Member-only story
What is Content Marketing?
The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines content marketing as
… a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.
Simply put, content marketing is attracting customers with content written with them in mind, with the goal of solving specific problems.
Content marketing isn’t advertising; it’s customer service. You serve your customer by providing content that makes their lives easier.
Anyone who spends time in the kitchen or is responsible for family meals appreciates good recipes. Whole Foods knows this, and features a recipe blog. Rather than just saying, come buy groceries here, they provide a recipe that makes the customer want to shop with them.
If it seems overwhelming, remember it doesn’t all have to be original content. You can serve your customers with content curation as well. Most marketers use a combination of curated and original content. Find articles or posts by others that benefit your readers and share them on social media, or write a short paragraphs explaining why you think the post is worth reading on your own site, then link to the source for the rest.
