What is Content Marketing

After the amazing success of Content Marketing World last week, with over 600 people in attendance, I wonder if some marketers are heading back to their desks full of new ideas and energized to take their content marketing programs to a whole new level...but are still stymied by the content creation itself.

As a freelance copywriter, I have run into this situation with clients years before content marketing ever became a term, let alone a mainstream one. It would usually come up in conversation when I was encouraging clients to consider using e-newsletters for marketing. "But what would we write about?" I was repeatedly asked.

Then when blogging as marketing tools became an effective SEO strategy (remember, this is before we were talking about content marketing), I was repeatedly asked the same question: "But what would we write about?" 

Marketers had an easy time figuring out what they would say in a brochure or on a website. No problem creating content for those marketing pieces! Those would be produced once then maybe modified later. With the e-newsletters and blogging, I was suggesting they commit to creating content--new content, mind you--over and over and over again. Even when they knew they could use We Know Words to supply the copywriting and content, they would be fearful of running out of ideas, and fearful of their own in-house ability to write.

Well, the obvious answer to the first fear is to outsource content creation. :-) 

But the answer to the second fear is just as easy. And this is when I'm going to tell you how to make content creation a piece of cake. Seriously. In fact, it will be easier than baking a cake. Ready? 

Tell stories.

That is it. That is all I am suggesting you do. Tell stories.

When you go to a cocktail party, a networking event or a family gathering, people talk, right? And a lot of times, that talking is story telling. Stories about pets or kids or bosses or clients or vacations of the mechanic who tried to cheat you or the hairdresser who got your color just right...stories, stories, stories.

Do you have to sit around tapping your pencil on your desktop struggling to determine what you'll talk about when you get to that party, event or gathering? Of course not! You're just talking and telling stories and entertaining.

So tackle your content marketing the same way. It's a creative content marketing approach that will require only the effort of typing and spell checking. Tell a story about a new client, an old client, a favorite client, a troublesome client (and maybe make that one anonymous). Talk about how your business started or why. Tell a story about an employee or a company tradition or picnic. Talk about the industry, maybe how it used to be or what you see now.

If you were talking to me right now at a networking event, both of us holding a glass of wine and getting to know each other's businesses, what would we talk about? What stories would you tell me, the freelance copywriter, about your business so I'd know it better? 

Write those stories down. Don't worry about anything else except the story. Now spell check them. Now put them in blog posts and/or newsletter articles. Plug in your keywords as needed. Then publish these stories and share them via your social networks.

Now do it again. You, me, glasses of wine, you're talking and telling me stories...

There. Content creation without the agony, without wondering what you'll talk about.

Finessing your content marketing strategy can come later. For now, I only suggest you get the content creation part down.

Does it sound too simple? It's easier than baking a cake! 

I appreciate that this article is encouraging us to repurpose content, I really do. It's something I push as a freelance copywriter and content consultant. I encourage our copywriting and content marketing clients to think in terms of rite once, use in multiple places. I'm also a huge proponent of sharing content across media, like blogging on your email newsletter or using testimonials posted to your Facebook wall as blog content. The possibilities for repurposing content are endless.

However, our goal must always be the same: Be customer centric. Whether you're hiring a ghost blogger or a content marketing group, make sure your content is customer centric. It has to be about them, not you. Talk to your customers, not at them. 

That's why I take issue with this MarketingProfs.com article on using social chatter in email. The author is saying repurpose what people say about you in social networks by making it your email marketing content. I'm fine with repurposing the content! Go for it!

However, I have a problem with the reason for doing so and the approach the author recommends. His reason for using social chatter as email marketing content is simply to show your audience that you have a social presence. As a consumer, not copywriter, I say, "So what?" And the approach he recommends? Just stick it to them. OK, not in those words. But he's only saying to include it in your email marketing. I say, give it some context and, more importantly, vet it. Don't stick every Yelp or Facebook comment into an email willy nilly, and I don't mean use only the nice comments. Only use content that's relevant, useful and/or engaging. Only use customer-centric content.

