Joe Pulizzi's Blog | The Content Marketing Revolution

The History of Content Marketing [Infographic] – Corporate Storytelling is Not New

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 22, 2012

Brands have been telling stories to attract and retain customers for hundreds of years. The difference today is that the barriers to entry (content acceptance, talent and technology) no longer exist for brands to get into the publishing arena.

From John Deere to Coca-Cola, the power of story has never been stronger, or more important for brands and its customers.

This History of Content Marketing infographic is based on the Content Marketing World Timeline Video from the Content Marketing Institute. Special thanks to CMI’s creative director Joseph Kalinowski for making this happen. Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing | Tagged coca-cola, content marketing history, content marketing world, history, history of content marketing, john deere | Leave a comment

The Future of Content Marketing – 6 Differences Between Good and Great [Part 2]

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 16, 2012

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In part one of this series – The History of Content Marketing – we covered how the barriers to entry for brands becoming media companies have fallen, and now the differences are all but gone.

But don’t start the party just yet.

In a recent study from the Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs, although 90% of all companies employ some form of content marketing, the majority are still struggling with creating content that truly engages their customers and delivers results for the company.

Good to Great Content Marketing

So, what separates the good from the great when it comes to content marketing? Well, that’s not an easy question to answer. That said, through all the research (both quantitative and qualitative), we’ve found six differences that are separating good to great content marketers. Read More »

Posted in Case Studies, Content Marketing, Content Strategy | Tagged Case Studies, content marketing examples, great content marketing | 8 Comments

The History of Content Marketing – How Brands Have Become Storytellers [Part 1]

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 14, 2012

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The Furrow Magazine from John Deere – 1931

Content marketing is not easy.

Over the past twelve months, we’ve been noticing a few differences in what separates those organizations who excel at content marketing and those organizations that are just staying in the game.

The overview below (part 1) is from a presentation I gave at Online Marketing Summit 2012. Big shout out to the folks at TopRank for doing an amazing summary of this presentation.

History of Content Marketing

Content marketing is not new. It has been around for hundreds of years. Credit is often given to John Deere’s The Furrow magazine as being the first example of corporate storytelling. John Deere leveraged The Furrow, not to sell John Deere equipment, but to educate farmers on new technology and how they could be more successful business owners (thus, content marketing). Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing, Content Strategy | Tagged coca-cola, content 2020, Content Marketing, history of content marketing, john deere, the furrow | 2 Comments

Content Marketing Tactics Now Critical to All Businesses [INFOGRAPHIC]

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 10, 2012

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I bumped into my good friend Chris Baggott from Compendium yesterday at the Online Marketing Summit. Every conference we run into each other at, Chris pulls me aside and says, “Joe, here we are at this INSERT NAME conference and a content marketing conference has broken out”.

The point? Everyone is talking content marketing these days. The practice and integration of the creation and distribution of valuable, compelling and relevant content to attract and retain customers has never been more critical for brands of all sizes (see this Coca-Cola content marketing example if you want some proof).

It didn’t used to be the case. Even though I’ve been trying to get corporate marketers to use the term “content marketing” since 2001, only recently has it caught on (see this Google Trends chart below. If content marketing were a stock, we’d be living the high life.) Read More »

Posted in Branded Content, Content Marketing, Fun Stuff, Social Media | Tagged b2b content marketing, blueglass interactive, Content Marketing, infographic | 4 Comments

What Can a Super Bowl Ad Buy You in Content Marketing?

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 6, 2012

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So, another Super Bowl gone. For those who advertised during the Super Bowl, the average cost of a Super Bowl ad this year was $3.5 million to promote their brand in front of 111 million viewers.

For those counting, that’s $116,000 per second.

