What is content marketing?
Content marketing is all about value. That also makes it subjective – it’s up to your audience to decide whether you’ve delivered on that promise, or not.
We can make some distinctions. Traditional marketing intrudes to get attention. Say, you’re launching a new laundry detergent. You could take out a billboard to advertise your product – a colossal one that hangs over the M5. Your ad could exhort the detergent’s benefits. That is, for example, it removes stubborn stains and makes clothes smell like sunshine and fresh air.
For those driving by, if they notice your billboard at all, you haven’t given them anything of value. If your copy or creative is particularly striking, they might remember your product and consider buying it on their next shop. Still, as creatures of habit, that’s unlikely. If your ad is forgettable, your brand has just added to the day’s visual clutter – a fly on the windscreen. If it’s bad, you might find yourself making a buzz on Twitter for all the wrong reasons.
In short, you’ve broadcasted an unsolicited sales pitch to a wide audience.
Content marketing takes a more thoughtful approach. Instead, brands create stories related to their product or services, without directly pitching them. The focus is on education, not promotion. A brand has a successful content marketing and design strategy when it anticipates its audience’s needs and addresses them with relevant content and user experiences.
Take our detergent brand, you could create something as simple as a blog or as complex as a video explainer. You could answer questions like, “What’s the best detergent to remove chilli oil stains?”, “How often should I change my pillowcase?” or, “Can I put my trainers in the washing machine?”. Then, you'd watch as your target audience finds you through Google on their own time, or through a link from their mum following an incident between a white shirt and a bottle of red.
In brief, you’ve shared valuable, sough-after information with a targeted audience.
Even this blog is a piece of content marketing. I hope I’m providing value by answering your question, “What is content marketing?” In turn, I hope you think more positively about my brand, have more faith in my expertise, or become more confident in asking about my services.
Not all content marketing needs to be informational or answer a question. It can be delightful, inspirational or entertaining, but it should aways be relevant to your audience. It should speak to their challenges, desires and dreams. Content marketing draws people in and shows them your business understands them.
Both traditional marketing and content marketing have their benefits – and different roles in the customer journey. But, for my money, content marketing is the best strategy to connect with your audience, develop meaningful, long-lasting client relationships and, ultimately, grow your business. But I would say that, wouldn’t I?