CHAPTER 1

What Is Content Marketing?

You do not lead by hitting people over the head—that'sassault, not leadership.

DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER

In March 2007 I left a six-figure executive position at the largest independentbusiness media company in North America to bootstrap a startup. Many of myfriends and mentors actively went out of their way to tell me I was making amistake. Don't let anyone tell you it's not fun to start a business!

For the previous seven years I had worked with brands from around the worldhelping them publish and distribute their own stories to attract and retaincustomers. By 2001, it was easy to see that effective marketing was starting tolook more and more like publishing. Large brands were seeing amazing results bycreating their own content, similar to what media companies had been doing sincethe dawn of time, rather than paying to advertise around other people's content.It was that year that I started to slip the phrase "content marketing" into mydiscussions with marketing executives.

What if more businesses of all sizes did this type of activity, focusing not ontheir products in marketing, but on the informational needs of their targetcustomer first?

Then I asked myself, "What if I could launch a business using this model as thebasis for starting and growing a business?"

That's exactly what we did when we launched our company, Content MarketingInstitute (CMI), with very little money and an idea back in 2007. This year, wewill exceed over $4 million in revenues. Next year, we'll be at $6 million. Toachieve this type of growth with little to no traditional advertising, we had todevelop a new business model around content creation and distribution.

Even while this idea of content marketing is now a recognized industry term (seeFigure 1.1), most business owners have no playbook to do this properly. I talkto people every day from businesses that waste an incredible amount of time onsocial media tactics without first having the content marketing strategy to makeit work for the business.

CONTENT MARKETING: A COLLECTION OF DEFINITIONS

The marketing strategy goes by many names: custom publishing, custom media,customer media, customer publishing, member media, private media, contentstrategy, branded content, corporate media, brand journalism, nativeadvertising, inbound marketing, contract publishing, branded storytelling,corporate publishing, corporate journalism, and branded media.

Perhaps nothing says it better than content marketing. But what exactly iscontent marketing?

CONTENT MARKETING: THE FORMAL DEFINITION

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating anddistributing valuable and compelling content to attract, acquire, and engage aclearly defined and understood target audience—with the objective of drivingprofitable customer action.

A content marketing strategy can leverage all story channels (print, online, in-person,mobile, social, and so on); be employed at any and all stages of thebuying process, from attention-oriented strategies to retention and loyaltystrategies; and include multiple buying groups.

FROM MANAGING CONTENT MARKETING

Content marketing is a strategy focused on the creation of a valuableexperience. It is humans being helpful to each other, sharing valuable pieces ofcontent that enrich the community and position the business as a leader in thefield. It is content that is engaging, eminently shareable, and, most of all,focused on helping customers discover (on their own) that your product orservice is the one that will scratch their itch.

CONTENT MARKETING: LESS FORMAL DEFINITION

Content marketing is owning media as opposed to renting it. It's a marketingprocess to attract and retain customers by consistently creating and curatingcontent in order to change or enhance a consumer behavior.

CONTENT MARKETING: ELEVATOR PITCH

Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you're a rock star.Content marketing is showing the world that you are one.

CONTENT MARKETING: FOR PRACTITIONERS

Content marketing is about delivering the content your audience is seeking inall the places they are searching for it. It is the effective combination ofcreated, curated, and syndicated content.

Content marketing is the process of developing and sharing relevant, valuable,and engaging content to a target audience with the goal of acquiring newcustomers or increasing business from existing customers.

CONTENT MARKETING: FOR NONBELIEVERS

Your customers don't care about you, your products, or your services. They careabout themselves, their wants, and their needs. Content marketing is aboutcreating interesting information your customers are passionate about so theyactually pay attention to you.

This last definition is my favorite (with kudos to bestselling author DavidMeerman Scott for helping to popularize this), and the hardest for marketers andbusiness owners to deal with. So often we marketers believe that our productsand services are so special—so amazing—and we think that if more people knewabout them, all of our sales problems would be solved.

