Content marketing
Encyclopedia
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. 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
.
The idea of sharing content as a means of persuading decision-making has driven content marketers to make their once-proprietary informational assets available to selected audiences. Alternatively, many content marketers choose to create new information and share it via any and all media. Content marketing products frequently take the form of custom magazines
, print or online newsletters, digital content
, website
s or microsite
s, white paper
s, webcast
s/webinars
, podcast
s, video portals or series, in-person roadshows, roundtables, interactive online, email
, events
. The purpose of this information is not to spout the virtues of the marketer’s own products or services, but to inform target customers and prospects about key industry issues, sometimes involving the marketer’s products. The motivation behind content marketing is the belief that educating the customer results in the brand’s recognition as a thought leader and industry expert.
Marketers may use content marketing as a means of achieving a variety of business goals. These may include: thought leader
ship, lead generation
, increasing direct sales, introducing specific brand language
and improving customer retention. The term “content engineer” is being used to describe a new breed of marketer who creates, optimizes, and distributes the different types of content required to engage customers on the social web, based on the data of many analysis tools.
Content marketing is the underlying philosophy driving techniques such as custom media
, custom publishing, database marketing
, brand marketing, branded entertainment
and branded content
.
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
formats that involve the creation or sharing of content
Content (media and publishing)
In media production and publishing, content is information and experiences that may provide value for an end-user/audience in specific contexts. Content may be delivered via any medium such as the internet, television, and audio CDs, as well as live events such as conferences and stage performances...
for the purpose of engaging current and potential consumer bases. 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
Brand loyalty
The American Marketing Association defines brand loyalty as:# The situation in which a consumer generally buys the same manufacturer-originated product or service repeatedly over time rather than buying from multiple suppliers within the category .# The degree to which a consumer consistently...
.
The idea of sharing content as a means of persuading decision-making has driven content marketers to make their once-proprietary informational assets available to selected audiences. Alternatively, many content marketers choose to create new information and share it via any and all media. Content marketing products frequently take the form of custom magazines
Custom media
Custom media is a marketing term referring broadly to the development, production and delivery of media designed to strengthen the relationship between the sponsor of the medium and the medium's audience...
, print or online newsletters, digital content
Digital
A digital system is a data technology that uses discrete values. By contrast, non-digital systems use a continuous range of values to represent information...
, website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
s or microsite
Microsite
A microsite is an Internet web design term referring to an individual web page or a small cluster of pages which are meant to function as a discreet entity within an existing website or to complement an offline activity...
s, white paper
White paper
A white paper is an authoritative report or guide that helps solve a problem. White papers are used to educate readers and help people make decisions, and are often requested and used in politics, policy, business, and technical fields. In commercial use, the term has also come to refer to...
s, webcast
Webcast
A webcast is a media presentation distributed over the Internet using streaming media technology to distribute a single content source to many simultaneous listeners/viewers. A webcast may either be distributed live or on demand...
s/webinars
Web conferencing
Web conferencing refers to a service that allows conferencing events to be shared with remote locations. Most vendors also provide either a recorded copy of an event, or a means for a subscriber to record an event. The service allows information to be shared simultaneously, across geographically...
, podcast
Podcast
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication...
s, video portals or series, in-person roadshows, roundtables, interactive online, email
Email
Electronic mail, commonly known as email or e-mail, is a method of exchanging digital messages from an author to one or more recipients. Modern email operates across the Internet or other computer networks. Some early email systems required that the author and the recipient both be online at the...
, events
Event planning
Event planning is the process of planning a festival, ceremony, competition, party, or convention. Event planning includes budgeting, establishing dates and alternate dates, selecting and reserving the event site, acquiring permits, and coordinating transportation and parking...
. The purpose of this information is not to spout the virtues of the marketer’s own products or services, but to inform target customers and prospects about key industry issues, sometimes involving the marketer’s products. The motivation behind content marketing is the belief that educating the customer results in the brand’s recognition as a thought leader and industry expert.
Marketers may use content marketing as a means of achieving a variety of business goals. These may include: thought leader
Thought leader
Thought leader is business jargon for an entity that is recognized for having innovative ideas.The term was coined in 1994 by Joel Kurtzman, editor-in-chief of the Booz Allen Hamilton magazine, Strategy & Business. "Thought leader" was used to designate interview subjects for that magazine who had...
ship, lead generation
Lead generation
Lead generation, or lead gen is a marketing tool used, particularly in internet marketing, to generate consumer interest or inquiry into products or services of a business. Leads can be generated for a variety of purposes - list building, e-newsletter list acquisition or for winning customers....
, increasing direct sales, introducing specific brand language
Brand language
Brand language is the body of words and systems for their use in written and verbal communication associated with an organisation and/or its separate product offerings or business units. Brand Language consists of brand vocabulary and brand tone of voice...
and improving customer retention. The term “content engineer” is being used to describe a new breed of marketer who creates, optimizes, and distributes the different types of content required to engage customers on the social web, based on the data of many analysis tools.
Content marketing is the underlying philosophy driving techniques such as custom media
Custom media
Custom media is a marketing term referring broadly to the development, production and delivery of media designed to strengthen the relationship between the sponsor of the medium and the medium's audience...
, custom publishing, database marketing
Database marketing
Database marketing is a form of direct marketing using databases of customers or potential customers to generate personalized communications in order to promote a product or service for marketing purposes...
, brand marketing, branded entertainment
Branded entertainment
Branded entertainment, also known as branded content or advertainment, is an entertainment-based vehicle that is funded by and complementary to a brand's marketing strategy. The purpose of a branded entertainment program is to give a brand the opportunity to communicate its image to its target...
and branded content
Branded content
Branded content is a relatively new form of advertising medium that blurs conventional distinctions between what constitutes advertising and what constitutes entertainment. Branded content is essentially a fusion of the two into one product intended to be distributed as entertainment content,...
.
See also
- Association of Publishing AgenciesAssociation of Publishing AgenciesThe Association of Publishing Agencies is a not-for-profit trade body that promotes the interests of companies involved in the production customer publishing.-Structure:...
- UK trade association of customer publishing agencies. - Custom publishing
- Brand languageBrand languageBrand language is the body of words and systems for their use in written and verbal communication associated with an organisation and/or its separate product offerings or business units. Brand Language consists of brand vocabulary and brand tone of voice...
External links
- Custom Content Council - U.S. trade association of custom media and content marketing providers. (Formerly, Custom Publishing Council.)
- Content Marketing Trends - Survey of over 500 marketing professionals on content marketing preferences