{"id":18785,"date":"2017-11-16T17:01:24","date_gmt":"2017-11-16T17:01:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nobraineragency.com\/seo\/https-www-nobraineragency-co-uk-blog-content-marketing-what-is-content-marketing-part-1-the-intro\/"},"modified":"2023-12-12T13:45:06","modified_gmt":"2023-12-12T13:45:06","slug":"what-is-content-marketing-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nobraineragency.com\/content\/what-is-content-marketing-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"What is content marketing? Part 1: The Intro"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is content marketing?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The term \u2018content marketing\u2019 started being used by industry experts in the early 2000\u2019s, but its roots can actually be traced as far back as 1732 when one of America\u2019s Founding Fathers, Benjamin Franklin, started publishing regular content to promote his printing business.<\/p>\n

Fast-forward to 2017 and the term is being thrown around nearly as much as \u2018content is king\u2019 and although we\u2019ve read that more times than we care to remember, the truth is that the statement couldn\u2019t be more accurate.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re looking for an official definition of content marketing, here\u2019s how the Content Marketing Institute (CMI) describes it:<\/p>\n

\u201cContent marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience \u2014 and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em>It\u2019s all about moving away from traditional marketing methods and a relentless focus on \u2018selling\u2019 your products or services, to actually providing information that people find interesting, valuable or entertaining. We call it storytelling with purpose.<\/p>\n

Convergence and our BOSE model\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The clear boundaries that once separated the worlds of PR and marketing have blurred, and the silos that practitioners have operated in for so many years are slowly beginning to fade away.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0convergence is great news for agencies like ourselves that offer integrated services \u2013 it\u2019s actually one of the main reasons we created No Brainer in the first place \u2013 and we work with all of our clients to ensure that they\u2019re leveraging the power of the full marketing mix, including everything from PR to Facebook advertising, or blogs to white papers that can drive inbound sales or interest in organisations.
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As an industry, PR and marketing is littered with buzzwords and nonsense phrases, so it\u2019s no wonder that so many businesses are confused about how to integrate the concept of content marketing into their already full communications plan. The truth is, it needn\u2019t take up too much time or resource if it\u2019s done properly. It\u2019s also proven that effective content marketing generates as many as three times the leads that outbound marketing creates and costs 62% less (CMI: 2017),\u00a0<\/em>so if you haven\u2019t thought about it already, it really is worth taking a look!<\/p>\n

Why should my brand add content marketing to our to-do list?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The chances are you already have great stories to tell, you just might not realise it. The efforts you\u2019re already making on your website, at events or trade shows, on social media, or through advertising or PR could be put to much better use \u2013 and be much more cost effective \u2013 if they were all working together.<\/p>\n

Optimising your marketing into informing, entertaining and even shareable content is simply another way to tell your brand\u2019s story or view on something. Consumers receive thousands of different marketing messages every day and if you want to cut through the noise, you need to be providing something that really taps into their interests. It might be an infographic made using some new industry stats or research you\u2019ve gathered or just pointing your audience to read a special interview with your CEO, it\u2019s all content marketing.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the other things that great content marketing can help you do:<\/p>\n