The times they are a changin’. 2008 marks the first year the American public will spend more time in front of a computer or mobile screen than a television screen. There are more than 125 million active blogs, 65 million Facebook subscribers, and get a hold of this, more than 70% of the U.S. population has either read or written a blog.

With the Internet playing such a vital role in our personal and professional lives, it’s no longer about breaking through, but rather breaking into the lives and experiences of consumers and business buyers. If the Internet is truly the Ace in the new marketing world order, then the content displayed on the Internet is the King. To fully grasp the importance of content, we need to first understand the new dynamic in brand building, and it centers around interaction.

Communication talks at your customer; it passes along information. On the other hand, interaction engages the customer, it creates a relationship and a brand experience. Interaction increases brand loyalty and lifetime customer value. It’s no longer enough to invite a customer into your business — to experience your company, your products and services. Today, you need customers to invite you in — to experience their environment, their wants and needs. It’s reverse interaction from past practices. That’s the way strategic interaction works, and it’s a process that has helped businesses become more successful in building their brands.

So, how do you start the process of interaction so you can get to the starting point of providing good, solid content? It starts with a discovery process; determining what motivates your target audiences, what their desires and needs are, and what their buying behavior is. Listen, gather information, research and plan. Then determine the best way to contact these audiences. It might be through traditional media sources, e-mail programs, or print-to-web campaigns. Next is the point when you engage the target audience by providing timely blasts of content.

And here’s why content is important. In 2007, Forrester Research found that 90% of all purchases begin on-line. It doesn’t matter if the audience is a buyer of retail products, BtoB services, or manufacturing components – they know all about you long before you know anything about them. And that’s good because the relationship is just beginning. Now it’s your turn to educate them about best practices, success stories, industry news and the like. Provide content that can solve their difficult problems, and in the end, you will play a role in their lives.

Remember, it’s about breaking into their lives, not about breaking through, and providing content is the means to the end. But don’t be too aggressive in your sales pitches – the buyer will see through your promotional efforts in no time, and then the relationship will be over.

Providing content and starting a relationship of interaction should start sooner rather than later. Successful businesses are already doing it – and doing it very well. Buyer attitudes aren’t changing – they’ve already changed. Traditional media engines are losing steam as consumers have found alternative sources for information. As the buyer becomes more informed they become increasingly more difficult to sell to – so change the approach and become a trusted source, a thought leader. Finally, technology of this sort is inexpensive – being a content provider takes time, but it doesn’t take a lot of money.

No doubt you’re asking the question, “where is all of this content going to come from?” Well, it’s all around you. In your people, your proposals, your speeches and presentations, notes from meetings recorded on scraps of paper, seminars and workshops you’ve attended, discussions with clients, research you’ve conducted, and most importantly what you think about your industry, your gut feelings, where you believe it’s heading, and what troubles are around the bend. People want to hear from you – they identify with other people – like yourself. If you have any doubt, take a deep-dive into the process and culture of the merchandise e-tailer Zappos. They have a keen handle on interaction and content, perhaps better than any company in the United States. If you take one hour each week to construct content, and a staffer takes one hour of time each week, you’ll have enough content to last the year. Your correspondence with the buyer doesn’t need to be long; in fact it should be short, only two or three paragraphs in length.

There’s one last critical component to providing content, and that’s content promotion. If no one knows about it – it’s worthless. It’s no different than building a website; if people don’t know about it, they won’t visit. Content isn’t any different. You will still need to develop a social networking campaign, a link and e-mail strategy, utilize public relations, print-to-web tactics, and in some cases, more traditional forms of advertising.

In the end, you will be rewarded with a cost-effective lead generation initiative that capitalizes on buyer’s trust and inevitably leads to brand preference and loyalty. Yes, today content is King, and the Internet, of course, is your Ace in the hole.