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.
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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- Want Customer Loyalty? Create Customer Wins With Content
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