MARKETING BY SELLING LESS

Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers andprospects without selling. It is noninterruption marketing. Instead of pitchingyour products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyersmore intelligent or perhaps entertaining them to build an emotional connection.The essence of this strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliverconsistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward uswith their business and loyalty.

Don't get me wrong, there is a time for sales collateral, feature and benefitmarketing, and customer testimonials about why you are so awesome. If you arelike most companies, you have plenty of that content. The problem with that typeof content is that it is only critical when your prospect is ready to buy. Whatabout the other 99 percent of the time when your customers aren't ready to buy?Ah, that is where content marketing pays its dues.

Ecclesiastes assures us ... that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. Atime to laugh ... and a time to weep. A time to mourn ... and there is a time todance. And there was a time for this law, but not anymore.

KEVIN BACON (REN) IN FOOTLOOSE (1984)

There was a time when paid media was the best and most effective way to sell ourproducts and services, but not anymore.

JOE PULIZZI

INFORM OR ENTERTAIN

Anyone who tries to make a distinction between education and entertainmentdoesn't know the first thing about either.

MARSHALL MCLUHAN

Ten years ago I had the opportunity to have lunch with Kirk Cheyfitz, CEO ofStory Worldwide, a global content agency. His words at that lunch have alwaysstuck with me.

"Inform or entertain," Cheyfitz said. "What other options do brands have whencommunicating with their customers and prospects? Brands serve their customersbest when they are telling engaging stories."

Actually you have four choices. You can inform and help your customers livebetter lives, find better jobs, or be more successful in the jobs they have now.You can also choose to entertain and begin to build an emotional connection withyour customers. These two choices help you build a following (like a mediacompany does ... but more on that later).

Your third choice is to develop lackluster content that doesn't move the needle.This is content that could be self-serving and promotional. It could also becontent that you want to be useful or entertaining, but because of quality,consistency, or planning issues, is ignored by your customers.

Your fourth choice is to spend money on traditional marketing, such as paidadvertising, traditional direct mail, and public relations. Again, there'snothing wrong with these activities, but this book will show you a better way touse those advertising dollars.

CONTENT MARKETING VS. SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?

Toby Murdock, CEO, KaPost

As I meet with brands and agencies, I still come across people who are totallyunfamiliar with the term "content marketing." And as I begin to explain it, theyoften respond, "Oh, brands publishing content? You mean social media marketing."

Indeed, content marketing heavily involves social media. And, of course, insocial media, marketers use content to get their messages across. But althoughthere is plenty of overlap between content marketing and social media marketing,they are actually two distinct entities, with different focal points, goals, andprocesses. To help clear the confusion, let's look at the major ways in whichthey differ.

CENTER OF GRAVITY

In social media marketing, the center of gravity—the focus of the marketingactivity—is located within the social networks themselves. When marketersoperate social media campaigns, they are operating inside of Facebook, Twitter,Google+, and so on. As they produce content, they place it inside of thesenetworks.

In contrast, the center of gravity for content marketing is a brand website(your ultimate platform; see Chapter 19 for more), whether it be a branded webaddress, such as AmericanExpress.com, or a microsite for a brand's specificproduct, such as Amex's OPEN Forum. Social networks are vital to the success ofcontent marketing efforts, but in this case, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ areused primarily as a distributor of links back to the content on the brand'swebsite, not as containers of the content itself.

TYPES OF CONTENT

In social media marketing, content is built to fit the context of the chosensocial platform: short messages in the 140 characters range for Twitter;contests, quizzes, and games for Facebook; and so on. With this type ofmarketing, brands model their behavior after that of the individuals using thesocial networks.

On the other hand, in content marketing, the context of websites permits muchlonger forms of content. Brands can publish blog posts, videos, infographics,and e-books, just to name a few formats. With this type of marketing, brandsmodel their behavior after that of media publishers.

