Is content marketing a misleading term?

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I was just reading this interesting take on content marketing and content marketers. The author says that when the “content marketers” are charging $50 per blog post (what he means is they are just providing cheap writing labor) they are simply misleading the clients because the truth is that they have no idea what they are doing.

What should they be doing?

The author says that they should be helping their clients build their mailing lists because the money is in the mailing lists.

I agree with him that in most of the cases the “marketing” in “content marketing” is missing. Marketing, whether it is content marketing or traditional advertising, needs to make money, it needs to attract money, it needs to generate money.

I’m not sure if the author has some interest in mailing lists but I cannot disagree with him that one of the biggest purposes of content marketing should be building a robust mailing list. Other than that, it seems like a rant against the concept of using content for generating traffic. He is missing the point. Not about the so-called content marketers merely writing content, but about the entire concept of using content marketing for generating traffic.

You see, I agree that there is already lots of content on the Internet and many websites provide a ton of information to help you decide what you want to purchase and what you don’t want to purchase. But this information is on other websites not on your website so all the traffic is going to go to other websites and not your website.

There is lots of confusion when it comes to employing content marketing, but people don’t realize that confusion is also there when people use conventional advertising. In fact, conventional advertising is just like throwing darts in the darkness, hoping that some of the darts may hit the target. Yes, analytics have advanced a lot and every click and every entry into the website can be traced, but for a small business, it can turn out to be very expensive.

Why businesses that understand content marketing, use it?

To increase search engine rankings
To avoid PPC expense
To increase the authority of their brand
To inform and educate their customers and clients
To create presence on social media and social networking websites and apps
To build their own broadcasting platforms

I know some of these words may sound very big, but on the Internet, they are not. Remember there was a time when email used to be very geeky. Only engineers and scientists used to have email ids. These days even your dog may have an email id. What I’m saying is, even as a small business you can establish your authority or your brand’s authority and build your own broadcasting platform to increase your visibility.

Content marketing, of course, doesn’t just mean relentlessly publishing content. The “marketing” part is a big part. Marketing here doesn’t just mean you are marketing your content. It means you are using content for marketing. You are using content to increase your visibility. You are using content to improve your search engine rankings. You are using content to create a buzz around your brand, product or service. At the center of your marketing activities, lies your content. This is why it is called content marketing.

It is not, contrary to what the author of the above post has tried to establish, a snake oil remedy for the starry-eyed business owners. Billion-dollar businesses have been created around the business of content marketing.

Having said that, just like any other business branch, there are big players, there are smaller players and then there are players who are just goofing around hoping that they will make some money with little effort. This is not something specific to content marketing; these sorts of entrepreneurs are in every business.

So, if you are simply writing content for your clients, do you call yourself a content marketer? It depends. If you are

writing content
disseminating that content
coming up with new topic ideas
trying to make sure that the content that you create increases traffic for your client

then yes, you can call yourself a content marketer, because basically even when you are writing content, knowingly or unknowingly, you are helping your client market his business.

Can you use content curation as a viable content marketing tool?

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In my previous blog post, 10 ways to write highly engaging content, I briefly touched upon the topic of content curation – collecting useful information from all over the Internet and compiling it into a single link.

Can content curation become a viable content marketing tool for your business? Or will you be sending traffic to your competitors?

Many content marketers believe that if you curate lots of content you are mostly sending traffic away from your website rather than drawing traffic to your own website by creating high-quality genuine content.

Although the importance of high-quality genuine content can never be understated, there are some instances when you can use content curation to boost your content marketing. For example, you can use content curation when

You don’t have enough time to create your own, high-quality, genuine content
Someone else has explained better what you have always wanted to explain to your visitors
You want to present as many viewpoints as possible pertaining to a topic or subject
You want to create a repository of opinions for solutions pertaining to a particular topic
You want to introduce authority into a topic

See for example this Content Marketing Institute blog post – What does engaging content mean?. As you can see, instead of presenting her own views on what is engaging content through the entire blog post, the author has collected opinions of various content marketing and content writing experts on what engaging content means.

This blog post titled How to add value with content curation rightly says that there is a huge quantity of content on the Internet with limited shelf life. By the time people find useful information it is outdated or they no longer need it.

Since you must be in the thick of your subject matter, you may have access to many resources that your visitors may not have. So, there is a greater chance of you coming across great, useful information. Instead of simply consuming that bit of information, you can mention it on your website along with the original link, the way I’m doing with this blog post on content curation.

This further explains that content curation doesn’t just mean collecting lots of links and creating a big list of useful links. You can also use just one link and then quickly create a small blog post with your own input, again, the way I’m doing with this particular blog post on content curation. In fact, I often do that. When I cannot come up with a good idea for a blog post, I simply search on the web for some ideas, and when I find an interesting link, I write a few words about that link and sometimes, it turns into a complete blog post.

