Is it time to expand the definition of content marketing?
I asked this question in 2020. My argument was simple: Content marketing is not just about creating content for marketing, but also about marketing the content.
Four years later, this extended definition is even more relevant. Great content without your own marketing strategy is like a product that is available for sale in a warehouse shelf without packaging, without a sales strategy and without an audience.
Brands that win today strategically market their content to ensure that they saw, shared and act. They are actively aimed at the delivery channels from content beyond websites and social media. They include concepts in the development of marketing, such as B. Generative engine optimization (GEO) and artificial intelligence optimization.
So should you visit the definition of content marketing again? Let us examine how the concept of content marketing has changed and why marketing the content itself is as important as creating.
Content marketing is not just the creation of content
Content marketing has developed into a full capacity. Marketers who assume that their work is done as soon as the content is published.
Winning at Content Marketing required today:
- Distribution of content – to bring content to the right audience
- Target group Targeting – Use data, AI and personalization to attract ideal consumers
- Change of content conversion from long-form contents into several formats
- Performance tracking – measure how content promotes the actual business results
If content is the product, marketing the content is how it generates demand and drives measures.
Market your content like a product
Before that, I suggested applying the classic four HP of the marketing product, price, place and advertising – to the content strategy. Since then, content and how companies perceive it has been to take a front seat. It requires companies to pursue a more modern marketing approach.
That's why I present in my book Cash: the 4 keys to better sales, more intelligent marketing and an charged income machine Lee PS – presence, perception, price and profitability. These factors apply as much to content marketing as for business strategy. Presence and perception are leading factors for the success of the content. So let us dig a little deeper into these two.
Presence in content marketing
Having content via your product or service is not enough. It must be present in conversations, social feed and communities in order to promote the desire for the product. Many great products have simply failed because the content about them was not sufficiently in the minds of the consumers to promote sales growth. Despite the need for quality content, the amount is still important. Their content must be present.
To support this term, countless products have grown after request and sales, sometimes before they even existed. The intellectual and social presence of content that indicates the product is more important than the availability of the product.
In 2020, Nathan Apodaca uploaded a video of himself skateboarding on the street, while he drinks from a large bottle of Ocean Spray-Raspberry juice. It attracted the attention of other Tikok viewers, including Jimmy Fallon, who made similar tribut videos. The video became viral, and the sale of juice Stieg-Alles without a promotion tactics initiated with ocean.
Brands must ensure that your content (or content via your brands and products) is available on several platforms, conversations and formats to keep an overview.
To build a content presence, you should:
- Be where your audience is: Spread content over several platforms.
- Use several formats: Transform blogs into long -shaped videos, short form videos and contributions.
- Use organic and paid reach: A combination of paid advertisements and social parts ensures a maximum presence.
Perception in content marketing
The perception of a product can flow into viral success or immediately cancel. Perception rules Buyer behavior and content are what strides this perception – or corrected. Each brand must shape, control and reinforce perception before someone else does it for them.
In order to form the perception of the content, you should:
- Position your content as relevant and valuable.
- Use influencers and social evidence to increase credibility.
- Use storytelling to create an emotional connection with your audience.
Content marketing is about how people feel when they deal with the content, and that is more than just words or visuals.
Implementation of the successful definition of content marketing
With this overview of the strengthening of your presence and perception, let's get us to some specific things you can do to implement a modern definition of content marketing.
How do you create all this content?
The days in which you can only rely on long -shaped content have disappeared. Speed and frequency matter. However, do not overlook the possibility of converting it into smaller pieces of contents to engage your audience. For example:
- A blog post can become a LinkedIn thread.
- A podcast episode can become short video clips.
- A white book can be a number of carousel posts on social media.
Remixing than ever before, but the strategy is still important with AI-operated tools. The best marketers consider content as a modular capital that can be redesigned and redistributed by maximum effects.
Consistency is the key. Content that appears often wins.
How do you bring people committed?
If you-it-it-the-want-come does not work for content. Each content requires a marketing strategy that goes beyond sales. In order to maintain content long after the publication of successful brands: Successful use:
- SEO and AI-controlled optimization To ensure that the content appears in search engines and personalized feeds
- Dark socialalso known as private release (slack, WhatsApp, direct messages), which plays a major role in the visibility of content
- Interactive contentlike surveys and quiz to promote more commitment than static content
What about organic and paid advertising?
If you receive content in front of your target audience, a mixture of organic and paid advertising is required. Successful brands award budgets especially for the content distribution and not just for advertising campaigns.
The creation of consciousness includes organically unpaid paths such as search engine optimization, optimization of artificial intelligence, social sharing and public relations. With paid channels, you can better address your range with tools such as advertisements on LinkedIn and Facebook and influencer collaborations.
Should you direct the content?
Free content drives brand awareness and trust. Gated content must be worth enough so that the recipients are willing to exchange their contact details or pay the information.
Instead of locking everything, many brands now use a hybrid model – offer valuable free content and at the same time offer exclusive premium knowledge for a paywall or subscription.
Promotion of content marketing actions
Content marketing acts both as a noun and as a verb:
- Noun: A strategic marketing approach that concentrated on the creation and distribution of valuable, relevant and consistent content in order to attract and keep a clearly defined audience – and ultimately to advance profitable customer actions
- Verb: Applying marketing skills and techniques on written, video, audio or social content in order to offer the greatest possible range, longevity and effectiveness of this content
To make content marketing successful, you have to take it as an expansive verb. Websites and social were just the beginning. Market your content on AI platforms, search and generative summaries. Recognize that your efforts have to include all the places where your content should be displayed to create the right presence.
And do it in a way that determines positive perceptions for your content and brand.
This is how you live the modern definition of content marketing.
Updated from a post in July 2020.
Would you like more tips for content marketing, knowledge and examples? Subscribe to the working day or weekly e -mails from CMI.
Handpicked CONTENTS:
Cover picture by Joseph Kalinowski/Content Marketing Institute
Create your very own Auto Publish News/Blog Site and Earn Passive Income in Just 4 Easy Steps