If republishing that content into your email marketing isn't in some way helpful to your email recipients, don't do it. People already get far too much email and they're easily turned off by email marketing that's self serving. 

Repurpose yes, but make sure you're delivering content, not clutter. 

I have a love/hate relationship with the long drive to Seattle. When I make the trek for meetings, I dread the length of the drive. That's the hate. On the other hand, it's a chance to see all kinds of do's and don'ts in action all within a two-hour time span.

During this week's drive, I witnessed a great contrast that illustrates the importance of talking to, not at, your customer. It doesn't matter if you're a freelance copywriter or you're providing content marketing services. If you're in the business of words, your words must be customer-centric. 

Driving north in the morning, I passed an electrician's van branded with Mister Sparky, America's On-Time Electrician. The tagline below the logo guaranteed they'd be on time. This is brilliant.

Talk to anyone about their frustrations with service providers like electricians, plumbers, the cable guy and others, and you'll hear the same thing: You have to wait. And wait. You're given a window of 4 to 8 hours and you have to stay home and wait for that person to show up to make the necessary repair. That's a pain point, one this electrician services company is addressing with the company name and tagline. They are addressing it and talking to the customer. Their company name says, "Hey, we know you don't want to sit around and wait. So we're going to be the electrician you don't have to wait for." Kudos!! 

On the way south that afternoon, I saw a billboard advertising a home builder. Their slogan was "the fastest growing home builder." I thought long and hard while driving and couldn't come up with a single pain point around that. Who wants to know their home builder is the fastest growing? Do people sit around wishing they could find the fastest growing home builder, really? For me, that's not only talking at me, not to me, as a potential customer, but it's a little scary too. If you're so focused on growth, I wonder, what are you sacrificing in quality? 

This home builder must have some idea of their customers' pain points, wishes and concerns. Maybe it's quality. Or price. Maybe it's a certain style of home, or a certain size or layout. But the fastest growing builder? I doubt it. Maybe they are so busy building, they're not listening to their customers!

The electrician is talking to customers. They are talking about the customer's concerns. 

The home builder is talking at customers. They are talking about themselves. 

One is doing words right. The other is doing words wrong. 

When we're in the business of words, we must be customer-centric. Content marketing is nothing if it's not engaging and customer-centric. Then it's only empty words, a bunch of filler on a page or a screen. People might claim there's a difference between what a copywriter does and what content marketing services provide. I disagree. The only difference is in the types of content produced. Both have to be focused on the customer's concerns. Both have to be engaging and meaningful. I don't care if you're writing an ad (copywriting) or a whitepaper (content marketing). Your content lives and dies by your choice of words. 

Make yours about the customer and your words will work. 

This morning I moderated a panel on SEO and organic search at the eMarketing conference in San Francisco. Content was the over-riding theme of our SEO panel. Which is music to my copywriter and content marketing services ears, right? 

There was plenty of talk about Panda too, again, getting us to look at content. Here's the thing about content and content marketing: You can create all kinds of content, but it must be good content. As the panelists said, the content must educate, entertain and enlighten (the three Es). 

After the panel, I checked my email and read the following (with specific company names removed to protect the sender).


I smiled when I read this because of all the discussion about Panda that happened during the panel. Here's my reply to him:


Honestly, $150 per month spent on good content is going to do this small business more good than all the free repurposed content he's going to grab from other places. Because it's not just having the content. It's about having good content. Period.

Does your business have a sales or a marketing mentality?

I’m asking because it’s heavy on my mind and, although I think I sensed there was a difference, it wasn’t until this week that I realized how different the two mentalities are. And don't think I'm going to say the sales one is better. I'm not.

This thinking was prompted by an eye-opening conversation with the marketing person for a company I’ve worked for in the past. I was their website copywriter for a much-needed website revamp. I was happy with what we accomplished, and I expected more online marketing to follow suit after this initial project. 

But none did.

