Thanks for the piece – I’d like to add 3 refinements:
1. Engaging content is not just about education, its also about entertainment. Ideally a blend of both.
2. Brand journalism, branded content, storytelling and all other forms of post-advertising are most effective when they are a marriage of the consumers’ information needs with the brand’s marketing needs. If the former is missing then consumers will ignore the message – if the latter is missing, consumers will be engaged but have no recollection of the brand.
3. None of this is new, Custom Publishers have known this for decades. The more enlightened among them, ahem, are using digital channels and social media to bring this editorial approach to a channel agnostic delivery.
4. I lied. Here’s a bonus point. This approach only works if content is planned in the way that magazines plan to increase readership – map out the story/editorial platform, create an editorial calendar, make a promise to the readership and then deliver to those readers’ expectations. This is the polar opposite of the ay most agencies plan the launch of a site, or any other content play – they launch with a bang and then witness ever diminishing returns as consumers realize there’s nothing new day to day, week to week. Doh!

Thanks for your comment. I agree: the way to justify higher fees is with increased value.

SEO copy hammered/copied out in 20 mins for $4 isn’t going to enhance a business’ credibility or attract people to want a relationship with it.

However, well researched content, which helps solve a customer’s problem and engages their interest, can develop the sales process, generate more sales and attract Google’s spiders.

I think the argument for content marketing is water tight, it’s just making businesses aware of the new marketing style which is taking time.

Matt.

Great article on how marketers’ view of content is changing. As a content marketing writer, I can say this is what I’ve been doing for years. The medium may be morphing from paper to pixels, but the writing product is basically the same. It comes down to telling compelling stories, regardless of how the content is viewed.

I hope that companies will come to value writing for the online environment as much as they do the print environment. Just because there’s no paper involved doesn’t mean writing for the Web should have lower standards.

Most SEO-bait writing isn’t worth the $3-$4 an article the monkeys were paid to type it, regardless of the SEO scores.

Real brand relationships are built on real content developed by real professional writers.

Thanks for stopping by to leave a comment. I’m glad you liked the post. I certainly think we’re onto something.

Matt

Buyers have always needed information…they are now getting it in new and interesting ways. Content marketing is the philosophy and practice of doing that today.

Best
Joe Pulizzi

A copywriter can be defined as ‘a person employed to write advertising or publicity copy’. However, now that people are using the web as a fountain of knowledge for solving questions and looking up product and service information, copywriters need …