Usually, when I refer to content marketing on this site, I refer to these content channels:
- Blogging
- Social media
- Enewsletters
Other channels also exist – like offline events, online events, printed magazines and the likes. While these are also important, in general most of what is discussed here on The Authentic Storytelling Project refers to the three main digital channels. For the most part.
What’s content marketing?
Content marketing is the art and process of sharing content for a well-defined audience and helps the audience solve a problem.
Content marketing articles and blog posts share information without selling.
Here’s information that you might find helpful, engaging and at least entertaining. The goal of content marketing is to convert readers to customers. Content marketing does this by building trust and lasting relationships. This process takes time.
The funnel from consuming content to buying is a long road. But once relationships are built by sharing relevant and useful content, customers are often very loyal to a content marketer. Sometimes content marketing leads to thought leadership. Being viewed as a thought leader also helps build relationships, trust over time and ultimately longtime customer relationships.
Great content marketers can come from many educational and professional backgrounds. Former journalists are often able to transfer skills used in the news industry to the content marketing world. Sometimes content marketers are even called brand journalists. They work like journalists but actually work for the brand they are “covering.” They are working on finding stories about the brand, similar to what journalists do.
Content marketing is a term coined by the Content Marketing Institute after 2007.