In the dynamic world of modern marketing, content is making quite a comeback. In fact, 55 percent of marketers plan to boost their content-marketing budgets in 2013, according to a survey conducted by Ad Age late last year. Despite the numbers, traditionalists may wonder whether content’s truly worth its salt. If it’s properly planned and effectively executed, the answer is a resounding yes. Brands from Ford to Target to Procter & Gamble have already made content a core part of their marketing strategies, creating purposeful media pieces that empower their loyal customers (and bring new ones into the fold). Still, the question remains: What exactly is content, and what separates the kind that drives, enhances and inspires from the drivel?

1. WHAT IS
CONTENT?

2. WHAT IS CONTENT? IT’S...
What consumers
want to read

3. WHAT IS CONTENT? IT’S...
Read
What consumers
want to watch

4. WHAT IS CONTENT? IT’S...
Read Watch
What consumers
want to listen to

5. WHAT IS CONTENT? IT’S...
Read Watch Listen
That’s a rather simple definition
for something with a big payoff.

6. CONTENT HELPS YOU REACH BUSINESS OBJECTIVES:
To engage with
consumers in the
most impactful
way possible,

7. By allowing
consumers to
make their own
choices, on their
own time about
a business’s
products and
services.

8. Because, at the end of the day,
consumers will enjoy content,
not the hard sell.

9. In fact, 73 percent of consumers want
advertisements to do more than sell.
Advertisements should tell a unique story.*
*Adobe/Edelman Berland survey

10. Stories offer
consumers
knowledge,
not just noise.

11. STORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH
magazines.
magazines.

12. STORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH
magazines. And
video clips.

13. STORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH
magazines. And And
video clips. tweets.

14. STORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH
magazines. And And And
video clips. tweets. Facebook posts.

15. STORIES ARE TOLD THROUGH
magazines. And And And And
video clips. tweets. Facebook posts. pins.

16. Content is any story that
consumers seek out when
they want it and where
they want it.

17. Without unwanted
interruption
to their days.

18. And that’s what
traditional marketing
can’t do by itself.

19. A traditional
advertisement serves
as an interruption
to the consumer’s day.

20. YOU WANT CONSUMERS TO CRAVE YOUR CONTENT,
So build a brand
story like it’s a
two-way
conversation
between your
company and them.

21. As your brand’s
relationship with them
grows, eventually these
consumers pass your
story along to others.

22. Soon your consumers
become the media,
your brand advocates,
and then they’ll create
more content for you.

23. And that’s all because your
effective content helps
transform them from the
uninformed to the informed.

24. Content allows consumers
to become better people,
not just better customers.

25. IT MOVES PEOPLE TO
Flaunt the right
fashion for a job
interview,

26. IT MOVES PEOPLE TO
Master the tools
of the kitchen to
become a top chef,

27. IT MOVES PEOPLE TO
It moves people to
Flourish in
retirement,
and more.

28. IT MOVES PEOPLE TO
It moves people to
It makes your business
the thought leader, the
expert, the hero.

29. That’s content, and it’s
fueling modern brands.

30. www.imaginepub.com