I kind of pushed them with occasional emails hinting at and asking about potential online content marketing they could be doing. Now when I say “pushed,” that’s a relative term. I’m not a pushy person. :-) So my suggestions to them were likely easy to ignore.

After leading a highly successful panel on content marketing at a Seattle marketing conference, I thought enough is enough. It’s time to get these folks doing some online content marketing. “It’s a perfect fit for them,” I thought. “Surely they’ll see the need for this and the ease of it.” 

Alas, I had overlooked one critical factor, one that hadn’t even occurred to me before. This company has a sales mentality, not a marketing mentality. You might be asking, “So what? I mean, the point is sales, right? So what’s wrong with a sales mentality?”

It leaves out an entire potential market.

Here’s what it looks like: A company with a sales mentality has a sales staff, not a marketing staff. They zero in on certain companies and individuals. They wear blinders as they work to get the attention of these highly desirable prospects…who aren’t really prospects, meaning they haven’t expressed any interest. At all. A company with a sales mentality invests all their time, effort and therefore financial resources into the manual labor of pursuing these elite businesses they want to woo and convert to customers.

Here’s why this is a problem: While the company with the sales mentality has a laser focus on say the 100 ideal customers they’d love to win, another 100, nay 1,000, potential customers are actively seeking a solution to a problem…a problem this company could solve. But they don’t find out about this company. They use a search engine and get a page of results and this company isn’t one of them. So they spend their money with someone else, one of the someone elses that did show up in the search results.

And the company with the marketing mentality? They are making themselves known to everyone out there looking by using content marketing such as keyword-rich websites, blogs and other content they create and share online. When someone goes looking for a solution to their problem, this company shows up in the search results. And when the possible prospect clicks on the link and goes to this company’s website or blog, they find engaging, relevant content that says to them, “Yes, we can help you solve your problem.” The company with the marketing mentality invests time, effort and therefore financial resources in content that will continue working for them day after day after day. They create it once, and reap the benefits of it repeatedly. They expose themselves to a whole big audience of potential customers. And the sales staff? Their time is spent closing, not pursuing.

What kind of mentality does your company have? 

Last week I was asked to write a press release.

For $100.

At the last minute.

For a business I've never worked for before.

And this press release was going to be a critical piece in getting word out about a big move on the part of this company. It was meant to be the one means by which this company is going to get all kinds of free publicity for their expansion. No other marketing effort, only this press release.

All that for $100. 

Offered by a CEO who should know better.

Let's not lose sight of the real value of compelling content, OK? A few dozen quickie blog posts used for SEO might cost you just $100, but a critical press release? That requires skill and experience and insight to craft in a way that will do you any good? And when everything is riding on that one communication? What is the real value of that, I ask? 

To do that right would take me several hours, and even then, I don't know if it's possible to write a compelling enough press release, one that would do the standalone, heavy lifting this company is hoping for.

Just because we've entered the age of content marketing, and content all over...so much content we now need content curation, for goodness' sakes...just because all eyes are focused on creating content (if not on reading it), let's not forget that there are still pieces of content, copywriting if you will, that require a level of experience and expertise that is not a cheap commodity.

I'm sure this company was able to find a flunkie or newbie to work for peanuts as their press release writer. I'm equally sure they'll be disappointed with their results.

I love words. I know words. My whole business is based on words! But I know the true value of words too, as written and verbal communications meant to drive action as opposed to empty words on a page.

$100 for a press release? No thank you.

Today I read two blogs in total contrast to each other that really got me thinking.

One was on email copywriting, and thinking about writing emails as an author would think about a novel. It's a great reminder that the email copywriter has a responsibility to not only "sell" something but to use thoughtful, meaningful approaches to writing to do so. And my apologies to Mike May, the author, if my paraphrasing of his post is not quite what he intended!

The other was on a content marketing checklist, called "Creating Valuable Content: An Essential Checklist." For me, it presents a real contrast to the email copywriter blog. It represents something I fear about content marketing, that it will become formulaic. When our checklists are all about making sure we've used the right tags and included a call to action and a sharing link, well, where's the checklist that asks "Is the content authentic? Is it engaging? Is it real? Is it customer-centric?" 