Another benefit of linking to outside links is it is appreciated by the original publishers. If they like your response, they promote your link among their own followers. This helps your content marketing.

What effect is AI going to have on your content marketing?

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Do you know last year a Japanese AI program wrote a novel and almost won a literary price? So if AI can write a novel or solve cosmic problems (and even take over the world after the state of singularity) or beat a chess Grandmaster, what effect is it going to have on your content marketing?

Actually, AI don’t always have to be Transformers type robots. If you are using Siri, it’s AI. If you are using Amazon Echo or Google Voice, that’s also AI. Facebook Messenger uses chatbots that are mini versions of AI. Any program that takes an action after analyzing the language of the input, contextually, is using AI. Artificial intelligence is supposed to have cognitive powers as close to humans as technologically and biologically possible.

Coming back to content marketing, how can AI empower content marketing?

This post on Entrepreneur throws some light on how AI can have an impact on content marketing, or at least the way you create and publish your content. Most of the stuff that I am discussing in this post is not discussed on the above Entrepreneur update but it gave me an idea of the topic.

Take for instance creating content based on natural language used by people. These days most of the people use voice search, that is, they don’t type in their queries, they speak their queries and when they speak their queries they use normal language as if they are speaking to someone. What does this mean? It means that when you are creating content use normal language instead of using jargons that very few people use. Try to answer questions because people are mostly inputting questions when they use voice search.

AI programs have already been creating content (soon, no content writers like yours truly may be required). This Curata post says that news publications like Associated Press, Yahoo and Fox News have already been using AI for “generating” news content based on the information it gathers, or the information that is fed into it.

It may surprise you that the following opening sentence is a sports story written solely by an algorithm: “Tuesday was a great day for W. Roberts, as the junior pitcher threw a perfect game to carry Virginia to a 2-0 victory over George Washington at Davenport Field.”

Looks like a sentence you’ve read before, right? That’s because machines have been automatically generating content for years. Companies such as the Associated Press, Yahoo, and Fox have been using them for quite some time.

Then there are chatbots that generate real time responses immediately to users’ queries.

Facebook and Twitter are using automatic News Feed generators that decide what news feeds users must see, according to their preexisting behavior.

I think right now the best use of AI would be to curate content according to the latest buzz going on on the Internet.

Automation and artificial intelligence cannot be avoided; the trick is to use them to our advantage as many businesses are already using. For example, Facebook Messenger allows you to carry out business transactions: you can order Pizzas using their chatbot.

Right now, I see the following immediate benefits of AI for content marketing:

Automatically generating or curating content
Creating custom news feeds from information from the Internet and social media and social networking websites
Customizing and repurposing existing content according to user behavior
Better search engine optimization

10 ways to write highly engaging content

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The success of your content marketing pretty much depends on how engaging your content is. This is why it is very important to know how to write highly engaging content.

First, what is “engaging content”? Although I have explained this multiple time on my blog and my website, it’s always nice to quickly visit the topic before proceeding, in every individual post.

Writing and publishing engaging content means involving your readers and visitors. Content consumption on your website or blog should be a two-way process. It should be a dialogue instead of a monologue. You have to hit the right spots. You have to provide the right information, ask the right questions and express the right doubts, at the right time, to give your readers the “aha!” moment.

Here are 10 ways to write highly engaging content

Tell a story your visitors can relate to
Try to know and understand what your readers are really looking for – what moves them?
Write content from your reader’s perspective
Get your readers emotionally involved with your content
Ask questions and up their stakes
Develop a unique voice
Back your claims and opinions with verifiable facts
Provide a social interface to your readers and visitors
Curate useful, interesting information from other sources
Understand how your particular audience prefers content – format as well as length

1. Tell a story your visitors can relate to

Stories are always interesting and they are more interesting if people can relate to them. So, you can make your content engaging by telling people stories of how your product or service solved problems and made life easier for people who use them. Simply saying that your product or service is great doesn’t cut it. Use real-world examples. Use real-world names. Use real-world situations and then provide believable narratives.

Your stories don’t have to be dull and drab. You can make them funny. You can sprinkle them with suspense. You can even introduce melodrama. The basic idea is to make it as interesting and engaging as possible.

2. Know and understand what your readers are looking for – what moves them?

Frankly, this is the most difficult thing to achieve through your content. Most of the content marketing campaigns fail because people responsible for the campaign cannot really write or create content keeping in mind what their visitors are looking for. Web analytics tools like Google’s Webmasters tools can help you in this regard. If you closely study your visitor statistics you will know how people land on your website. If they are coming to your website using the wrong search words it means you’re drawing wrong sort of people through your content which means you are creating wrong content.

3. Write content from your readers’ perspective

The thing is, people read your content not because YOU are writing it, they read it because they derive something out of it, whether it is information, entertainment, or empathy. Write what they would like to read, not what you would like to write.

