo%202.png "JConnelly Logo 2")](https://jconnelly.com/) - [About](https://jconnelly.com/about) - [Team](https://jconnelly.com/team) - Newsroom - [News](https://jconnelly.com/news) - [Blog](https://blog.jconnelly.com/) - [Careers](https://jconnelly.com/careers) - [Contact](https://jconnelly.com/contact) ![Blog-header-2](https://blog.jconnelly.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Blog-header-2.jpg?width=2000&name=Blog-header-2.jpg "Blog-header-2") # The JConnelly Blog # [“Content Marketing” is About Value, Not Sales](https://blog.jconnelly.com/content-marketing-is-about-value-not-sales) ![close](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2432204/AK-UI%20Builder/close-button.svg) ### Categories - [Financial (150)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/financial) - [Public Relations (133)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/public-relations) - [Technology (126)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/technology) - [Food & Beverage (119)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/food-beverage) - [Content Marketing (114)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/content-marketing) - [Crisis (48)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/crisis) - [Digital Marketing (40)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/digital-marketing) - [Strategic Counsel (38)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/strategic-counsel) - [Personal and Executive Brands (30)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/personal-and-executive-brands) - [CSR (27)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/csr) - [Video Marketing (13)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/video-marketing) - [Highly Regulated (4)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/highly-regulated) - [Luxury (3)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/luxury) - [Branding (2)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/branding) - [AI (1)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/ai) - [Digital (1)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/digital) - [Online (1)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/online) - [Thought Leadership (1)](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/thought-leadership) ### Subscribe to Email Updates ### Popular Stories [What History Reveals About Women Who Played the Market](https://blog.jconnelly.com/what-history-reveals-about-women-who-played-the-market) Jul 30, 2019 [How to Follow Up Without Being Annoying](https://blog.jconnelly.com/how-to-follow-up-without-being-annoying) Jul 06, 2017 [Where Do You Go to Get Your Reputation Back?](https://blog.jconnelly.com/where-do-you-go-to-get-your-reputation-back) Jul 07, 2016 [The Damage from Boycotts is Reputational, Not Financial](https://blog.jconnelly.com/the-damage-from-boycotts-is-reputational-not-financial) Jan 24, 2017 [Soylent: Innovation in Eating or Ingenious Marketing?](https://blog.jconnelly.com/soylent-innovation-in-eating-or-ingenious-marketing) May 07, 2019 Categories | Subscribe | Populars - - - Written by Team JConnelly on March 04, 2016 **![Coin in slot- JConnelly blog- content marketing is not about sales](https://blog.jconnelly.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Content_marketing_is_about_value_not_sales.jpg?width=500&name=Content_marketing_is_about_value_not_sales.jpg "Content_marketing_is_about_value_not_sales.jpg")** Marketing has gone soft. Once measured by the cold, hard numbers of successful sales, today’s marketing is focused on building brand awareness, which doesn’t always convert neatly to dollars and cents. Slick brochures and stock conference booths are becoming an afterthought, replaced by one channel that can actually communicate value to would-be customers: content. But in order to be effective, marketers have to resist the urge to make their content sell, sell, sell. Of course, marketing efforts still have to align with revenue goals, but the straight path to market share now takes a detour through education, thought leadership, industry perspective and other valuable insights. Today’s environment requires “filling the funnel,” interacting with prospects through increasingly targeted and thoughtful content programs designed to convert leads to clients only after several touch points. ## Know Your Audience Quality content starts with understanding your audiences—their habits, their preferences and their deal breakers. Once you understand who buys what you’re selling, and how they make purchasing decisions, you can create content campaigns that will make them stop and think. The goal is engagement, not one-way communication. This doesn’t have to be a weeks-long, all-hands-on-deck process. Quality trumps quantity, and revisiting the same topics in fresh ways can help you connect with your target audiences when they need what you offer (rather than just when you’re trying to sell to them). Marketers today don’t have to just hope that their pieces go viral; instead, they can amplify their messages across numerous channels—social media, search engines, emails—and build an engaged community that is eager to see, and react to, the next chapter of the campaign. ## Crystalize the Message As [Seth Godin asserts in his blog](http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/2014/10/do-the-word.html), the keyboard is the most level playing field we have for transmitting ideas and driving action. Crafting words into a unique piece of writing that resonates with your audience is arguably the most important skill behind content marketing. There is simply no substitute for thoughtful, expertly written articles. ## Three Key Values for Effective Content Marketing 1. Keep your messages simple, clear and recognizable—no one has time for long-winded pronouncements or extraneous facts and figures. 2. Remember the people on the other side of the screen and what will move them to act. 3. Make your content the first product people seek out and the sales will follow.   Download our free lead generation guide to find out how you can attract leads with the right content flow:  [![Download JConnelly's Lead Generation Guide](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/408916/69485497-70d6-452d-b319-d34b55b5aa6d.png)](https://cta-redirect.hubspot.com/cta/redirect/408916/69485497-70d6-452d-b319-d34b55b5aa6d)     ![Subscribe](https://cdn2.hubspot.net/hubfs/2432204/99%20Template%20Pack/Background%20Images/message.svg "Subscribe") ### Subscribe to Email Updates Topics: [Content Marketing](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/content-marketing) [Food & Beverage](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/food-beverage) [Technology](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/technology) [Financial](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/financial) [Personal and Executive Brands](https://blog.jconnelly.com/topic/personal-and-executive-brands) ## **Let’s Connect** Ready to build, grow, manage and protect your brand? 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