The Five Pillars of Content Marketing - The Ultimate Definition

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I probably define what content marketing is at least twice a day. Try telling your parents that you are a content marketer - very challenging indeed. Even worse, try talking to your neighbor. Most of my friends have given up (and that's okay).

One major challenge is that there are so many different words and phrases used when discussing the same thing. Okay, here goes...

Content marketing, custom publishing, custom media, customer media, customer publishing, member media, private media, branded content, corporate media, corporate publishing, corporate journalism and branded media.

There's probably more...but those are the biggies.

Another point of confusion is that people (and marketers) in general have so many different perceptions of what marketing is and should be. So, when you say marketing, they are already a bit confused. Add content marketing and you've lost them.

We at Junta42 are backing content marketing as the preferred term. Why? We believe that term resonates the most with marketers two reasons:

1) Content marketing has marketing in the term. Marketing, according to dictionary.com, is "the act of buying or selling in a market." We believe that any term has to involve the process of a sale.

2) Content. The creation of great, story-form content (through any channel) is what ultimately influences someone to buy your product or generates a wanted behavior.

OK, before I take a shot at the Ultimate Content Marketing Definition, here is an excerpt of the definition of custom media (publishing) on Wikipedia:

"Custom media is a marketing term referring broadly to the development, production and delivery of media (print, digital, audio, video, events) designed to strengthen the relationship between the sponsor of the medium and the medium's audience. ...Custom media is different from traditional media in very subtle, yet significant ways: Typically, custom media is sponsored by a single marketer (a company, association or institution) and is designed to reach a tightly focused audience of customers, members, alumni or other constituency."

Had enough yet...here is the formal definition of custom publishing from the Custom Publishing Council:

"Custom publishing marries the marketing ambitions of a company with the information needs of its target audience. This occurs through the delivery of editorial content – via print, Internet, and other media – so intrinsically valuable that it moves the recipient’s behavior in a desired direction."

Both excellent definitions...but can we do better with content marketing? Since sentence definitions don't do it for me (and frankly, most men), here is a different spin on how to define content marketing:

Content Marketing is:

• Editorial-based (or long-form) content. It must tell a relevant, valuable story. Must be informative, educational or entertaining.
• Marketing-backed. The content has underlying marketing and sales objectives that a corporation, association or institution is trying to accomplish.
• Behavior-driven. Seeks out to maintain or alter the recipient's behavior.
• Multi-platform (print, digital, audio, video, events). It can be, does not have to be, integrated.
• Targeted toward a specific audience. If you can't name the audience, it's not content marketing.

Yes, somewhat the same, but hopefully more concise. We leave out the creation and production of the content from the definition. We feel that's too obvious (yes, it has to be created).

This definition is very close to the CPC one. We added associations and institutions, since some people may not associate them with the word 'company.'

But overall, I believe the key is that there are five main components (or phrases) that make content marketing what it is: editorial-based, marketing-backed, behavior-driven, multi-platform and targeted.

And we dub thee the "Five Pillars of Content Marketing."  May you live long and prosper.

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Comments

[Mike Horgan]

Joe,
Good post. Not that you need a sixth pillar, but I would also add "educational." The content must be informative and provide something of value or the audience will ignore it.

[Joe Pulizzi]

Good point...I think we can add that under the editorial pillar. I'm not sure marketers could take "another pillar." Thanks!

[Andy Panjaitan]

Good article Joe..
I was wondering whether we can put Content Marketing under the umbrella of the Integrated Marketing Communication efforts done by the companies or not..
I guess we can talk more about this tomorrow then..
Keep up the good work!
Best,
Andy Panjaitan