Content Is King? Wrong.

If you are involved in any form of online marketing, I am sure you must have heard “content is king!”

So how can anybody deny that? It is a well known fact that whatever you do, whether you post on your own blog, tweet on Twitter or submit articles to article directories, quality content is a must. Providing quality content is one of the best ways to promote any business.

This is all true, and I would have told you the same thing - “content is king” – as I have came to that same conclusion. That is until I recently paid a visit to CopyBlogger, where they discussed one of the pillars of internet marketing: relationships.

And it dawned on me, content isn’t king, relationships are king. Yes, content is extremely important and is also one of your pillars for internet marketing, but without relationships, it will lose much of its power.

I am always emphasizing the importance of building relationships, and after my visit to CopyBlogger I realized this: You can have a list of thousands of people, and with quality content you can achieve success (whatever methods you are using – email, blogging, newsletter, etc.). But imagine if you have a strong relationship with your following. If you have the trust of the people following you, you communicate regularly and you pay attention to what their needs are and what they want, whenever you put any content out there, they are going to read it.

I have often subscribed to lists when it seems to be a good option, just to be disappointed or even forget about the membership later on. You never read the emails, and eventually just cancel your subscription as they just fill up your inbox.

The Money Is In The List

Yes, this is true. You do need prospects, which you need to turn into customers. Without these, you won’t be able to conduct any business. But building your list without building relationships is like building a house without a proper foundation. You will have to work so much harder on building your list, because as you add people to your list you will just be replacing people who are unsubscribing. And even of those who stay on your list, there will be many who don’t really pay attention to you, because of a weak relationship.

Quality content will be the only tool to use. And if you start slipping, nobody will warn you. You will just start losing people (and income). Having good relationships however, chances are good that you will immediately realize when you are missing the point, as people communicate with you and you can pick up warning signals.

Two Way Communication

First of all, two way communication is not only essential, but will also be a good indicator of the level of your relationships. 

Your customers / followers should be able to indicate to you what their needs are and what information they need. But you should also realize that a one way relationship is actually no relationship at all. It’s exploitation.  You must conduct yourself in a professional manner from the beginning.

You must make it clear from the beginning that you are running a business and you will be offering products for sale or you will be rendering a service or whatever it is you intend to do.

Everybody needs to know that you will expect to receive cash value in return, but they need to feel safe in the sense of knowing that they will receive more in terms of use value from you. This should provide a good balance for relationship building, seeing that it is win-win situation to everybody.   

To summarize: Content is a very important pillar of your business, but relationships are king.