As Econsultancy points out in informative blog post, content marketing as a discipline is still in its infancy.

"While marketers are generally agreed that ‘putting useful and interesting things on the internet’ seems to be a good thing, we’re still tying a lot of our efforts to campaign-style engagement," it says.

Addressing the problems associated with a lack of resources or expertise is vital for businesses.

Econsultancy is a publisher – not just in the content marketing lingo, but an actual bona fide publisher. So its experiences tell us a lot about what works and what doesn't.

The problems it has seen is that when it publishes a report about a topic, for example, SEO copy writing, it will generate interest on social media – new Twitter followers etc, from people wanting to know more about that area.

But its reports could be on a range of topics – from paid search and blog writing to infographics and Pinterest.

So those new followers who were keen on SEO copy writing ebbed away – increasing the company's social churn.

That is, in essence, the problem. It's one that businesses in many other sectors face. And without unlimited resources it's impossible to keep producing all the content around all the topics you want to.

The answer, according to the Econsultancy blog, is evergreen and specialist content:

"While it’s almost impossible to consistently produce content on a single subject (for those of us with more than a single-product offering at any rate), it’s easy to invest in content that has legs.  

"While the brand content they cover may evolve, the strategic insight remains consistently useful. We’ve also found that posts about tools and services that help readers accomplish specific tasks may not provide a huge initial traffic rush, but do have a long tail and appeal to broad and specialist audiences.

"Meanwhile our higher-end technical SEO posts attract specialists and advertise the depth of our content."

Our earlier post on evergreen content explains a little more about this area, which is proving increasingly important for brands to pay close attention to.

It's time for businesses to stop being afraid of content marketing. It's a simple formula – produce engaging content that people want.

"Content should be good, but it doesn't have to be incredibly time-consuming to produce: articles, images, hangout videos - all of these are inexpensive and can be produced regularly," says Econsultancy.

Paid search is dead. Deceased. Like the Norwegian Blue, this parrot has gone to meet its maker.

At least that's what Uri Bar-Joseph claims in a recent blog post in Search Engine Watch. He quotes a range of data and I'm inclined to agree.

So what are these studies that show paid search is no longer in the land in the living? First of all, he says the percentage of total paid search visits out of total visits has declined by 39% in the last year, citing research from Optify.

The B2B marketing software firm also found 57% of marketers spend no time on PPC, and only 4% spend more than 15 hours per week. Not exactly working their noses to the grindstones.

Of course, the point is they are finding plenty of alternative marketing channels to occupy their time.

Social media marketing is one, display and retargeting is another.

A third, as Bar-Joseph explains, is content syndication channels or any cost-per-lead program. "There are more and more cost-per-lead programs out there that will yield high volume of leads at a much lower cost per lead than paid search," he says.

"You will need to create content or offers to attract leads."

It keeps cropping up and it's something more and more marketers and business owners are beginning to appreciate: content is central to everything they do online.

Paid search is dead, long live the new King Content!