Is it time to extend the definition of content marketing?
In 2020, I asked this question. My argument was simple: content marketing is not only to create content for marketing – it is also content marketing.
Four years later, this extended definition is even more relevant. Excellent content without its own marketing strategy is like a product seated on a warehouse shelf without packaging, without sales strategy and without audience to buy it.
The brands winning today market their strategically content to ensure that it is seen, shared and acted. They actively target content delivery channels beyond websites and social media. They adopt concepts in the evolution of marketing, as Generative motor optimization (GEO) and the optimization of artificial intelligence.
So, should you review the definition of content marketing? Let’s explore how the concept of content marketing has changed and why the content marketing itself is just as important as to create it.
Content marketing is not only content creation
Content marketing has become a set of skills in its own right. Marketing specialists who assume that their work is done once the content has been published late.
Winning in content marketing today requires:
- Content distribution – Obtain content in front of the right audience
- Audience targeting – data use, AI and personalization to attract ideal consumers
- Reuse of content – transforming long content into format into several formats
- Performance monitoring – Measure how content stimulates real commercial results
If content is the product, content marketing is how it generates demand and stimulates action.
Order your content as a product
Previously, I suggested applying the four classic Marketing PS – Products, Price, Place and Promotion – to the content strategy. However, since then, the content and how organizations perceive it take a seat before. It forces companies to adopt a more modern approach to marketing.
This is why in my book Fund: the 4 keys to improving sales, smarter marketing and a supercharged income machineI present the PS of Lee – presence, perception, price and profitability. These factors apply as much to content marketing as to the commercial strategy. Presence and perception are main factors in the success of the content, so let’s deepen a little more in these two.
Presence in content marketing
Having content on your product or service is not enough. He must be here In conversations, social flows and communities to cultivate the desire for the product. Many large products have failed simply because the content about them was not sufficiently present in the minds of consumers to promote sales growth. Despite the need for quality content, the quantity is always important. Your content must be present.
Supporting this notion, countless products have grown up in demand and sales, sometimes even before existing. The mental and social presence of content pointing to the product is more important than the availability of the product.
In 2020, Nathan Apodaca downloaded a video on Tiktok From itself the skateboard in the street while drinking winged ocean spray juice of a large bottle. He drew the attention of other Tiktok viewers, including Jimmy Fallon, who made similar tribute videos. The video has become viral and juice sales have increased – all without promotion tactics initiated by ocean spraying.
The brands must ensure that their content (or their content on their brands and products) is present on several platforms, conversations and formats to stay in mind.
To create a content presence, you must:
- Be where your audience is: Distribute the contents on several platforms.
- Use several formats: Transform blogs into long form videos, short videos and articles.
- Take advantage of the biological and paid scope: A combination of paid ads and social sharing guarantees a maximum presence.
Perception of content marketing
The perception of a product can make it pass into viral success or cancel it immediately. The perception of the rules of behavior and content of the buyer is what motivates – or corrects – this perception. Each brand must shape, control and amplify perception before someone else does it for them.
To shape the perception of the content, you must:
- Position your content as authority and precious.
- Take advantage of influencers and social evidence to stimulate credibility.
- Use narration to create an emotional link with your audience.
Content marketing concerns what people feel when they get involved with content and it’s more than simple words or visuals.
Implementation of the successful definition of content marketing
With this overview of the amplification of your presence and your perception, let’s explain certain specific things that you can do to implement a modern definition of content marketing.
How do you create all this content?
The time to rely only on the content of the long shape has disappeared. Speed and frequency have a question. While making this high -quality article of 2000 words or a polished video, do not neglect the opportunity to reuse it in smaller content to keep your audience engaged. For example:
- A blog article can become a LinkedIn thread.
- An episode of podcast can become short video clips.
- A white paper can become a series of carousel messages on social networks.
AI tools facilitate remixing What never, but the strategy is always important. The best marketing specialists consider content as a modular asset which can be reshaped and redistributed for a maximum impact.
Coherence is the key. The content that appears often wins.
How do you start people?
If you yourself, they don’t work for content. Each content element needs a marketing strategy beyond distribution. To keep the contents alive long after its publication, successful brands use:
- SEO and Optimization led by AI To ensure that the surface content in search engines and personalized flows
- Dark socialalso known as private sharing (Slack, Whatsapp, direct messages), which plays a huge role in the visibility of the content
- Interactive contentLike polls and quizs, to conduct more commitment than static content
What about biological and remunerated promotion?
Obtaining content in front of your target audience requires a mixture of organic and Paid promotion. Successful brands allocate budgets specifically for content distribution, not just advertising campaigns.
The awareness establishment organizes unpaid ways organically, such as the optimization of search engines, the optimization of artificial intelligence, social sharing and public relations. Paid channels allow you to better target your scope using tools such as ads on LinkedIn and Facebook and influencer collaborations.
Should you increase the content?
Free content stimulates the notoriety and confidence of the brand. Closed content Must be sufficient for the recipients to be ready to exchange their contact details or to pay the information.
Instead of locking everything, many brands now use a hybrid model – offering precious free content while offering exclusive premium information behind a payment wall or a subscription.
Advance content marketing actions
Content marketing works both as a name and a verb:
- Name: A strategic marketing approach focused on the creation and distribution of precious content, relevant and consistent to attract and keep a clearly defined audience – and, ultimately, to stimulate profitable customer action
- Verb: Apply skills and marketing techniques to written, video, audio or social content to provide the greatest range, longevity and possible efficiency of this content
To succeed in content marketing, you must adopt it as a large verb. Websites and socials were only the start. Order your content on AI platforms, research and generative summaries. Recognize that your efforts must encompass all the places that your content should appear in order to create the right presence.
And do it in a way that establishes positive perceptions for your content and brand.
This is how you experience the modern definition of content marketing.
Updated from a post in July 2020.
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Joseph Kalinowski / Content Marketing Institute cover image
