Content marketing think like a publisher chapter 1 what is content marketing, anyway

Companies having been creating and distributing content for many years, both to attract new business and to retain existing customers.. However, here’s the point of differenti-ation fro

1

What Is Content

Marketing, Anyway?

“Your customers have chosen the moment—all you have to do is be ready.”

Have you ever picked up a company’s brochure or flyer?

Watched an infomercial or a shopping channel on

televi-sion? Ordered a product DVD explaining the benefits of a

new mattress or a vacation destination? Leafed through a

company newsletter? Read the little comic strip in a

packet of Bazooka bubble gum?

All these are a few (but by no means an exhaustive list)

of the ways companies use content to market their

prod-ucts and services to customers and to prospective buyers.

Content marketing, in other words, is nothing new.

Companies having been creating and distributing content

for many years, both to attract new business and to retain

existing customers However, here’s the point of

differenti-ation from more traditional forms of marketing and

adver-tising: Using content to sell isn’t selling, or sales-ey It isn’t

advertising It isn’t push marketing, in which messages

are sprayed out at groups of consumers Rather, it’s a pull

strategy—it’s the marketing of attraction It’s being there

when consumers need you and seek you out with

rele-vant, educational, helpful, compelling, engaging, and

sometimes entertaining information.

When customers and prospects come to you, rather than the other way around, the

advantages are obvious They’re interested, open, and receptive Your customers

have chosen the moment—all you have to do is be ready And it spares you much of

the headaches and expense of outreach marketing efforts:

• Media planning and buying

• Direct mail dumps

• Spraying and praying in an era in which browsers can be configured to

block ads, spam filters can be sending your email campaigns into

obliv-ion, digital video recorders are making TV spots optional, and

con-sumers are emptying much of the content of their mailboxes into the

Recycling Bin

There’s really no debate over the benefits of tune-in versus tune-out, of pull versus

push

A Roper Public Affairs poll found 80% of business decision makers prefer to get

information about a company from articles rather than from ads Some 70% say

content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company, and 60%

believe company content helps them make better product decisions

Content marketing aids in brand recognition, trust, authority, credibility, loyalty, and

authenticity Content marketing can help accomplish these tasks for a variety of

con-stituencies, and on several levels: for the organization it represents, for a company’s

products and services, and for the employees who represent the business or service

Content marketing creates value and helps people It answers questions and

pro-vides foundational information It makes customers and clients more educated and

informed, so they feel they can make purchase decisions, or, in organizations, to

recommend purchases to colleagues or superiors It’s used by marketers large and

small and by those selling business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer

(B2C) Some are using content to augment traditional advertising campaigns

Others are leveraging content to completely replace more traditional forms of

advertising and marketing Content can spark customer engagement at all stages of

the buying cycle, including helping to establish an ongoing relationship when a

prospect becomes a customer Content can reinforce an existing relationship,

inspire upselling, cross-selling, renewals, upgrades, and referrals

Digital Changed Everything

Although content marketing is hardly new—after all, businesses have been

publish-ing newsletters and brochures practically since the advent of the printpublish-ing press—the

rise of the Internet and other digital channels, particularly social media, has

signifi-cantly lowered the bar (and the costs) of leveraging content to profitably attract

clients and prospects

P a r t I C o n t e n t M a r k e t i n g B a s i c s

Websites Blogs YouTube eBooks Downloadable whitepapers Twitter Facebook

LinkedIn Google+ Search engines All these channels (and many, many more)

remove many of the hard cost barriers that were once a mandatory part of creating

and disseminating great content No more paper, printing, shipping, warehousing,

postage, filmstock, processing, and developing Many of the physical and logistical

hurdles to creating and disseminating great content are gone

Although content marketing may be cheaper thanks to digital innovations, it

cer-tainly isn’t free (even if your Facebook account is), nor has digital made it any

eas-ier Consistently delivering quality content to a target audience requires thought,

work, originality, strategy, experimentation, and persistence A plethora of potential

outlets for content online (the options seem to multiply every day) add complexity

to the choices you must make about what content to create, in what form, and how

to disseminate it—not to mention measuring its effectiveness One thing is certain:

Digital channels overwhelmingly account for the preponderance of content

market-ing outlets, as Figure 1.1 illustrates

3

C h a p t e r 1 W h a t I s C o n t e n t M a r k e t i n g , A n y w a y ?

Social Media (other than blogs, i.e Twitter, Facebook)

Enewsletters Blogs White Papers Article Marketing Case Studies Online Video Custom In-Person Events

Microsites Promoting Content in Traditional Media

Custom Virtual Events (webinar/webcasts)

eBooks Podcasts Print Newsletters Digital Magazines Custom Print Magazines Mobile Content

0 20 40 60 80 100

72%

63%

63%

48%

48%

42%

31%

31%

19%

16%

10%

10%

31%

26%

17%

14%

46%

Figure 1.1 Content Marketing Usage By Tactic 1

2 “B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends” MarketingProfs/Junta42

Research from this same

MarketingProfs/Junta42 study, conducted in

2010, found that 60% of marketers planned

to increase content marketing spending in

the coming year Content already accounts

for more than 33% of marketing budgets—

often double that in smaller organizations

Overwhelmingly, all these efforts and

budg-ets are flowing into digital channels

The aim of this book is to help you get a

handle on content marketing in digital

chan-nels I examine tactics, strategies, and the myriad channels available to content

marketers I provide case studies from brands both large and small in the hope that

they enlighten or inspire

You should bear in mind that when it comes to content marketing, there really are

no rules There are best practices, to be sure Aside from common sense notions

(such as checking spelling and grammar; if it’s a video, it should probably contain

moving images and audio), there are no hard and fast rules, only guidelines The

content that works to support your business won’t be what works for another

com-pany with a different audience, offering, and personality

If there’s a single thing that deserves to be said before you dive in, it’s this: Be

pre-pared to experiment Be prepre-pared to fail—but make sure your learn from those

fail-ings And above all, have fun Creating interesting, compelling, original,

educational, diverting, immersive, entertaining, and attractive content can be just as

valuable and inspiring for the creator as it is for its intended audience

So have fun! And learn a lot

P a r t I C o n t e n t M a r k e t i n g B a s i c s

“Be prepared to experiment Be prepared to fail—

but make sure your learn from those failings.”