Steve Rubel's new whitepaper shows why businesses must create valuable content

What are you doing to control your inbound information flow? How are you building value in your content so customers, prospects and evangelists grab it as it floats by?

Great stuff in Steve Rubel's new whitepaper "Five Digital Trends to Watch for in 2009." Let's drill down and discuss the section on "Less is the new more" which talks about information overload, or as Rubel as called it in the past, the "Attention Crash."

Today, many of us have too much information washing over us. For awhile, that river of information was great – we watched it go by at a somewhat manageable pace and interacted with the things that most interested us. But now the river is raging. It's hard to discern what we want to interact with with so much information available. We're drowning.

So, as marketers, how can we help? The answer, Rubel tells us, is to be a life raft in that raging river. Offer value. Create helpful, compelling content, or at least lash yourself to something offering value :

Content is king online — and it holds a tremendous potential for marketers (content marketing is covered in depth in Part V of this white paper). Still, creating and/or earning it is a lot of hard work. So it's not always for everyone.

There's a big opportunity, however, in providing utility. In other words, brands can create or sponsor applications, online tools and resources that people will regularly use. This can help you break through in a less is more environment. Examples include mobile applications, web widgets, backgrounds, icons, themes, calculators, games, branded desktop applications and more.

Sure, we will always need compelling, sales-oriented content for customers who seek us out. But it's getting tougher to lead with that horse. Value needs to lead the content stream. Not the sales pitch.

(Rubel's paper also includes a section on creating valuable content, using either an organic or adoptive strategy.)

Content with value cuts through the noise and attracts prospects. As marketers, we have to entertain, aid or enlighten to build relationships with our audience.