what is content marketing?

Content Marketing involves creating and distributing relevant, valuable content to attract, acquire and keep loyal, lucrative customers. 

Wikipedia hits the nail on the head:

“Content Marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.”

In other words marketing better, more subtly, in a more targeted way than normal. No more spinning crappy articles into even crappier articles, stuffing them with key phrases and letting them loose on an increasingly sceptical and fed up audience. No more funnelling millions of disgruntled punters to sites only a tiny fraction of them have an interest in. No more poorly written, badly researched, ‘empty calorie’ content to wade through in search of something useful.

In a space where there’s so much media noise we’re deafened by it, Content Marketers claim the only real way to hit home effectively, grab someone’s attention and hold it is to deliver excellence every time.

Content Marketing isn’t a new discipline. It isn’t tied to a particular medium or set of media. It’s more a way of behaving: a better way of doing things that too many online marketers have been doing badly for too long.

Informative soft sell beats hard sell hands down if you’re looking to build lasting relationships with people. Cooking brand-led loyalty on a slow burner works better, for longer, than a crass flash in the pan. Good quality relationship marketing is particularly important in an age where trust is key to buying decisions. Keeping a good customer is usually cheaper than landing a new one. Data analysis and targeting generate better-performing campaigns that people enjoy receiving. Thought leadership has always been a laudable marketing goal. And Google and co. seem to appreciate quality too. So make your marketing:

• relevant
• intelligent
• entertaining
• informative
• targeted
• timely
• consistent

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