What is content from more than one source to create a new product or service?

Traditional marketing is becoming less and less effective by the minute; as a forward-thinking marketer, you know there has to be a better way.

Enter content marketing.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

Instead of pitching your products or services, you are providing truly relevant and useful content to your prospects and customers to help them solve their issues.

Content marketing is used by leading brands

Our annual research shows the vast majority of marketers are using content marketing. In fact, it is used by many prominent organizations in the world, including P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems, and John Deere. It’s also developed and executed by small businesses and one-person shops around the globe. Why? Because it works.

Here is just one example of content marketing in action:

Looking for definitions of the key terms used in content marketing? You’ll find them in our Essential Content Marketing Glossary.

Content marketing is good for your bottom line — and your customers

Specifically, there are four key reasons – and benefits – for enterprises to use content marketing:

• Increased sales
• Cost savings
• Better customers who have more loyalty
• Content as a profit center

Content is the present – and future – of marketing

Go back and read the content marketing definition one more time, but this time remove the relevant and valuable. That’s the difference between content marketing and the other informational garbage you get from companies trying to sell you “stuff.” Companies send us information all the time – it’s just that most of the time it’s not very relevant or valuable (can you say spam?). That’s what makes content marketing so intriguing in today’s environment of thousands of marketing messages per person per day.

Marketing is impossible without great content

Regardless of what type of marketing tactics you use, content marketing should be part of your process, not something separate. Quality content is part of all forms of marketing:

• Social media marketing: Content marketing strategy comes before your social media strategy.
• SEO: Search engines reward businesses that publish quality, consistent content.
• PR: Successful PR strategies should address issues readers care about, not their business.
• PPC: For PPC to work, you need great content behind it.
• Inbound marketing: Content is key to driving inbound traffic and leads.
• Content strategy: Content strategy is part of most content marketing strategies.

To be effective at content marketing, it is essential to have a documented content marketing strategy. Download our 16-page guide to learn what questions to ask and how to develop your strategy.

What if your customers looked forward to receiving your marketing? What if when they received it, via print, email, website, they spent 15, 30, 45 minutes with it? What if they anticipated it and shared it with their peers?

One of the key questions to ask when creating a supply chain strategy is whether to buy from one source or more. There are pros and cons to both approaches.

Working with more than one supplier adds complexity to the supply chain, but it also provides protection against certain risks. Finding a balance between these two concerns is a key factor in deciding your optimal supply chain strategy.

Advantages of using a single source of supply

Single supplier strategy commits to purchasing a given resource from just one supplier. If the supplier is well-matched and reliable, this can offer some benefits to businesses. For example:

• forging a relationship is easier with one supplier than with multiple ones
• partnership approach may help builds trust and shared benefits

• costs may fall due to economy of scale if you order from just one supplier
• integration of systems may be easier with a single supplier

Disadvantages of single supplier strategy

Relying on single sourcing can expose you to the possibility of not being able to get critical supplies if the supplier's operations are disrupted. Common drawbacks of this strategy include:

• increased vulnerability of supply
• increased risk of supply interruption
• greater dependency between your business and the supplier

If you decide to source from a single supplier, and they let you down, go out of business or become unable to meet the demand, you may find yourself in difficulties.

Exclusivity may spur some suppliers to offer you a better service, but others may simply become complacent and drop their standards. This sometimes happens in cases of lopsided dependency, when the buying company becomes more dependent on the supplier than the other way around.

Advantages of using multiple sources of supply

Multiple sourcing strategy can benefit businesses who prefer to spread demand across a number of suppliers that, collectively, have more capacity and are more responsive to the buyer. It is also necessary when one supplier is unable to meet the total requirements of the buying organisation - for example, where a product has multiple components that no one supplier can produce.

Common benefits of multiple sourcing include:

• less reliance on any one supplier providing a safety net if a supplier runs into difficulties
• more flexibility to cope with unexpected events that could jeopardise capacity
• fewer bottlenecks as more suppliers are able to meet peak demand
• competition often provides an incentive for suppliers to improve cost and service
• competition between suppliers also often provides the buyer with more bargaining power

Disadvantages of multiple supplier strategy

Multiple supply sourcing may benefit dependency, flexibility and capacity, but it can complicate supplier relationships and require greater resources to manage them. As supplier numbers grow, the price tag often goes up and the following drawbacks can occur:

• information sharing may become more complex
• higher costs for contract negotiation, management, and process execution
• lower order volumes reduce bargaining power
• the ability to save through economies of scale in reduced
• challenges can come up in terms of quality control and efficacy

In general, smaller businesses tend to have less flexibility than larger ones when it comes to choosing suppliers. If you're considering multiple supply sources, you should balance the potential disadvantages of this strategy against the risks of supply interruption that could arise from having just a single supplier.

Remember to consider all other relevant criteria for selecting a supplier.

Focus your efforts on choosing and managing strategic suppliers who provide goods or services that are essential to your business. A strong relationship will benefit both sides. See more on managing supplier relationships.