Still unsure about content marketing. As Nike would say, "Just Do It!"

Consumers are so over being told how and where to spend their money. They want to be able to make the decision for themselves, not be pushed or prodded in a certain direction.

Think about it. They pay the cable company a little more for DVR so they can fast-forward through commercials and will immediately leave a website if it has too many annoying ads, so the thought of some faceless, over-paid bigwig trying to manipulate them is a bigger turnoff than B.O. and, honestly, insulting. They want to be given information to make their own choices, not settle for someone else’s idea of what’s best for them.

To keep up with what consumers want, more and more companies are turning to content marketing. This replacement for traditional branding uses content to share ideas and topics that are most interesting to their target market. This opens the platform for discussion about a product or service and allows consumers to learn why it’s the right choice for them, making the consumer feel like he is making an informed decision about his purchase instead of being told what to do.

Forget about the product, it’s all about the experience

Think of Nike’s current push to interact with consumers. I say current, but the company has actually been practicing some form of content marketing since 1996 when it reduced spending on traditional media by 55 percent.

Since then, Nike execs have pushed initiatives like the Find Your Greatness video campaign, the #makeitcount initiative on Twitter and the Nike+ Fuelband, an interactive device that lets you record your fitness progress and share with your social media followers. What do these programs have in common? They focus on the consumer’s interest, fitness, not the brand or product.

Aside from building an online following, these campaigns give Nike a tangible view of how strong their client base is, what their clients think about their products and, most importantly, what topics or products their clients care about most. Instead of having to pull sales numbers for a certain product or sales period, a Nike employee can simply pull up the product’s Facebook or Twitter page and see if followers have increased or decreased and what sort of comments consumers are leaving.

Nike also made the smart move to have a mix of celebrity endorsements and regular people in their campaigns. Consumers are much more likely to relate to a product used by a regular person than a professional athlete.

Nike’s focus on the consumer instead of the product is a great example of content marketing. With so much competition for identical products, consumers are going to go with the option they feel most comfortable with, and you can’t be comfortable with something if you don’t know anything about it. If you’ve been hesitant about making the move to content marketing, now’s the time.