"Content marketing still means different things to different people. To me, it's about two things: context and accountability," said Craig Coffey, manager of U.S. marketing communications for The Lincoln Electric Co.
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- With more than 2,500 people from more than 50 countries making the pilgrimage to Cleveland for Content Marketing World 2014 this week, we asked some local marketing experts to answer the burning question most often asked by those *not* going to #CMWorld: "What is Content Marketing anyway?"
View full sizePaul Roetzer, CEO of PR 20/20Here's what they had to say:
Paul Roetzer, CEO of PR 20/20, creator of The Marketing Score, and author of "The Marketing Performance Blueprint" and "The Marketing Agency Blueprint": "Content marketing is brands telling stories through multi-media content. Marketers create videos, podcasts, blog posts, apps, webinars, newsletters, infographics, magazines, and events, all with the intention of connecting with audiences in more meaningful ways."
"The new marketing imperative is to create more value, for more people, more often, so when it's time for consumers to choose a product, service, or company, they choose yours," he said via email. "When done well, brand content answers questions, inspires, and motivates audiences to take action, helping companies to stand out from the competition."
Jennifer Lehner, President of the Posner Lehner Group LLC, and founder of Shaker Heights' Flash Cashers cash mob and DanceWalkFitness: "Content marketing is quite literally, marketing with content."
"Prior to content marketing, things were fairly one dimensional: billboards, ads, and commercials simply touted a brand's attributes, and that was it. We didn't engage, we listened. As consumers, we were talked AT. Now, we expect to learn something and to be entertained. We want to participate. We want an experience.
View full sizeJennifer Lehner,President of the Posner Lehner Group LLC "The Cleveland Metroparks are a great example of how content marketing is being used well. Across all platforms, print and digital, they educate, entertain, and inform. Photos of various wildlife or plants might be taken this morning by a naturalist, and posted on Facebook asking followers to guess what it is they are looking at. The audience engages. Metroparks provides an enormous amount of information about the natural world around us here in Northeast Ohio, but they are also marketing the parks at the same time. They are providing something of value. They are giving content.
"This new way of marketing is fun for those of us in this industry, because the possibilities are limitless," Lehner added. "With increased access to inexpensive digital tools and platforms, zero-margin publishing, and apps you could have never even imagined even one year ago, it's a very exciting time to be in marketing."
View full sizeCraig Coffey, manager of U.S. marketing communications for The Lincoln Electric Co.Craig Coffey, manager of U.S. marketing communications for The Lincoln Electric Co., said: "Content marketing still means different things to different people. To me, it's about two things: context and accountability."
"Content marketing allows our customers to see the 'so what' rather than just the 'what' in the products and services we bring to market. It allows us to reach beyond our traditional, old line toolset (spec sheets, ads, catalogs, etc.) to deliver information or to start to develop a relationship with our customers in a more engaging way than we have in the past, and on their own terms.
"An example of this is our Made Possible with Lincoln Electric (www.madepossiblewith.com) effort. When we create content, in the back of our minds we are always asking, "Will this move our audience to act, and if so, what action do we want them to take?"
"It's not always about making a sale; sometimes it's about creating awareness, or establishing trust or providing information in the right way or at the right time to move them closer to a purchase. And these efforts can be measured and tracked and modified for their greatest impact.
"At Lincoln Electric, we're in the welding business, and there is a distinct shortage of folks taking on this craft as a career. Wouldn't it be great to be able to create and deliver content that could make a guy or gal that just invested in a welding machine better and more confident with it the first time they plug it in? What if, with that new confidence, they decided to make welding their career? And what if they decide to reward Lincoln Electric with career-long brand loyalty? To me, that's the value of content marketing."
View full sizeJeff Charney, CMO of Progressive Jeff Charney, chief marketing officer, Progressive: "Before getting into what Content Marketing is, let's cover what it is not. It's NOT advertising, and it's NOT about direct sales."
"It's the anti-advertising of the marketing world, giving people things they want to engage with and share with their friends. Content Marketing lets us show people who we really are - the 26,000 real faces that make Progressive work. Whether it's a video, infographic or article, Content Marketing gives us the chance to let loose and tell a story."
Kate Eidam, a portfolio lead at Akhia, an integrated marketing communications firm in Hudson, said: "Content marketing is so much more than mere words and pictures. It's an audience-focused, metrics-driven strategy that allows organizations to meet customers where they are with the right message, delivered at the right time, on the right channel."
View full sizeKate Eidam, portfolio lead at Akhia "Marketing, as a whole, is continually evolving to more of a science, where we can measure - sometimes in real-time - what topics, perspectives and stats resonate with our key audiences," she said.
"Content marketing harnesses that data and allows a company to craft videos, articles, infographics, etc. that speak directly to a customer, drastically increasing the likelihood of a meaningful, relevant and mutually beneficial interaction."
JJ DiGeronimo, president of Advancing Women in STEM, Purposeful Woman and Tech Savvy Women, and author of "The Working Woman's GPS" and "Before You Say 'Yes'": "With the overload of content (everywhere and anywhere) these days, content marketing is more about the opportunity to engage a predefined audience in the way they want to interact, which is more about pulling an audience toward you rather than some traditional marketing methods."
View full sizeJJ DiGeronimo"There are just a few key questions to ask when you are outlining a content marketing approach:
"1. What problem are you solving?
"2. Who are the solving it for (age, gender, background, experience, investments, interests)
"3. How does this type of person/audience want to receive information (white paper, blog, webinar, posts book, event)?
"4. What access points (websites, social media pages, mobile apps) can you reach them?
"5. Are there obvious partnerships you can create to access your preferred audience type/type of person?
"6. What do you want this type of person to do once they access/review your content?
"The answers to these questions often drive the content type and distribution models for your content," she said. "The goal of the content is to engage a desired audience in ways they want to be accessed with the information they desire. The results can come in many forms: from a subscription, clicking a 'like' button or completing a transaction."
"How can businesses benefit from content marketing experts? Content marketing experts can redefine revenue stream, establish synergistic partnerships, create a more interactive customer experience and even create new revenue stream for any type of business," she said.
Jeffrey K. Rohrs, vice president of marketing insights for Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud and author of "AUDIENCE: Marketing in the Age of Subscribers, Fans & Followers": "At its heart, Content Marketing is about attracting direct audiences in order to increase their brand awareness, purchase intent or loyalty. Content Marketers do this by creating content for their brands--blogs, books, events, images, magazines, mobile apps, newsletters, podcasts, research, videos, webinars, websites, white papers, etc. -- that informs or entertains consumers."
View full sizeJeffrey Rohrs, vice president of marketing insights, Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud "Content Marketing differs from advertising in that advertising relies on a third party -- for instance, a television network -- to create the content that attracts the audience. The brand then must pay the third party for distribution of a commercial message that usually lasts only seconds," he said.
"With Content Marketing, the brand creates the content that attracts the audience. The brand decides the content length, format, and commercial composition (if any). The brand may still leverage paid, third-party distribution to boost the reach of their content; however, the ultimate goal of Content Marketing is to build on-demand, direct audiences for brands -- usually through digital channels such as email, Facebook, and Twitter -- that have a much lower cost to reach than paid media audiences.
"Content Marketing really isn't new," Rohrs added. "It's just that with the instantaneous, worldwide distribution of content available today via the web and mobile devices, the opportunity to reach consumers directly has never been greater."
Content Marketing World is Sept. 8 -11 at the Cleveland Convention Center, 300 Lakeside Ave., in Cleveland. Registration costs up to $2,395, depending on when you sign up. For more information: contentmarketingworld.com or 216-941-5842.