Content marketing is not article marketing – it’s not writing a bunch of articles, sometimes of dubious quality, and loading them chockfull of keywords before publishing them on free sites in as many places as possible in order to build links.
If an SEO (search engine optimisation) company says they do content marketing, think again because it’s most likely just a hybrid link building strategy (the only company I know that is carrying out genuine content marketing here in New Zealand, is Resolution Media).
According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action”.
In other words, content marketing is a marketing discipline that, while using SEO keywords and phrases, seeks to build rapport, credibility and reputation with customers by adding value through content that entertains, informs or educates.
Content marketing is about “consistently creating and curating relevant and valuable content with the intention of changing or enhancing consumer behaviour. It is an ongoing process that is best integrated into your overall marketing strategy, and it focuses on owning media, not renting it” – CMI.
At Iron Road Communications, we aim to create high value content that people want to read – they take something away from it – and which is good enough to be published by third party high value websites (third party websites that are always ranked at the top of the search engine rankings).
If your ‘content marketing’ strategy is not creating a compelling brand story around your product, if it does not have a strategy to engage specifically identified buyer segments, with the aim of converting their business, then its not content marketing.
For a great example, visit the Conflict Kitchen, a take-away restaurant that themes itself on countries that the United States is in conflict with. For example, the restaurant had an Iranian theme for several months – Iranian decor & Iranian food (even the wrappers have valuable information that people can read while eating their food).
The Conflict Kitchen only serves food from countries with which the United States is in conflict: “Our Current Focus is on the Food, Culture, and Politics of Cuba”.
“Our desire is to not to simplify, but to complicate the way … people think about another country,” founder Jon Rubin told the Los Angeles Times.