Is There Any Such Thing as a Content Marketing Platform?

The 2022 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Marketing Platforms is out (sort of). Which companies did Gartner name to that magic upper right corner for leaders? A bunch of good ones, says Content Marketing Institute’s Robert Rose. But … are they really all-in-one “content marketing platforms?” Does a “platform” for content marketing even exist? Robert explores these questions.

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Aired: March 25, 2022

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Hello everybody. Robert Rose here bringing you the news you need to lead in content marketing. And for more news and best practices – you can always go to contentmarketinginstitute.com

This week’s news item is all about content marketing platforms. You may remember we covered Optimizely’s acquisition of Welcome Software (the former NewsCred. They have created a collaborative workflow and calendaring solution and, together with Optimizely, would have a full suite of content management, collaboration, and optimization capabilities.

Well, that’s got the attention of analyst firm Gartner – as they have launched their 2022 Magic Quadrant for Content Marketing Platforms.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is a relatively famous analysis of various technology sectors that scored them in a quadrant against a spectrum of ability to execute against their vision and the completeness of that vision. The resulting quadrant ends up with Niche Players, Challengers, Visionaries, and Leaders.

2022’s version is not available on the Gartner website at press time, so we viewed the Magic Quadrant from the press release issued by the Optimizely team.

Optimizely ended up in the furthest upper right quadrant here. Congratulations to the team for being named a leader. Other solutions include Sprinklr, Skyword, Seismic, Sitecore, Contently, Upland Kapost, and Coschedule.

And if you’re thinking that sounds like a very odd list, we’d agree with you. We’re familiar with every one of these solutions. And all of them have great strengths in some areas vs. others. But putting these solutions altogether on an RFP for something to facilitate content marketing? Well, I have to say that’s a little like comparing Italian, Mexican, Greek, and Chinese food for the best breakfast. They’re all great. But breakfast? Well, yeah, as long as you’re looking for something very specific.

Our take on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Content Marketing Platforms is that it’s an analysis looking for a category. Content marketing just isn’t a specific technology category. There are innumerable technologies that content marketers need –collaborative workflow, calendaring, digital asset management, social media publishing, analytics, content creation, and on and on. Heck, Google Docs or Microsoft Word should be considered content marketing technology.

If you’re looking for a content marketing platform, take time to understand the core requirements of your team and what part of the content lifecycle you’re trying to solve. Ideation? Creation? Management? Distribution? Activation? Performance? There are great, optimal solutions for any of those – and suites to cover all of them.

Again, the solutions mentioned in the Gartner Magic Quadrant are all great potential solutions for your needs. But if you lump them all into an RFP for solving content marketing as a full-scale solution, you’re going to end up confused.

And that’s three minutes of news you need to lead in content marketing. Remember: It’s your story. Tell it well.