Be it the huge volume of expert content for small-business owners on American Express’s Open Forum, or the abundant marketing content from Hubspot, content marketing has given rise to the prevalence of brands providing free, useful and educational content.

Creating content that is free does not mean serving up lifeless articles overflowing with shameless plugs and links to your product pages. It means investing the time to create something of value to your customers. It can be as simple as one piece of useful, well-designed content, like a list of best practices for one of your customer segments or an in-depth, brand-free white paper.

Become a trusted resource for educational information that positions your company as a problem solver and you'll be the resource they turn to for solutions.