Content marketing has been around for aeons. And as a copywriter, it's revival has kept a roof over my head. However, it's blurred lines and not always the answer.
Brands love content marketing. They can hire a copywriter for tuppance threpenny to write lots of articles to fill SEO holes and this will generate lots of traffic and therefore, conversion. Right?
No. While it might be the cheapest form of marketing, it's not really about marketing.
Content should always be about customer experience.
It exists to add value to a customer or potential customer's interaction with you, so they'll think you're great. It makes them feel warm and fuzzy, so when the time comes for them to buy whatever you're selling, they'll think of you.
I always talk about building awareness, optimising experience, enforcing the brand and educating. A bit Reith's mantra for the BBC; inform, educate, entertain.
At no point should copywriters produce articles or content that's sole objective is to sell.
Just like writing anything, bullying people in buying with aggressive sales messages has fallen out of vogue.
Marketers are still to coming to terms with this shift in consumer behaviour - it's more about benefits, lifestyle and emotion than features, price and function.
Even though the word marketing is appended onto the word content (which is about customer experience in terms of creative), it's about customer experience in terms of publishing, with a marketing halo effect.
