If you asked 100 marketers to answer the question “What is content marketing?” you would get more than 100 answers. My journey as a marketer has set me on a quest to fully understand the different flavors of content marketing and how they work together. While many marketers think content marketing is just blogging, or talk about it in terms of paid, owned and earned media, I think businesses just want to know how to use content to efficiently drive sales. When you dive deeper, you discover that there’s so much more than just ringing the register. Great content marketing is all about creating useful and meaningful experiences in a brand’s voice to attract, engage and inspire target customers through the buying cycle, from awareness to purchase to advocacy. Content can sway opinions, provide a helping hand with customer support and build relationships with people who don’t yet know you exist. There’s no need to agree with me on the definition of content marketing. We can just agree that it really works.We were fortunate to collaborate on this infographic with the folks at Content Marketing Institute. If you want to learn more visit http://placester.com/academy/

1. Iconsbyhttp://icons8.com/anddetectivedesignedbySimonChildfromtheNounProject(http://thenounproject.com/term/detective/4632/)
InfographicPresentedby:
Contentassociatedwiththeuserexpe-
rienceofawebsiteorsocialnetwork.
Adsfrom GoogleandBingthatare
relatedtousers’searchqueries.
Usekeyprinciplesofcontentmarketingtogetthebestresultsfrom
paidapproaches.
Contenttoconvertprospectsto
customers.(Contentmarketingalso
convertscustomerstoevangelists.)
Contentthatiscreatedinyour
brand’sessencewithoutdiscussing
thebrandspecifically.
Reportingonnews,trendsandmore;
framingthestoryfrom yourbrand’s
perspective.
Greatstoriesthathelpcreateemotional
connectionswithyourbrand.
Contentmarketingcanbeusedinterchangeablywithseveralothercontent
creationtechniques.
PRandcontentmarketingideallywork
handinhand,astheyarebasedonthe
sameprinciples:figuringoutwhatyour
idealaudiencewants,andtellinga
storyinawaythatisrelevanttothem.
Whereascontentmarketingisfocused
onchangingorenhancingaconsumer
behaviorthroughcontent,content
strategyinvolvesmanagingcontent
(marketing,orotherwise)asastrategic
assetacrossanorganization.
YYouneedboth.
Usecontentmarketinginconcertwithcomplementaryor
overlappingdisciplines.
Youneedaconsistentand
logicalstream ofcontent
tofeedallmarketing
automationanddemand
generationprograms.
Directyoursocialmedia
followerstoacontent
hub(e.g.,ablogor
website)toforgea
deeperrelationship.
Thereisnodownsideto
optimizingforSEO,but
focusfirstoncreating
compellingcontent
youraudiencewants.
Usecontentmarketingasafirst-linetechniquetodriveothertypesofmarketing.
Contentmarketing:Thestrategicmarketingapproachofcreating
anddistributingvaluable,relevantandconsistentcontenttoattract
andacquireaclearlydefinedaudience–withtheobjectiveofdriving
profitablecustomeraction.
Contentmarketingisnotastand-alonemarketingapproach.
Howdoesitfitinwithwhatyouaredoing?
CONTENT
MARKETING
DEMYSTIFIED