Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to attract, acquire and engage clearly defined and understood current and potential consumer bases with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.[1]
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 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 blogs, custom magazines, print or online newsletters, digital content, websites or microsites, white papers, webcasts/webinars, podcasts, video portals or series, in-person roadshows, roundtables, interactive online, email, events. The purpose of this information is 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.
Content Marketing – is one that is new to many web marketers. Content marketing rests on four key assumptions:
- That the content holds value in the eye of the reader.
- That demonstrating expertise is more powerful than claiming it.
- That making it available for free – and particularly by encouraging propagation on the social web – will reach more prospects.
- That trust will increase as more content is consumed, eventually leading to a transaction or a referral.
The most obvious examples of content marketing include certain types of blog posts, white papers, how-to videos, and books.
An important benefit of content marketing is that each piece of content, once created, lasts forever.
The cumulative impact grows exponentially over time, and can become a strategic differentiator.
While creating content can be time consuming it poises you as an expert in your industry. This of course will add credibility and trust in the marketplace.