Defining Content Marketing

Joe Pulizzi on his Junta42 blog has put up some great definitions – gathered from various content marketing experts – of content marketing.

My favourite there is this one:

Traditional marketing and advertising tells the world that you are a rockstar. Content marketing shows the world that you are one. — Robert Rose

Don’t take “rockstar” literally; what he means is, instead of harping on about what great stuff you’re selling and what miraculous product you have got, content marketing helps your prospective customers and clients find that out on their own.

So how do I explain content marketing to my clients?

I don’t have a definition, but I do tell them that their content creates a ripe ground for conversations and engagement. It’s easier to buy from you if I know you, but how do I know you unless you are close to me or I am mad about you, or if you’re a totally trusted and respected public figure? I begin to know you if you have regular conversations with me.

By “conversations” I don’t mean having useless talk – nobody has time for that. People remember you and visit your website multiple times if you offer them something valuable. Since you cannot offer them free services or free products all the time (you offer them once, so they will come to your website once, or maybe a couple of times) the best option for you would be offering them valuable information. This information exists in the form of content.

Content marketing primary constitutes of three activities, or rather four:

1. Figure out what your target audience is looking for in terms of content
2. Mostly which medium it uses (prefers to use) to access that content
3. Produce that content and make it available through their preferred medium
4. Keep doing that on an ongoing basis

Many people find the fourth point troublesome, but when it comes to marketing your products and services on the Internet, this is the most crucial point. Content abounds on the Internet. Millions of pages and blog posts (containing text, video, images and audio) are being published daily and within seconds your content can be buried under the new content.

So what’s the use of creating new content, you may ask, if it is going to be buried instantly?

This is where quality matters. Since most of the content has no value, valuable content gets highlighted not just on search engines, but also on various other websites and forums.

But then again, publishing one or a couple of valuable pieces of content doesn’t give you sustainable engagement. Engagement happens when you provide valuable content on an ongoing basis. It doesn’t have to be everyday, but it definitely has to be consistently regular, whether you publish new content every day, once a week, or once a month. Quality, coupled with regularity, creates the most effective content marketing platform.