Picked up this blog post from Bitemark on what content really is. It’s a good point and one where we need to have more discussion. We know the web is “all about content”. But when we say content, what do we really mean?
The post boils content down into two words – useful information. Then goes on to say that content is as simple as:
- “A relevant picture
- A useful or entertaining video
- An informative well-written web page
- A blog
- A flash product demonstration
- An intelligent product description
- A customer review.”
In content marketing, we go a bit farther, with reason. This post on the Five Pillars of Content Marketing goes into some detail on this, but the basics of creating great content from a marketing perspective includes the following:
- Useful and relevant content. It must tell a story.
- The marketer has a purpose for telling it…there are marketing objectives driving the content.
- The content seeks a behavior change, modification, or maintenance of a behavior. This is extremely important. Before you create your content marketing initiative, be sure you know what you want the reader to do.
- Can be created through any channel (print, web, in-person).
- Must be targeted. This means a mass marketing message doesn’t cut it. Before the content is created, the marketer must have a clear idea of who the buyer is.
Here is a very rough chart of what we are talking about from a visual perspective.
Measurement is the ultimate key to content marketing success. If it’s useful, targeted, seeks a behavior and has a marketing purpose behind it, it should realistically be measurable.
Just by taking these simple steps can take your content programs to the next level. I have seen so many where at least one of these are left out of the equation. Even missing one will make your ultimate measurement a struggle.
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One Comment
“Content is king.”
It sounds good in principle. Produce a truly great piece of content, and you’ll get all the links you could ever hope for.
Maybe it worked too, several years ago. The Web used to be a fairly quiet place compared to what it is now, and it was easier for people to notice great blog posts.
But not anymore.
Now great is no longer good enough. The Web is full of so much remarkable content that bloggers don’t have enough time to read it all, much less link to it.
If you want links now, you need to be more than great. You need to be connected.
http://arthur-internetmarketing-guide.blogspot.com/2009/12/is-content-really-king.html#more