For AT&T, the small-business owner is so key a customer the company needed more than regular marketing tactics to reach it. Its solution? Original content. To create it, AT&T turned to an outside firm called Associated Content -- a startup with a network of 300,000 freelance content creators -- to produce over 100 how-to articles. AT&T's tactic also highlights a dilemma for brands: at a time of tight budgets and consumer skepticism of brand messages, marketers still need to produce loads of digital content to capture consumer attention.