Having said that, it doesn’t mean your writing always has to cater to the whims of your readers…you can play around with your own ideas. But when you are writing for a business website or for a business blog, remember that ultimately, the purpose of your writing is to convince your visitors into doing business with you.

4. Get your readers emotionally involved with your content

If your readers remain passive about your content, you cannot move them much into doing something constructive. They will read your content and just move on.

But if you make an emotional connection through your content, they don’t just stay longer, they also remember what they read.

How do you make an emotional connection? By addressing their problems as if they are your own problems. By providing them the needed solutions. By assuring them that the resolution of their problems is your primary concern.

For example, if you are looking for well-written content for your website or blog you obviously want to improve your business: you want to get more traffic, you want to engage your audience, you want to increase your social media visibility, and consequently, increase your sales. I should be able to convey to you that I totally understand this pressing need of yours and will do my best to provide the right content marketing and content writing services.

5. Ask questions and up their stake

You can also engage your readers by asking them timely questions. Don’t always provide them all the answers. If you provide them all the answers they’ll get bored. Instead, engage them by asking them questions.

For example, if you are looking for good content for your website, I should ask you why your website needs good content instead of telling you why your website needs good content.

Or, if I come across an example of extremely terrible content written on another website or blog I can ask my visitors what’s the problem with that content and how that content can be improved. They will feel that you value their opinion.

6. Develop a unique voice

If everybody is publishing content on his or her website how do people distinguish? Let’s be frank, whether they know how to do it or not, everybody seems to be using content marketing these days. It means lots of content is being published and distributed on daily basis. There is so much noise coming from all directions that it turns into an indecipherable buzz. The only way you can distinguish yourself from the rest of the crowd is to develop a unique voice.

Develop your own style. Even if it means using unconventional language, as long as you don’t offend anyone and inadvertently offend your customers or clients, go for it.

7. Back up your claims and opinions with verifiable facts

I’m not a big fan of overwhelming my readers with lots of statistics and facts, but whenever you mention facts that are not well-known but are important, try to include the original source that is credible. These days there is lots of talk about fake news. So, while linking to the original source, be mindful of the fact that it is original information and not fake information otherwise the entire purpose of backing up your claims and opinions is defeated.

What I mean is, if I say that if your link appears at the first position on Google search results, it may enjoy 31.35% clickthrough rate (31.35 people out of 100 will click your link) and if I back this bit of information with a credible link like this Hubspot link you will not only believe me you will also appreciate the fact that I do research before making claims.

8. Provide a social interface to your readers and visitors

Engagement these days also means that the visitors on your website or blog should be able to socially re-purpose and share your content. There are lots of tools available that allow people to, for example, tweet some of your best quotes from your website, one of the reasons why recently I recommended using Medium for content marketing. Even a simple commenting facility keeps your visitors engaged as they exchange their views and opinions with you and among themselves.

9. Curate useful, interesting information from other sources

You don’t need to continuously create original content in order to engage your readers. There is lots of interesting stuff on the Internet that you can curate and present it to your readers and visitors. People will really appreciate if they don’t have to scour the Internet in order to find what they’re looking for. Although you shouldn’t base your entire content marketing strategy on curated content (in some cases it may actually work) now and then you can create lists of subject-specific blog posts and articles and compile them into a single URL.

10. Understand how your audience prefers content – format as well as length

Different audiences have different preferences. A network security website may have a different audience than a beauty products website. You will need to understand your audience and write and publish content accordingly. Your audience may also prefer different formats: they won’t necessarily like streams of text. Maybe they prefer images. Maybe videos. Maybe they don’t even like to come to your website and they mostly use Instagram.

These days there is a tendency among content marketers to use very long blog posts – stretching over 2000-2500 words or even more. But if you visit Seth Godin’s blog, almost all of his posts are not more than 150-200 words, and still, his blog is more popular than the blogs of many renowned content marketers and SEO experts. His blog posts are very small, and very insightful. Another thing that I have heard about him is that he posts everyday, even on Christmas.

So, these are some ways you can write highly engaging content for your website or blog. Remember that when it comes to web content the technology that you use on your website to enable people to re-purpose, reuse and share your content is as important as the quality of your writing. Don’t clutter your website with lots of buttons and bells and whistles, but do provide necessary means to make your content socially shareable.

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Should you use the Medium blog publishing platform for content marketing?

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I have been using the Medium blog publishing platform for quite some time now. I have never published content marketing and content writing blog posts on Medium (maybe 1-2 experimental posts) but this is because when I started publishing on Medium, that was never my intention. I use Medium to publish my political, cultural and social commentaries.

My success rate at Medium has been much better than on my own websites, although, the topics that I take up when I write on Medium are usually politically and ideologically provocative and hence, more people respond or share them, compared to my content marketing and content writing blog posts on my own blog.

