Fed Up with "Content Marketing"

Is content marketing really new?

Everyday there are at least a handful of articles talking about how you have to be involved with content marketing. And everyday I look at those headlines and think, why do people think this is news? Seriously, if you've been involved in internet marketing at all in the last decade you would know that this is nothing new at all. In fact, if you are an internet marketing professional, you should have been practicing "content marketing" all along. It's the backbone to all other online marketing efforts.  Whatever you are trying to accomplish online it should begin with the content.

Example: You want to set up a lead generation campaign.  You need to have something that people want in an easy to access format that will be worth a prospect giving you an email address.  What do you do? You develop content in the form of a white paper.

Example: You want to send out a newsletter that includes the blurb of an expert article on your website. That expert article is content you've got to develop to give value to the newsletter.

Example: You're running a social media campaign that needs to bring traffic to the website.  You can't just keep sending the same old content over the social channels so you develop new content on the website to give a new life to the website and an new reason for return visits.

These examples don't even touch the content you've probably developed over the years to address key questions about your products / services - you know those articles about how to choose, how to use, what to choose, and etc.

Developing unique, quality content isn't a new marketing scheme.  You should have been developing content all along to help promote the website through all of the many online marketing channels. Good content isn't a strategy itself, it's the backbone to every online marketing strategy.

So the next time you see a groundbreaking article about content marketing you can skip the hype and use the time to learn about the last Panda update.

Questions? Comments? I invite your feedback :)