What is content marketing?
If you’ve asked this question, you are not alone. Content marketing is often called ‘the next big thing’ or ‘the future of marketing’. But there is a lot of confusion as to what qualifies as content marketing and what it means.
First, let’s look at what it isn’t.
What Content Marketing Isn’t
Content marketing isn’t social media. Social media is a term that currently refers to online networks (i.e. Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Google+). When someone talks about a ‘social media strategy’, their likely plan is to enter one of these networks, build relationships with individuals, and promote their products and services. Social media can be an option for distributing content marketing, but it is not the bigger picture.
Content marketing isn’t digital/online marketing. This isn’t about click-throughs and banner ads. The arrival of low-cost digital publishing and distribution make content marketing much more possible in today’s world, but content marketing is not limited to the digital world. It can include print items, magazines, and live events that never see the Internet.
Content marketing isn’t a campaign. Content marketing is not a gimmick you try out for a month and instantly see results. It is an attitude you take towards building a relationship with your audience over the long term. It is a philosophy of marketing that grows with time, and gets you out of the rat race of mass media marketing.
Content marketing isn’t advertising. Advertising is interrupting people to tell them something about your business. Content marketing is permission-based, meaning that only the people who want to hear your message hear it. Advertising rarely adds value to people’s lives, but content marketing is centered on the idea of providing value.
Content marketing isn’t the latest fad. Smart companies have been using the principles of content marketing for decades. Any company or trade group that produces a magazine, newsletter, or workshop while simultaneously selling something else is engaging in content marketing. It is a proven form of relationship building that has recently come into the spotlight due to the diminishing costs of producing quality content.
What Content Marketing Is
Content marketing is creating and distributing high-value content that meets the needs of a targeted audience in order to build a stronger business relationship.
There are a lot of companies out there who claim to be doing content marketing, but are engaging in some of the same tactics that have given marketing a bad name.
To be truly considered content marketing (and for it to work), your strategy has to align to these three principles:
1. The audience always comes first. Most advertising is all about your business. Your ad features your products, your contact information, and information about your company. A content marketing strategy asks the question, “What can I offer my Ideal Audience to make them trust me?” rather than “What do I want strangers to know about me?” If your content is all about you, it’s not real content marketing.
2. Value and usefulness over promotion. Audiences avoid advertisements because they are self-serving to the business, but also because the ad has no value aside from an occasional chuckle or a tear. A content marketing strategy is centered on offering something extremely useful or valuable to the audience; something so valuable to people that they would be willing to pay for it. If your audience sees no value in the content you are giving them, it’s not real content marketing.
3. Long-term trust is better than a quick sale. The advertisement’s job stops as soon as the sale is made. As long as you pull out your credit card, the ad doesn’t really care what happens to you before or after. Content marketing is built on the idea that a large, loyal audience is a much greater asset to a company than last month’s sales figures. Real content marketers are known for being generous and trustworthy over the long haul because they have the long-term picture in mind. If your content’s role is to make a quick sale, it’s not real content marketing.
If you can adhere to those three principles (and as an intelligent business owner, you probably can), then content marketing is a strategy you cannot afford to ignore. It fits you and your business better than other methods.