The words we use to talk about digital/internet/online marketing are changing as rapidly as Google are updating their algorithm. The term link building was booted out a while ago and more recently content outreach seems to have been replaced with my favourite of all, no, not inbound marketing, but content marketing. Yes, content marketing is all over the place, not that it’s necessarily a new term, but it seems to be positively and magnetically charged at the moment. Needless to say, I’m pretty happy about this. Here’s why you should be too.
Crucially Creative
Getting back to what great marketing has always been about, content marketing is driven by the rarest of all modern currencies – ideas. Now, let’s face it, not all content marketing portrays the brightest of lateral thinking, but that is part its charm. Competing in a consumer society, ironically, can’t be done with disposable content. This is because content marketing, at its best, has nothing to do with quantity, mass production or churn. Instead, it’s about getting the most mileage possible from great ideas. Creative ideas.
A Level Playing Field
If great content marketing is about ideas and not quantity, then it becomes easier to compete with competitors with bigger budgets. A solid idea that supports a brand’s ethos and ‘speaks’ to its audience can and will go viral regardless of how much money is spent.
It’s Everything and Anything
Content marketing is designed for people, not just search engines. This opens up a world of inspirational design, invigorating copy and contagious video. Everything and anything that you can make for your audience, your clients, your competitors, can be used to revitalise your marketing strategy. Content marketing is not just about producing content that ranks highly in the SERPs, it’s not just about producing content that can be shared on social media, it’s about offering value, building your brand, PR, links – whether it’s promotional, informative or entertaining. And of course, it can also be and do all of the above.
It’s Right
Please don’t go crazy about me saying this, but I really do believe that content marketing is the most honest way to promote online businesses and build brands in the digital realm. There are no short cuts. If it’s bad, it will get tossed aside, but if it works, if it really rocks someone’s world, then they will share it and it will rank. And although quantity is not the aim of the game, you can never have enough of a good thing.
In short
Content marketing gives us back the one thing us digital marketers so desperately crave: control of our own destiny. To be free of the rules that are decided by Google hobnobs. Sure, content marketing still involves search engines, but if we can get back to what matters most, which in my mind is that people (not robots) recommend our brands, then we are no longer reliant on forces outside of our control. Content marketing is freedom.
This article is ideal for anyone interested in content marketing, keyword reach and brand promotion.
Posted in Content Marketing | Tags: content marketing
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For a content marketing article, this is ridiculously thin and has very little substance. I could have written this in ten minutes.
Agreed – even a few links to examples of great content marketing would have been welcome.
[...] zich vaak af waarom zij hier tijd in zouden investeren. Ben Holbrook legt in dit artikel uit dat de waarde van content marketing veel meer is dan hoge [...]
[...] “Content marketing gives us back the one thing us digital marketers so desperately crave: control of our own destiny.” – Ben Holbrook, State of Search [...]