But of late, I have noticed more and more people recommending the Medium blog publishing platform for content marketing. See, for example, this post on Problogger. The writer recommends routinely publishing your content on Medium to increase traffic on your own website or blog.

So, should you use the Medium blog publishing platform for content marketing?

Being a vibrant platform already leaving behind many much-established blogging platforms like WordPress.com, you definitely get better exposure on Medium for your content. If one of your posts is featured on the main page or even under the main page of a major category, the implications can be great.

Just like any other platform, you can’t simply just start publishing your content on Medium and expect to get traffic from there. It’s not like OK, let me publish a few blog posts on Medium and I will get thousands of visitors to my blog or website. No, it does not happen that way.

Just like any other platform, you need to build a community around your presence. This is true for every platform, whether it is Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram or Medium. This is why these social networking and social publishing websites have millions of users but still, just a few hundred or just a few thousand have a decent following. It takes time. It takes energy and persistence. It takes good content.

Why would people respond to your blog posts on Medium if they don’t find your content exciting enough? Why would they recommend it? Why would they share it?

Although Medium has a ready-made audience (so do Twitter, Facebook and Instagram), you need to draw attention of this audience to your presence by consistent writing and publishing and by continuously engaging people.

Remember that it is in Medium’s self-interest to promote well-written content. The makers of Medium want to build it into a serious publishing platform, not a spam farm. So badly-written, uninspiring and spammy content is automatically ignored.

It is very important for the Medium blog publishing platform to know how many people actually read the complete blog post. This is what one of the founders of Medium has to say about the importance of the quality of the blog posts that are published over there:

How we calculate the ranking is an algorithm that will change over time (kinda like Google’s PageRank but obviously much more simplistic at this point in time). It’s not a direct popularity ranking. It takes in a variety of factors, including whether or not a post seems to actually have been read (not just clicked on) and whether people click the “Recommend” button at the bottom of posts. The ratio of people who view it who read it and who read it and recommend it are important factors, not just the number. (This is an attempt to level of the playing field for those who don’t already have large followings and/or a penchant for writing click-bait headlines.)

Why use the Medium blog publishing platform for content marketing?

I totally agree with the writer on Problogger that the Medium blog publishing platform should be/can be used as a great content marketing tool because one, the audience is already there (all you have to do is publish good content), and two, everything you need to make your content publishing social is already built into the Medium blog publishing platform. The content can be easily socially shared.

One great thing that I like on Medium is that if you want to share a big paragraph on Twitter, just highlight the portion that you would like to share and then click on the Twitter icon in the context menu that appears over the selected portion. The entire selected text is turned into an image and then along with the link and the title of the blog post, it can be posted on Twitter. This is just one example of convenient social sharing that is available on the Medium blog rubbishing platform.

Building a community on Medium is quite easy: you can follow people and brands on Medium. You can leave comments. You can recommend posts to people who follow you. This reminds me, your content is automatically broadcast to your followers so building a following on Medium is as good as building a mailing list.

Here is why you should use the Medium blog publishing platform for content marketing:

Medium has a ready-made audience.
Medium-users like to read long, text-based posts unlike Facebook and Twitter users.
The blog publishing platform has social sharing features inbuilt.
The content is categorized under various categories and featured under the correct categories.
Larger publications like Huffington Post and New York Times routinely publish dedicated content on Medium and they often approach independent content writers through Medium. Even the former President Barack Obama regularly uses Medium.
You can tag your blog posts to make it easier for people to find them.
Influencers can easily find your content. If they find and share your content you can generate massive amount of traffic.
You don’t need to depend on other social networking platforms because the Medium blog publishing platform is itself a social networking platform.
One of your posts can go viral even if you have published just a few posts. You don’t need to start everything from scratch.
Since most of your traffic comes from mobile devices these days, the Medium blog publishing platform is mobile-optimized.

Here are a few things you can do to use the Medium blog publishing platform for content marketing:

It goes without saying, publish quality content that people would like to read.
Republish your existing content with links back to your original content.
Publish original content on Medium and in the footer of the post you can encourage people to subscribe to your updates or mailing list. This is how I do it:
Hyperlink to your existing content from the new posts that you publish on Medium.
Respond to others’ content by writing rebuttals, add-ons, comments and references and then let those people know that you have posted.
Recommend content by other writers to your followers whenever you feel that your followers will benefit from the post.
Regularly leave comments on other posts on Medium.
Quality, relevance, quality, relevance, quality, relevance…

If presidents and famous publications are using Medium to reach out to its audience it means it has a great audience. Every platform can be used for marketing and so Medium can also be used for content marketing provided you stick to the fundamentals of content marketing:

Publish quality, relevant posts.
Use great headlines.
Encourage people to share your content.
Share other people’s content.
Post content regularly.