That's of course not to say you shouldn't ever share discounts and offers with your customers or remind them that, hey, you are a business and you'd love to do business with them. When you do get around to the direct pitch, content marketing helps the business proposition seem less harsh and impersonal. And as of this year, 77% of B2C marketers use content marketing.

If you're not employing content marketing as a key strategy, you're lagging behind the competition.

Here are five important keys to success you're missing out on if you're not using content marketing: