What exactly is content marketing? Let’s start with what it’s not. It’s not a sales pitch. It’s not advertising. And it is just barely marketing.
One person has described content marketing as the art of communicating to customers and prospects without trying to sell them something.
I think that is pretty jolly close to the mark. Rather than being the job of a salesperson, content marketing is the job of a curator. A content marketer, then, is essentially a purveyor of valuable and valued information.
Instead of hammering home the benefits of your product or service––trying to get the proverbial foot in the proverbial door––your brand weasles its way into the prospects’ hearts and minds by providing needed information to make them more intelligent. The essence of such a strategy is this: if we routinely deliver valuable content to our prospects, they will invite us in without all the knocking.
Why is content marketing important to your brand? Because the world has changed. No longer does the advertiser hold all the cards. Today, the vast expansion of the Internet and the proliferation of mobile devices have put the customer in the driver’s seat. Pre-roll commercials, banner ads and PPC are still around, but they are more intrusive and to some audiences are becoming more and more irrelevant.
Now that you know what content marketing is, below are 16 ways to create and curate valuable content.