Like Mike May alluded to in his post, content must still be good content! You could use a checklist for an email too, and it wouldn't look all that different from this content marketing checklist. But both the email and any other kind of content you produce must have some substance and a reason for being beyond a place to put tags and sharing links.

I know the creator of the content marketing checklist knows this. I just get a little nervous about the direction of this kind of thinking, away from the quality of the content itself and toward the technical, formulaic details.

I'm just sayin'.

I've always been a huge proponent of repurposing and re-using content as a freelance copywriter, long before the dawn of content marketing. But I just saw an "oops" that prompted this content marketing blog on being careful to be timely. 

I opened an email newsletter from a company I trust, and scrolled down to see a headline I thought I'd better click on. It was on a topic that was hot back in the fall and one I need to stay on top of as the copywriting and content marketing coordinator for one of We Know Words' clients. "What is this new information?" I wondered. "I'd better read this article right now!" 

So I clicked...and then clucked...my tongue, that is. In disgust. 

The article wasn't new information. It was an article from last September when these industry changes were new. In fact, I probably read that very same article back then when researching the then timely topic. 

I think I know why the company repurposed the article: as part of their content marketing program. And I don't have a problem with that except they didn't alter the article in any way to make it timely. In my opinion, the intro should have been changed to something like, "We reported on these industry changes when they first came to light back in September 2010 when this article was published. Because we are still finding out clients don't yet understand these changes and the ramifications, we are re-publishing the article."  

One reason I'm so happy that such a thing as content marketing exists is because many pundits call for authentic content, something I've wanted to see become widespread for a decade. But simply linking to a six-month-old article in your newest newsletter isn't authentic if you don't give it context and make the reader aware that it is six months old. 

It would have taken all of five minutes to do so. And that would have been better content marketing. 

I'm just sayin'. 

(Need a little help making sure your own re-use of content is up to snuff with the new rules of content marketing? Start here: We Know Words.) 

When one blogs as a means to market onself and/or one's business, one should not blog:

a) After 9:00 at night.
b) After drinking.
c) When in a pissy mood because it has been raining nonstop since who knows when and one is sick of the rain, mud and wet.

Please realize that you are reading a blog written under condition "c." Yes, I am violating my own, self-imposed rule. But I have been a freelance copywriter for over 10 years and I am tired of seeing the following mindset be so pervasive among marketers. CEOs, yes. Sales teams, sure. But marketers need to know better! 

What prompted my pissy reaction? I just responded to a question on a message board. The question was about what types of content to produce to market to a B2B audience. Fair enough. But the poster said the goal is to "provide thought leadership on key issues affecting business leaders by helping them understand the role that our technology and services can provide." (Emphasis mine.)

This, my marketing friends (and fellow pissy mood people, if you're in western Washington), is what is wrong with marketing today. Still. This is why I talk about marketing is like dating. The problem for this company isn't the kinds of content they are producing. The problem is they are focused on what they are selling, not on what the customer is buying.

They shouldn't be trying to help business leaders understand the role of "our" technology and services. They should be addressing the problems of the B2B audience they are trying to reach!! (Excuse the exclamation points. The more it rains, the more I punctuate.) 

If marketing is like dating, this is akin to the guy going out to a bar to meet women...and only talking about himself. Which plenty of guys do.

One reason I love content marketing is because I am so hopeful that it will finally make marketers switch their mindsets from talking at customers to talking to them. You talk to someone when you make it about them, when you relate and listen. Do you know how many dates I've been on where the guy told his stories, talked incessantly about himself and/or talked the whole time period? Plenty. Those are the worst dates to be on. And that's your typical marketer, folks. As the post I just responded to implies.

Oh, please, content marketing gods, let the dawn of content marketing truly result in engaging, useful content and no more ego-centric "all about me" copy! 

And please, content marketing gods, can you make it stop raining too? 

