Understanding Content Marketing

You’ve probably heard the term content marketing but you’re not sure what it is or how your business could benefit from this type of marketing. I created this framework to assist you in understanding all of the aspects of how content marketing fits into your marketing strategies. You may have experienced the power of content marketing and may even use a lot of the techniques. However, there is more to it than just a post on social media, sending out e-mail or just writing a blog article.

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Let’s begin the journey with a question, what is content marketing?

The Content Marketing Institute (yes, there is such a thing) defines content marketing as such. “Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.”

So, what does this mean? Well, if you were to take out relevant and valuable then you would be left with the same informational junk you get from companies trying to sell you stuff. Just informing your audience isn’t enough. You need to make them feel good and confident that they made the right decision to go with your company’s product or service.

There are many forms that a piece of content can take; video, blog articles, infographics, white papers, ebooks, even comic books! That’s right, I’m not talking about the advertisements in a comic book, I’m talking about the comic book itself being the marketing material.

Recently I watched a show on Netflix called “The Toys That Made Us.” There was an episode about G.I. Joe, which just happens to be my favorite American hero. In the early 80’s the toy company Hasbro was trying to revamp the toy line, so they got with Marvel comics to create a backstory. This backstory helped to catapult toy sales into the stratosphere. The projections for the new toys were $12-$15 million. Hasbro sold $50 million worth of 3-¾” size toys and vehicles in that first year! Why? They had a story. They had content.

The whole premise of this blog series is to provide you with a story, I’ll guide you through the framework that I use to successfully execute content marketing strategies. There are many articles, books, and videos on this subject and many marketers have their own spin on what they find to be successful. I try to stay aligned with my fellow marketing professionals yet simplify the information to make it easier to digest. I hope you find this framework helpful.

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