Back in 2008 I looked at how much content marketing you could buy for the price of a Super Bowl ad. Four years ago, the price for a 30-second-spot was $2.7 million (folks, in this market, the economy is working just fine). That bought you A LOT of content. Today, you can buy even more. Here are a few examples. Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing | Tagged advertising, Content Marketing, super bowl | 8 Comments

Lethal Generosity: The Key To Your Online Content Strategy

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 3, 2012

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The concept of Lethal Generosity was first coined by social media pioneer Shel Israel in 2008. Simply put:

Lethal Generosity is the concept that the most generous members of any social media company are the most credible and influential and as such, they can devastate their competition in the marketplace.

In short, the company whose representative posts the most tips, links, advice, case studies, best practices that followers find useful will always [rise] to the top, not just in influence but also in search results. The more outbound links you post, the more inbound links you are likely to receive.

Although Mr. Israel focuses this point in a social media context, the application of this idea is much broader. Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Social Media | Tagged lethal generosity | 2 Comments

47 Essential Social Media Tools for Content Marketers

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: February 1, 2012

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It’s hard to believe the sheer number of social media tools we use everyday to help grow the Content Marketing Institute and SocialTract, as well as my own personal brand. Since there are so many, I decided to update this post from almost three years ago. It’s amazing the number of social media and content marketing tools that I continue to use, as well as the many that died over the years from lack of use.

Which ones am I missing that you cannot live without? [disclaimer: many of the tools below are CMI partner tools] Read More »

Posted in Social Media | Tagged social media, social media tools | 14 Comments

McDonald’s Social Media Goes Wrong? Not a Chance

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: January 27, 2012

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You’d have to be living in a cave not to be aware of the now historic McDonald’s Twitter campaign launched a few days ago. If you’ve been out of it for a while, here’s the CliffsNotes version:

McDonald’s promoted a Tweet using the Twitter hashtag #McDStories that went like this: ‘When u make something w/pride, people can taste it,’ – McD potato supplier #McDStories http://t.co/HaPM5G9F‘ (source). The link is a video of McDonald’s potato supplier Frank Martinez and includes a heartwarming story about his life as a potato farmer.

Shortly thereafter, consumers from around the world ‘hijacked’ the #McDStories hashtag with, to say the least, some horrible tweets about McDonald’s food quality and overall experience. You can read the most notorious ones here at the Daily Mail and here at Business Insider. Read More »

Posted in Case Studies, Social Media | Tagged McDonald's, social media, social media examples | 12 Comments

Tablet Content Marketing: Crazy Stats and Time to Move

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: January 25, 2012

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If you are not up on the latest statistics on the tablet, here are some to chew on:

Apple reported first quarter earnings, selling over 15 million iPads during the quarter. This is a 111% increase from the previous quarter.
In just under two years, Apple has now sold over 55 million units.
According to Pew Internet’s latest findings, the share of Americans who own a tablet computer nearly doubled from December 2011 to January 2012. The number of Americans now owning at least one tablet device is now at 29%. Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing, Content Strategy, Social Media | Tagged iPad, Kindle, statistics, tablet content marketing, tablets | 7 Comments

2 Examples of How Non-Profit Content Marketing Should Work [and grab a tissue]

By Joe Pulizzi | Published: January 19, 2012

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Joshua with his LEGO bricks at age Six

As many of you regular readers know, my oldest son Joshua was diagnosed with autism at two years of age (Joshua is now 10). At the age of three, he could barely speak. Today, Joshua would be considered “high-functioning” autistic, which means that, if you don’t look closely, you may not notice he actually is a child with autism. To be honest, Joshua is one of those amazing gifts in life that just keeps giving. We are so blessed to have him in our lives.

[NOTE: To give just a bit back to all those who've helped Joshua along the way, we organize a charity golf event every year, where the proceeds, now in excess of $75,000 in five years, go to the Easter Seals Northern Ohio (ESNO) earmarked for speech therapy. For full disclosure, I serve on the board of ESNO.] Read More »

Posted in Content Marketing, Social Media | Tagged Content Marketing, non-profits | 4 Comments