On page 7 of the popular content marketing book "Content Rules" by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman, a sidebar attempts to clarify the difference between copywriting and content marketing. It essentially says copywriting is ads and the like and content marketing is everything else.

What's funny about that to me, as someone who has spent the last 11 years as a freelance copywriter, is that most of those 11 years have been spent writing the very things the people now say are content marketing. But I thought I was a copywriter...

As much as I love the book "Content Rules," and as much as I admire Ann Handley as the chief content queen at MarketingProfs (and have for years), I confess to being a little confused by the statement. I can count on two hands (and maybe the toes of one foot) the number of ads We Know Words has written for clients in the past decade. And we've been the brochure copywriter for some printed projects and done some direct mail, yes.

But really since the year 2000--11 years now--our bread and better has been content marketing services, it turns out: case studies, whitepapers, ghost blogging, website writing, SEO work, articles, video scripts, newsletters, press releases written as part of what was meant to be a content strategy.

I didn't know it was called anything but copywriting.

And I do see a huge difference between what people call content marketing today and what We Know Words has been doing for the past decade: strategy. That was not part of the content marketing services we offered. The clients would come to us with a content or copywriting need and we would fill it.

I'm delighted to know that copywriting as I know it has now come of age, it's now considered something much more honorable and it's more strategic! Let's face it. Walk into a crowded room and start introducing yourself as a freelance copywriter and you're not going to impress anyone. (Never mind the confusion some people have with the word "copyright" and the trying lunch-time conversation I had with a former state governor trying to explain copywriting vs. copyrighting.)

But now I get to walk into a room and say I offer content marketing services...and that's a lot more important sounding! And a whole lot more important.

Now there's really a strategy, or should be. I have long wanted clients to make better use--and re-use--of the content we've created. I've long talked about repurposing and re-using. And now that can happen. I can turn to the experts and authors like Ann and C.C. and Joe Pulizzi of Junta42 or Russell Sparkman of Fusion Sparkmedia and I can cite them...and get heard.

I think it will enable us to create the kinds of engaging, real, authentic copy I've been trying to talk clients into for a very long time, as well. Now we are backed up by the experts! No more generic copy!

From copywriter to content marketing? I'm all in. I just never realized I was out. And I'm not quite sure I ever was. :-) 

In response to an earlier content marketing blog post on what I call "blodder," and trying to capture what employees say in their emails as blog fodder for your online content marketing, I got the following comment:

"This is so true - if I could get my hands on the emails that one of my company's employees writes on a daily basis, I would have so much blodder to work with, I would hardly have time to plan."

I'm sure your work situation is at least somewhat similar, with your employees writing thoughtful, detailed responses to customers or prospects. They are creating content for your content marketing program without even meaning to! 

But how do you capture that content? Compendium just added a very cool email to post feature, where an email can be sent directly into a blog post. That's one way. But I think you also have to change mindsets. We've thought of these one-to-one communications as just that: me writing to you. That might be a big shift in thinking to start thinking of the emails one writes throughout the course of the day as resources for online content marketing!

I'm working on that right now with a long time client of our content marketing agency. My question to them is, how do we tap into the emails your employees are writing? Or the experiences they're having? Compendium CEO Chris Baggott advises people to start a blog post with "I just got off the phone with..." and simply write about that conversation. 

Content marketing doesn't have to mean generating lots and lots and lots of content (although that kind of need makes content marketing agencies like mine very happy!). Plenty of content exists or is generating each and every day at your company. 

You just need to get people thinking that way so you can tap into it. We can help. 

I have a friend. Well, he's a client, really. OK, he's an employee of a client company of ours. But he has become a dear friend, and he's a super smart guy who is constantly talking circles around me any time I need to interview him for a project for this client company. And he's top of mind as I write this blog post intended to get you thinking how easy content can be to come by when you're implementing a content marketing program. 

You see, this friend, Michael, he writes these amazing emails that are full--and I mean full--of content that is perfect for the blog we write for the company. In fact, he and I coined a new term because of his emails: blodder. It started out blog fodder but we condensed it to blodder. 

