When it comes to spending your marketing dollars, it may seem like you’re making blind bets, hoping the cards are stacked in your favor. Traditional advertising can be a gamble, but content marketing—distributing engaging, valuable information to a clearly defined target audience—may be your ace in the hole. Here are a few of the top reasons why. 

Buyers’ behaviors have changed, requiring marketers to adapt.

Today, consumers have complete control over which marketing messages they accept or reject—whether it’s by fast-forwarding through commercials on a digitally recorded TV show or clicking “close” on an online ad. As a result, traditional tactics are no longer as effective.

To capture consumers’ attention amid a slew of advertisements, it’s essential for marketers to develop and distribute compelling content—whether that takes the form of a Web site, magazine, newsletter, or social media outreach. “Just for the opportunity to have a conversation with customers … brands need to develop content that is so valuable, consumers actually choose to raise their hands and request the brands’ marketing content,” says Joe Pulizzi, coauthor of Get Content Get Customers and founder of Junta42, a custom publishing client-vendor matching service.

Traditional push marketing requires you to rent someone else’s content space, interrupt what readers or listeners are really after, and hope consumers take note of your message. However, if you’re engaging in content marketing—especially if you have an online opt-in audience from RSS and e-mail subscriptions—you’re more likely to have captive readers. “The next time you have a product launch, you can tell your biggest fans first and encourage them to tell their friends,” says Adam Singer, creator of The Future Buzz blog on media, marketing, and PR. “In fact, you don’t even need ‘news.’ You just need to have a story worth telling.”

Instead of intruding on your customers so they’ll buy or use your product, start brainstorming ways you can engage them, positioning yourself as the expert resource, Pulizzi adds. “Content marketing takes a different mindset,” he explains. “It’s not easy, but it’s certainly necessary.”

Content marketing builds relationships with customers.

It’s no secret that developing a good relationship requires you to give—not just take. It’s no different in business. “In order to develop relationships with customers so that they will ultimately choose to buy from us, we need to give the gift of content through a variety of channels that customers prefer,” Pulizzi says.

Over time, quality content can lead to favorable relationships with customers. In fact, in a recent Roper Public Affairs & Media and a Custom Publishing Council study, 66 percent of respondents said they are likely to buy from a company after reading its complementary material.

“If you’re creating content that others have affinity for, over time interested people will be pulled to, or opt-in to, that content. Slowly but surely, you’ll build an audience for your ideas and forge relationships that grow stronger with each communication sent to customers,” says Singer. “Over time, that audience will organically grow itself—the Web is a social place. What this will allow (if your content is good) is to build influence, trust, and authority.”

Content marketing improves customer retention.

“Although content is powerful for customer acquisition, it is inherently stronger for customer retention,” Pulizzi says. “There is no better way to keep a customer than to continue to deliver valuable, relevant, and compelling content that solves customer problems.”

To keep clients coming back for more, consistently provide interesting, pertinent, and well-designed content, shifting your mindset from marketing to publishing. “What brands need to do is find out what their story really is, how that story can help grow the business, and how they can distribute and share that story for maximum impact,” Pulizzi says.

**This posting is excerpted from the “Best Bet” feature in Buzz: The Magazine for the Savvy Marketer. Download your free copy to read the complete article, which includes four additional ways content marketing can benefit you.

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