Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Joe Pulizzi is founder and chief content officer for Junta42, the leading online resourcefor content marketing.
Newt Barrett is president of Content Marketing Strategies, a firmthat helps businesses market their products and services through relevant content.

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The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Contents

Chapter One

We're not in the business of keeping the media companies alive ... we're in the business of connecting with consumers.

—Trevor Edwards Corporate vice president for global brand and category management, Nike, Inc.

Nike and other huge companies such as Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, and General Motors are all moving away from the basic advertising and sponsorship strategies that helped make their brands as well known as they are today.

That's a frightening proposition for both major media organizations and established brands. It's hard to fathom that the once-coveted marketing strategies that vaulted the best of brands to the top are becoming obsolete. Once you get over the initial shock that the world we live in has changed, you realize that this is perhaps the greatest marketing opportunity we have ever seen for brands in both the business-to-business and the business-to-consumer markets.

We are seeing nothing less than a marketing tsunami that is affecting businesses of every size, regardless of what they're selling. Prospects are simply not responding to the kinds of marketing that have worked for decades. So most marketing organizations are asking, "What now?"

Beginning to Tell the Story

"We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than look for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go," says Stefan Olander, global director for brand connections at Nike. "How can we provide a service where the customer says, 'Wow, you really made this easier for me!'?"

Olander's comment reflects buyers' increasing dislike of interruption marketing—those incessant advertising messages that stream and scream at people in print, on the radio, on TV, and even on the Internet—or, essentially, anything that tries to take their attention away from the content they really want to engage with.

Big brands from around the world have realized that they need to market to their customers in a different way. The proof is in the dollars. The New York Times notes, "The 25 companies that spent the most on advertising over the last five years cut their spending last year in traditional media by about $767 million, according to Advertising Age and TNS Media Intelligence." During the first six months of 2007, those same companies decreased their media spending an additional 3 percent, or $446 million, to $14.53 billion, according to TNS Media Intelligence.

But those marketing dollars haven't disappeared. They are moving in different directions, many of which are content marketing initiatives, in which money is being spent on custom magazines, newsletters, Webcasts, content for Web sites, blogging, social content efforts, and other such activities. In fact, ContentWise (formerly Publications Management), a research-based newsletter covering the content marketing industry, found that more than 25 percent of corporate marketing budgets is now being dedicated to some type of content marketing activity. And this number is growing. A recent IBM Global Solutions survey found that advertising executives plan to shift approximately 20 percent of marketing funds from impression-based advertising to impact-based advertising over the next three years.

Blendtec, a manufacturer of (you guessed it) blenders, has had tens of millions view its "Will It Blend?" video series over the last few years. The thirty-second to two-minute videos show Blendtec founder Tom Dickson attempting to "blend" various items, including golf balls, a toilet plunger, and even an iPhone. According to Blendtec executive George Wright, retail sales have increased by more than 500 percent, which he attributes almost solely to the video series. Talk about return on investment! With less than $1,000 and a YouTube account, Blendtec is now perceived as the undisputable blending king. Smart marketers like Nike and Blendtec are beginning to understand that they need to be telling their own story. They are learning to create their own valuable and relevant content to enable their customers to join the conversation. They are also learning that it's hard to create meaningful relationships with customers through 30-second TV ads or radio jingles.

Nike's global sales have climbed from $10 billion to more than $16 billion in the last four years. And executives say that the company's new focus on telling a relevant content story is a major contributor to that trend. In other words, content marketing has had a lot to do with growing global sales by 60 percent in a four-year period. Nike, through microsites such as its customer experience site Nike+, is not just talking at buyers anymore, but rather conversing with them.

You don't have to have Nike's powerful brand, huge budget, and global reach, or even Blendtec's creativity, to embrace a content marketing strategy that will grow your customer base and drive increased revenues. In fact, start-ups, small and medium-size companies, associations, and nonprofit groups are all benefiting from rethinking how they market their products and services. Just as Nike and Blendtec have experienced significant growth in tandem with the development of a content marketing strategy, so, too, can you deliver top-line and bottom-line results for your company.

How Many Names Can One Industry Have?

As you become a content marketer, it's important for you to realize where this industry came from. Many marketing professionals and publishers recognize the term custom publishing, which in the last few years has become the most popular term for the industry. John Deere is often credited with producing the first actual custom publication/content marketing device when it launched its newsletter, The Furrow, in the late 1800s. Yet, even though this industry is more than a century old, most marketers recognize it as young. While we will adapt to any term that promotes business content initiatives, our research indicates that custom publishing is an often misunderstood term. Most marketers and publishers perceive custom publishing as referring mostly to custom magazines, newsletters, and other customized print initiatives, thus downplaying the huge increase in online branded content. Actually, in a small research project we conducted with approximately 100 marketers and publishers in May 2007, most respondents chose to use the terms content marketing and custom media for the delivery of valuable, targeted business content.

Who knows which phrase will stick with people? Frankly, it doesn't matter. We chose content marketing because it seems to be the term that's most understandable to marketing professionals. It's the blend of both content and the marketing of that content that enables customer behavior. But just in case, we've provided a list of relevant terms that are often interchanged with content marketing. You probably know a few more:

• Content marketing

• Custom publishing

• Custom media

• Corporate content

• Corporate media

• Custom content

• Branded content

• Branded editorial

• Branded editorial content

• Branded storytelling

• Information marketing

•...