Content marketing is one of today's hot marketing topics – particularly in B2B. It's been fuelled by the perception that traditional push marketing doesn't work in a social media driven world – it's too shallow, too manipulative, too inauthentic.
While this view is almost certainly overstated (plenty of push marketing campaigns are still generating healthy responses) it has a point. There is a widespread desire on the part of customers for more human, less spun communications that add value to their decisions rather than muddying the waters.
The answer for many marketers is content. While it is being touted as the bright shiny new thing, there is of course nothing really new about content itself (white papers, for example, have been around for as long as the technologies they talk about). The new news is really in the shifting of content to the core of B2B marketing strategy and the explosion of distribution channels.
The key to developing an effective content marketing strategy is, as with all marketing, relevance. More than ever you need to step into your customers' shoes. What are they struggling with? What do they need to know? How can you help them? (Note: help not sell.)
On top of this, why would your customers send your content on to their colleagues and friends? What value are you adding? This brings me on to...
Going back to the white paper, there is a danger that content is viewed as the Switzerland of marketing – neutral, disengaged, passive. The reality is quite different. While content does not assume the overt sales role of advertising or direct marketing, it should be anything but passive. Good content is a conversation. It engages the audience. It is part of a process (not simply the end of one).
It is critically important to take the long view of your content marketing programme – how does one piece of content lead to another? How and where are you inviting customer participation? What tools are you building in to help customers achieve their aims (and which will give your content a viral aspect)?
As I mentioned above, there are now a wider variety of ways to deliver content. So when creating your content, don't simply stop at the usual suspects (eg variations on a PDF document). Not everyone wants to read off screen.
So in addition to ebooks, create variations of the content as a podcast, presentation, video, an editable wiki, blog post, dead tree book, a newsletter, a webinar, an application or widget – and that's just for starters. Of course, you don't have to do the lot but by widening out the media you use you will widen the reach and increase the effectiveness of search.
There are so many distribution options for content it's staggering. For PDF-like material (docs and presentations) – check out Slideshare, Scribd, HubPages, Authorstream and Slideboom. For video there is, of course, YouTube (where you can create a branded channel quickly and easily) but also Vimeo, Dailymotion and a bunch of others. For podcasting, there are iTunes, Podcast Alley and many more. And for community there are LinkedIn, Biznik, Facebook or, if you want to create your own, Ning.
Then there's promotion which can cover everything from traditional media through to rich online media housing your content and on to Twitter, blogs, RSS, Delicious, Digg, StumbleUpon – the list goes on and on.
The trick, once again, is to take a holistic view of your entire programme. Although, importantly, to also relinquish control allowing your audiences to share and distribute your content too.
Well yes and no. Thought leadership is a legitimate and laudable aim of a content marketing programme. But it is not the only aim. The end result of pretty much any content marketing programme should be the perception that you are the go-to people to talk to. However, pure play thought leadership is not the only game in town.
If we have all learned anything in the last couple of years, it's that community matters. Consumer generated content has already gained adoption in B2C. And B2B itself has a long history of round tables and testimonial case studies. What this means is that it is not always necessary to be the thought leader as long as you know the people who are and can get access to their heads and opinions.
There are numerous approaches you can take to begin developing a content marketing programme. Here are 5 to get you going:
There are of course many, many other options.
I'll leave you with a final round up: