A Brief Introduction to Content Marketing

We British are more than used to being criticised for our food. We are sneered at by the French; scoffed at by the Germans, and made to salivate every time we walk into our local Indian restaurant. Therefore, it is somewhat galling that we insist on judging the quality of our finest restaurants by a French yardstick: the award of Michelin Stars. I have no doubt that you have heard of the Michelin Guide, which was first published in 1900. What you may not be aware of is that this publication is an early example of what today we refer to as content marketing.  

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is all about communicating with your existing and prospective customers, producing material that provides them with interesting, valuable and relevant information. The aim is to educate customers and thereby build customer loyalty. That was the aim behind the first Michelin guide. In the days when the Michelin Guide found its first readers, the term “content marketing” had not been coined. That phrase, it is suggested by some, dates from a meeting of the American Society of Newspaper Editors in 1996. 

Good content marketing does not have the express aim of directly selling goods or services. What elevates good content from the crud and dross that is often passed off as content are the qualities of interest, value and relevance.  

Content Is King

Content always was king, at any rate good content always was, and always will be king. And for that reason it is the customer who rules. Content, however, is not just text, it is also images. We live in visual age, and we have been living in it long before social media platforms like YouTube and Pinterest. Commercial television and cinema have provided outlets for marketers’ and advertisers’ creativity for decades. 

Marketing thought leaders have been telling us for some time that a content marketing strategy is not something that should be happening in isolation from social media marketing. Content marketing permeates everything that a company does. If your social media marketing strategy is not leading to your customers being provided with interesting, valuable and relevant information, then something is wrong. 

A poor or non-existent content management strategy is not going to help you gain traffic to your website. Social media marketing is the process of getting web traffic through the use of social media platforms. It will be an uphill struggle to do this without good quality content. 

It is hardly surprising that some of the largest corporations have taken on board this thinking. Multi-National Corporations have become increasingly aware of the importance of having an integrated content marketing approach. It is not uncommon to see senior marketing roles in companies with such titles as Content Marketing Director, Chief Content Marketing Officer and Content Marketing Strategy Officer. 

When you think about it, a content marketing strategy is a perfectly rational approach to take; if for no other reason than different social media platforms require different types of quality content. Visitors to different sites will look for different things, and what works well on one site may work less well on another.  

Some things never change. The Michelin Guide’s publishers knew precisely what they wanted to achieve. Today we should say that they had put together a pretty decent content marketing strategy. They knew that drivers wanted valuable and relevant information. Once in possession of this information drivers would talk amongst themselves. The Michelin Guide would be seen as an authoritative text written by experts. This would encourage customer loyalty. In a sentence or two; that just about sums up content marketing.

 

Garry Costain is the Managing Director of Caremark Thanet, a domiciliary care provider with offices in Margate, Kent. Caremark Thanet provides home care services throughout the Isle of Thanet. Garry can be contacted on 01843 235910 or email garry.costain@caremark.co.uk. You can also visit Caremark Thanet's website at www.caremark.co.uk/thanet.