We know now that content marketing isn’t a fad. In fact, it’s the hottest thing going right now in the marketing world. Companies and professional services firms are becoming content factories, churning out blog posts, articles, white papers and more in an effort to attract customers with their brilliance—but without the hard sell. Just take a look at these findings from the “B2B Content Marketing: 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends—North America” report by the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs:

• 93% of B2B marketers now say they use content marketing
• 78% of the most effective B2B marketers are creating more content than they did one year ago, compared with 57% of their least effective peers
• More B2B marketers plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year, compared with last year (54%)

It’s 5:30 a.m. and my alarm is beeping. I grab my iPhone and turn the alarm off. Instead of jumping out of bed, I hold up my iPhone in the dark and read through Facebook and work emails. I may even read a short news article if it catches my attention.

At work, I read and write countless emails and regularly check social media—Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter—throughout the day, following links and reading articles of interest to my business and clients. At night, before I go to bed, I am still reading and writing—sorting through emails and reading the day’s news on the Internet. While I run a marketing and PR firm, and thus write and follow the news for a living, I doubt that this sounds unfamiliar to many professionals.