The best description that I have seen is from the Content Marketing Institute:
"Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action."
-Content Marketing Institute
-Content Marketing Institute
Trends Based on Keyword Search Results - 2013- 2014
The trend of the use of the specific term, content marketing, is shown in the Graph from Google Trends below. Since 2011, the news that uses this term has increased steadily in usage and searches, while other internet marketing terms such as SEO have decreased. We also have seen strong growth in the industries and companies that target content marketing as their main business focus. Two examples are Copyblogger and Content Marketing Institute, both which have seen dramatic growth in their subscribers as a result of this high growth industry.
Stats - Business to Business Content Marketing
In a definitive research study (2014 - Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends- North America - Content Marketing Institute) on B2B content marketers, it was found that marketers that had a documented strategy were more successful with content marketing. An example of a documented strategy would be a content marketing plan that listed the various media to be used as well as the type of content to be published to a particular target audience. Social media is the top media listed and within this category there is Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, Google + and Youtube as the five most used by marketers. In a detailed plan, each one of these can have it's own strategy for content marketing that may be different, or overlap, or refer to other media as a cross reference.
An example on how this plays out in the real world would be Red Bull. In the blog "Red Bull - A Study in Facebook Content Marketing" I used their various postings and tabs in Facebook to give examples of what they are doing that works based on the likes and shares. No surprise that they are one of the top brands on Facebook. Their content marketing has a very engaged target audience with the various interests in extreme sports and new events and news happening all the time all over the world.
Content Marketing for Small Business Owners
Small business owners who are much too busy to handle their own content marketing can retain services of a content marketing consultant or specialist to develop a plan that meets their needs and budget and creates the authority that they will need to compete effectively with Google page ranking. This includes copywriting, blogs, web copy, social media posts, tweets, and various creative promotions that engage potential buyers of services and products.
Bruce Clay, one of the authorities in internet marketing, states on his web site "While content marketing might be one of the most overused buzzwords in 2013, it is also the marketing priority for 2014."
His new book , to be published at the end of this month, will highlight the main strategies that content marketing professionals can use for clients.
The key factors that I am interested in are the types of content strategies that would be a catalyst for readers to share the content and create links to the content, just as I am doing now to Bruce Clay's web page that describes his book and the summaries of ten chapters as a preview.
His new book , to be published at the end of this month, will highlight the main strategies that content marketing professionals can use for clients.
The key factors that I am interested in are the types of content strategies that would be a catalyst for readers to share the content and create links to the content, just as I am doing now to Bruce Clay's web page that describes his book and the summaries of ten chapters as a preview.
Content marketing is indeed a buzzword and as a result, we may expect that another one may take it's place some time in the near future. But for now, and most likely through 2014, we can expect it to gain in usage and become a definite priority for internet marketing.
Content Marketing Jobs and Descriptions
When large corporations are creating new departments and job descriptions surrounding the concepts of content marketing, then we know that this industry is here to stay and not just a passing fad. I was surprised on how many specialties there are within this broad category when I saw the job offerings and descriptions. It is common to see salaries ranging from $60,000 - over $100,000 for various content marketing positions.
Will the Perfect Content Marketing Consultant Please Stand Up?
The term content marketing is a catch all for a coordination of all channels in a creative way that meets the consumer needs and needs of the company, while being relevant, topical, and engaging enough to not seem intrusive like advertising and yet cause people to like, share, and buy products and services. As a major part of internet marketing, there are a lot of players jumping into this game. While larger companies have an in-house position or department dedicated to content marketing, small businesses can benefit from a "quarterback" CM consultant, who may provide content services and/or consulting to coordinate and filter out various services to find the best match to the needs and goals of the small business.
Author: David Brown
Since 1999, internet marketing and web development, web copywriting. and creative content solutions for small business. Top ranked on Google for search of Portland webmaster. Accepting small business accounts for monthly content marketing services.
www.logion.net - 541-953-3360
