What is Content Marketing? Do I Need It?

Content marketing is not new. It is everywhere — and most of it is ignored. Creating compelling content that gets noticed is not easy and requires patience, persistence, and drive, not to mention --- talent, time, belief and ideas.

Content Marketing Defined

There are many definitions for content marketing. It can be confusing. Do a Google search on the term and you will find over 991,000,000 search results!

For a formal definition of content marketing, I like the following definition:

“Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating and distributing valuable and compelling content to attract, acquire, and engage a specific target audience with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”¹

Yes, there is an elevator pitch too

For that quick elevator pitch: Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content marketing is showing the world you are a rock star.

Traditional Marketing Practices

The vast majority of businesses rely only on traditional marketing and advertising practices. It’s easy to understand why. It’s an accepted and known practice and regarded by most as a safe marketing strategy. There is no doubt that there is immense value in a well planned traditional marketing strategy, however much of what we see in this type of marketing on a daily basis is ignored. We encounter many aspects of this type of marketin­g every day:

• Businesses who rely on catchy slogans, boring postcards (see below), or holiday greeting spam, all designed to make sure you know how to reach them when needed.

• Industry professionals (i.e. attorneys, financial planners, physicians) who provide you with all their qualifications along with every designation possible added to their name to convince you they are the expert and ready to solve your problem.

• General practitioners (i.e. builders, trainers, landscapers, general contractors) who rely on interrupting you with unsolicited information, usually canned predictable messages.

Content Marketing

Content marketing on the other hand is an art. It is communicating with customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering valuable and compelling content and information that not only positions you as the expert, but most importantly makes your buyers and prospects more informed. The essence of this strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to our audience, they will ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.

[sws_grey_box box_size="70%"]Below image is an email response from a prospect who replied to our client after receiving compelling content. [/sws_grey_box]

The Difference Between “Stuff” and Content Marketing

There is a difference between content marketing and all the “stuff” companies send you all the time. Most of the time this is informational stuff that is not compelling or useful. We have a term for this, think spam. But what makes content marketing so intriguing is that it makes a person stop, read, think, and behave differently.

Compelling content informs, engages, and amuses. What makes content marketing different from “stuff” is that content marketing must do something for the business. It must inform, engage, or amuse with the goal of driving predictable customer action.

[sws_grey_box box_size="70%"]Below image is an email response from a prospect who replied to our client after receiving compelling content. [/sws_grey_box]

Accomplishing Business Goals

If your content is not accomplishing specific business goals such as customer retention or lead generation, it’s not content marketing. The content you create must work directly to attract and retrain customers in some way.

According to Roper Public Affairs, 80 percent of buyers prefer to get information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. 70 percent say content marketing makes them feel closer to the company, and 60 percent say that content helps them make better product decisions.

[sws_grey_box box_size="70%"]Below image is an email response from a prospect who replied to our client after receiving compelling and engaging content. [/sws_grey_box]

Do I Need Content Marketing?

• What if your customers looked forward to receiving your marketing?

• What if they actually found your content to be of value?

• What if you actually sold more by marketing your products and services less?
• What if you connected with the 99% of your customers and prospects in a meaningful way who are not ready to buy? 

Yes, it is possible to create marketing that is anticipated, loved, wanted, shared, and makes a meaningful connection!

Could you be a leading provider of compelling content in your industry? Would that kind of content strategy set you apart from your competitors and help you grow your business?

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Resources and References

Google Trends, "content marketing" search, http://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=content%20marketing%2C%20content%20strategy%2C%20custom%20publishing%2C%20Inbound%20Marketing%2C%20Native%20Advertising&geo=US&cmpt=q

¹ Joe Pulizzi, Epic Content Marketing - McGraw Hill Education, 2014

W. Chan Kim, Renee Mauborgne, Blue Ocean Strategy - Harvard Business School Publishing Corporation, 2005

Bernd H. Schmitt, Experiential Marketing - The Free Press, 1999

Seth Godin, Permission Marketing - Simon & Schuster, 1999 

Roper Public Affairs & Corporate Communications, "Consumers' Attitude Toward Custom Content," March 2011, http://www.ascendintegratedmedia.com/sites/default/files/research/63402297-Consumers-Attitude-Towards-Custom-Content-2011.pdf.