What actually is Content Marketing?
“The use of words and imagery to attract, engage and ‘connect’ with your target audience”
Content Marketing is something that businesses have done for over 100 years, but we have maybe not been as aware of it in the past as we are today.
Back in 1900 tyre company Michelin, produced their guide for road-going travellers, showing them the best places to stay or eat.
It was not selling tyres, but the ‘guide’ as it was known, provided great information for customers and in turn, it encouraged road travel.
It added real value for customers and kept the profile of the brand at the top of the sector – and as you know, the Michelin brand still sits there today!
We have always needed to communicate in business and we have, over the years, created different forms of content. Whether this was a TV Commercial, a billboard or an advert for yellow pages, we had something to say or show to our customers and we always found a way to do it.
In those days we tended to push our message at the consumer, using what we nowadays refer to as ‘interruption marketing’ – effectively we were squeezing our messages into the consumers’ living schedule.
Whether they were reading a magazine, listening to the radio or watching TV, we briefly interrupted their enjoyment with either a ‘Commercial break’ or an advertising page.
Inbound Marketing
Nowadays, we are in a different world, where the customer has control of so much of his life, and can choose the messages that he or she, wishes to see or hear, and they will cut out what they don’t wish to receive.
We refer to this as ‘Inbound marketing’.
IF EVERYONE ELSE IS TRYING TO ‘ATTRACT’ YOUR CUSTOMERS, YOU HAVE TO STAND OUT.
David Lomas
