Unless you work in a business that celebrates unbridled creativity, you probably don’t know how meaningful “content” is. If you don’t, you should: Content drives brand.

It may seem incongruous to use the word “brand” before the word “content” – and its implications could cause a very deep and traumatic existential crisis. But content has always been the soul of branding and it makes sense: Without content, a brand is just a hot air balloon. So if you don’t have a boatload of content, you have no business even floating around at sea. And without content, no one would be seeing your brand: your videos, your tweets, and your memes are what people say, like, or otherwise engage with. Content is what’s true about your brand and what makes them say, like, or otherwise engage with it.

The question of how brands should start curating and producing more content, in any number of areas from digital to text, is becoming more and more important. As consumers continue to turn their attention to video, mobile, and social channels, content is even more vital than ever to a brand’s business success. Marketing Magazine, in its latest interview with author Anna Serner, examined several benefits of developing content-rich strategies: more effective branding, better user experiences, and accelerated growth.

It’s clear that growth comes to brands that can create content. While the question of how content should be consumed by consumers is much more theoretical and theoretical than factual, it’s certain that information from your brand must be available to them. Using the same logic that gives you the right to the bottom line, being able to provide content is a fair trade for gaining market share. A content-rich strategy should be a core component of any marketing plan. And more than that, a content-rich strategy should be executed constantly, constantly, constantly. Think of the power of viral content: the ability to retain audience attention with short, highly relevant, and extremely shareable posts is at its most crucial when an artist is producing content for and about the brand at its very core. If you don’t have content available for your brand, you won’t be able to craft a compelling persona for yourself.

If a brand lacks content at all, it will also struggle to access its own share of the market. Collectively, companies own more than 60% of the American revenue pie. Together, those companies generate around 9,000 hours of video every second. Those hours are required for marketing and branding, and if your video content is not a powerhouse of social synergy, your brand will feel like an island in the field.

The need for content will increase across all markets as consumers remain fascinated by being part of an interesting experience. Being able to provide content that is both entertaining and relevant will mean you’ll have a built-in loyal consumer base. Content can also help you launch new ventures, such as product launches, crowdsourced-content categories, and across marketing channels. Those categories are all growing increasingly important as brands utilize channels like Instagram and Snapchat to engage audiences. If your content is engaging enough, social media and more traditional digital channels will follow.

While content growth can and will exist organically, there is a new phenomenon that is turning the curve in your favor in the long run. The rise of direct-to-consumer brands is forcing brands to go direct to consumers and to think of themselves as retailers. Clients are more interested in creating rather than accessing content, and therefore more in demand of it. The world is shifting, and the brands that embrace this trend have a better chance of succeeding.