OBJECTIVES

While both social media marketing and content marketing can be used for amultitude of purposes, social media marketing generally tends to focus on twomain objectives. First, it is used for brand awareness: generating activity anddiscussion around the brand. Secondly, it is used for customer retention andsatisfaction; brands can use social channels as an open forum for directdialogues with customers, often around issues or questions that consumers have.

In contrast, content marketing's website-based center of gravity enables it tofocus more on demand (or lead) generation. As quality content brings prospectsto a brand's site, that brand can develop a relationship with the prospects andnurture them toward a lead conversion or purchase.

EVOLUTION OF ONLINE MARKETING

We need to think of social media marketing and content marketing less as twoisolated options and more as interrelated parts of marketing's ongoingevolution. The Internet has unleashed a revolutionary ability for every brand tocommunicate directly with its customers—without the need for a media industryintermediary.

Social media marketing is the natural first step in this process: access tousers is direct (users spend lots of time on social networks), and content isgenerally formatted into shorter chunks, which makes the publishing processrelatively easy.

But as brands become more familiar with their new role as publisher, the naturalprogression is to move toward content marketing. Yes, the bar here is higher: incontent marketing, brands must produce longer-form, higher-quality content andbuild audiences on their own sites—they must become true media publishers. Butthe rewards and results are arguably more powerful. Brands can engage moredeeply with their customers through content marketing efforts. And by drivingconsumers to its own website, a brand has a greater opportunity to gain leadsand move them down the conversion funnel.

As we all pioneer this new strategy of content marketing, a shared definition ofwhat we do relative to approaches like social media marketing is invaluable.

THE NEW WORLD OF CONTENT MARKETING

Let's take a look at the first content marketing definition one more time, butthis time remove the "valuable and compelling."

Content marketing is the marketing and business process for creating anddistributing content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined andunderstood target audience—with the objective of driving profitable customeraction.

That's the difference between content marketing and the other informationalgarbage you get from companies trying to sell you "stuff." Companies send outinformation all the time; it's just that most of the time informational garbageis not very compelling or useful (think: spam). That's what makes contentmarketing so intriguing in today's environment of thousands of marketingmessages per person per day. Good content marketing makes a person stop, read,think, and behave differently.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CONTENT AND CONTENT MARKETING

Not a day goes by that some marketer somewhere around the world doesn't try tofigure this out. Here's the answer.

Some experts say that content is any word, image, or pixel that can be engagedwith by another human being. In the context of this book, content is compellingcontent that informs, engages, or amuses.

What makes content marketing different from simple content is that contentmarketing must do something for the business. It must inform, engage, or amusewith the objective of driving profitable customer action.

Your content may engage or inform, but if it's not accomplishing your businessgoals (for example, customer retention or lead generation), it's not contentmarketing. The content you create must work directly to attract and/or retaincustomers in some way.

CONTENT MARKETING NEXT

According to the Roper Public Affairs, 80 percent of buyers prefer to getcompany information in a series of articles versus an advertisement. Seventypercent say content marketing makes them feel closer to the sponsoring company,and 60 percent say that company content helps them make better productdecisions. Think of this: What if your customers looked forward to receivingyour marketing? What would it be like if, when they received it via print, e-mail,website, social media, or mobile device, they spent 15, 30, or 45 minuteswith it? What if you actually sold more by marketing your products and servicesless?

Yes, you really can create marketing that is anticipated and truly makes aconnection! You can develop and execute "sales" messages that are needed, evenrequested, by your customers. Content marketing is a far cry from theinterruption marketing we are bombarded with every minute of every day. Contentmarketing is about marketing for the present and the future.

EPIC THOUGHTS

• Content is just ... content, unless it's driving behavior change in yourcustomers and prospects. Then it's called "content marketing."

• Your marketing needs to be anticipated, loved, and wanted. This is the newworld we live in today.

• Your content marketing strategy comes before your social media strategy—yesterday,today, and always.