So, what is Content Marketing?

By: Mike Myers

When we’re talking about Content Marketing World to potential new attendees who are just learning about CMI and our events, the most common question is “What is Content Marketing World?” And, surprising as it may seem to us who live and breathe this every day, another frequent question is “What is content marketing?”

Content marketing as a practice has been around for many years, but there are still many opinions about how best to use it, when to employ it…even what content marketing is. Rather than simply tell you what we think, we’ve curated a list from experts across the industry so you can form your own conclusions.

We’ve grouped our top responses from each of several categories to help make the information manageable for you. And, full disclosure, our thoughts are included here, but only as an input to the overall list.

While we’ve done our best, we’re sure the list below isn’t all-inclusive (at least, not in the way an all-inclusive resort tends to your every need…wouldn’t that be nice?). We do believe it’s a start. And we welcome your input! One of the things we believe in most is our content marketing community. So please share your thoughts in the comments below. Did we miss anything? What other categories would you like to see here?

We sincerely hope this curated list helps you on your content marketing journey. It would be great to compile a version 2 to this post in a few months, so please be sure to let us know what you think!

WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?

• Heidi Cohen from the Actionable Marketing Guide asked 50 marketers to have a goat a definition of content marketing.
• Brian Clark from Copyblogger says content marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers.
• The good folks over at Moz offer a nine-chapter beginner’s guide to content marketing.
• Lee Odden and Top Rank Marketing think content marketing is a strategic marketing technique that aligns business and consumer information needs with relevant content
• Arnie Kuenn and the team at Vertical Measures believes content marketing is a powerful means of targeting and engaging with your prospects in a way that creates loyal customers.
• Shane Snow and the Contently team share the answers to your 18 biggest content marketing questions.
• And it would simply be a dereliction of our duties if we didn’t share Content Marketing Institute’s definition of content marketing.

CONTENT MARKETING EXAMPLES AND TRENDS

• Michael Brenner and the team at Marketing Insider Group share their version of the best content marketing examples.
• Andy Crestodina and the Orbit Media Studios team share their best examples of content marketing mission statements.
• This list of the 28 best digital marketing blogs include many industry experts, like TrackMaven, Mitch Joel, Gini Dietrich and more.
• We also found these fun monthly examples from a YouTube channel, appropriately called the Content Marketing Examples channel.
• Mathew Sweezey from Salesforce shares his view on the five future marketing trends of 2018.
• Check out this nifty air travel inspired infographic from MarketingProfs about the state of content marketing in 2018.
• And we hope you can find inspiration from these examples of content marketingfrom winners at the 2017 Content Marketing Awards.

BENEFITS OF CONTENT MARKETING

• Our own Robert Rose and the team at The Content Advisory shares 18 non-monetary ways content marketing benefits your business.
• Buddy Scalera talks about how to use the benefits of content marketing in regulated industries, like big pharma.
• The Cleveland Clinic’s Amanda Todorovich tells us how to improve our content marketing health.
• Tamsen Webster shares how content marketing can help brands make meaning.
• Clare McDermott talks about how content marketing isn’t a tactic but a mindset.

OPINIONS ABOUT CONTENT MARKETING

• Mark Schaefer says content marketing isn’t a sustainable strategy in his now-famous content shock post.
• Jay Acunzo talks about a new marketing mandate
• Jay Baer and the team at Convince & Convert tell us why you should be using your content to build social proof.
• Marcus Sheridan talks about third-party review sites and how content marketing can fix it.
• Joe Pulizzi shared the one thing that is killing marketing that everyone is ignoring.

If you look at these articles and posts, they range from 2014-2018. A great collection from some of the brightest minds in the business, showing us that while our industry has evolved, the pillars of content marketing remain.

Source: https://www.contentmarketingworld.com/what-is-content-marketing-2/