What is Content Marketing? And why Seth Godin says, "...it's the only marketing left." Print E-mail

The Marketplace

"Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation or sharing of content for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases." Wikipedia

"Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience - with the objective of driving profitable customer action." Junta42

Okay, enough of the "goobledygook," content marketing is about providing high-value content to consumers instead of low-value ads and commercials. It's about listening to your prospects and customers and providing real answers to their questions. Ultimately it's about becoming the thought-leader in your industry - the trusted expert that consumers seek out for answers.

Simply, content marketing is providing value to receive value.

Why You Need It
"For people who truly remain stuck in the traditional marketing mentality, I’d use traditional arguments to justify taking a leap on content marketing:  cost, reach, better targeting. First, content marketing can be done at much lower cost and with much lower risk on a campaign-by-campaign basis. Second, your “circulation” is as wide as the Internet and not limited to the circulation of traditional media so your advertising dollar goes far further... And third, content marketing is a pull, not a push strategy – meaning that the exponentially greater numbers of people receiving your low-cost, low-risk, high-impact message are predisposed positively toward it in a way you’ll never get with traditional advertising." Jennifer Watson

It's NOT Optional
Traditional marketing/advertising is less effective and more expensive than ever, while content marketing is more effective, less expensive, less risky, has greater reach and targeting, and lasts nearly forever - so what's to think about? And while it may be possible to make a case for continuing to use traditional interruption-based advertising WITH content marketing, in today's market you simply cannot ignore the benefits that content marketing provides and remain competitive.

In the next section, "The Value of Content Marketing," you'll see the real world results of content marketing in a small company and a large corporation.

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