He doesn't agonize over these emails or research them or anything else. He simply types what he knows. And he knows a lot! He writes detail rich, expert emails in response to client questions and he writes emails to prospects and I swear, if I had access to his email account, I could probably post 2 or 3 blog posts per week for their company based only on those emails. 

And Michael's not unusual in this. You probably have employees creating content all throughout your company every single day but don't realize it. And that content can become blog posts or newsletter articles, or maybe it's the start of a beginner's guide or ebook. 

The point is, content exists! It exists in your employees' minds, their email accounts and their phone conversations. And employees are only one resource for you to consider. 

As I think on this idea of all the content you have easy access to for your online content marketing program, all kinds of ideas pop into my head. So look for more easy content sources in this content marketing blog in the coming days. 

I was updating the We Know Words website and realized we didn't have a clear explanation of our content marketing services. I remedied that just now on the website and below!

When it comes to content marketing services, we offer everything from the plan to putting it into practice.

Content Marketing Plan
We assess what you’re currently doing, get clear on your goals, learn about your audience and their goals, then develop a plan just for you that includes the steps to create, implement and track your Content Marketing Plan. Once you have the plan, you can run with it, or stick with We Know Words for help implementing it.

Content Marketing Plan Implementation Ala Carte
After your Content Marketing Plan has been developed, we can help you implement it to whatever degree you want. We Know Words can manage any—or all—of the following tasks for you:

• Setting up a blog as the hub of your Content Marketing
• Keyword research for search engine optimization
• Facebook and Twitter integration
• Email messaging for soliciting content
• Setting up systems for tracking results
• Staff training on writing and sharing content
• Ongoing coaching
• Creating professional content such as whitepapers or articles
• Editing content your team creates
• Analyzing results and suggesting improvements
• Newsletter or press release template development
• Anything else that helps you make the most effective use of content to market your business!

If you have any questions at all about Content Marketing or how We Know Words can help, call 206.459.8225 or email info@weknowwords.com. But do it soon! Your competitors are marketing with content. Are you?

Why blog? Because blogging is forever. OK, forever is relative in this day and age. But a blog post is going to be around a lot longer than other social media marketing.

A wall post on a Facebook page has a very short life span. A tweet even shorter. But a blog will be around always. It will be indexed by the search engines and served up when someone goes looking for what you're offering...even if it's two, three or even five years later. That's a lot longer than a lot of boyfriends! And that won't happen with any other kind of popular social media like Facebook and Twitter!

As a freelance copywriter and now as a provider of content marketing services, I have been pushing for blogs as marketing tools for a few years now. With the advent of content marketing as a strategic way to create and use content, maybe blogs will be taken more seriously.

Although I don't know. I still run up against the initial reaction of a) thinking a blog is just a place to spout off or b) the "there's no way we could keep up with one."

It's funny because people--even savvy marketers who should know better--seem to see the blog as something extraneous and extra. And a lot of work with no payoff.

It's none of those things.

It can be the hub of your online content marketing strategy. Dare I say it should be the hub of your online content marketing strategy? And blog content is easy to come by when you're focused on online content marketing. You simply need a strategy.

And isn't that what content marketing is all about? Being strategic with your creation and use of content? 

To talk strategy with a content marketing agency that's been around the content block for a while now, reach out to We Know Words.

I'm in love with the whole idea of content marketing because the premise is something I've pushed for for years. As a freelance copywriter, I have pushed people to be real and tell stories. I have pushed clients to get testimonials and find out their customers' stories. I have pushed for repurposing (now called reimagining) of content.

And why didn't clients listen to me before this whole notion of content marketing came along? I don't know. Maybe I'm simply not pushy enough. Maybe I wasn't secure enough because no one else was saying it so maybe my ideas weren't so great after all (or so said the little voice inside my copywriter head). Maybe I didn't explain it very well!

Today listening to a webinar on content marketing starring Chris Baggott, Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman...three of the biggest names in content marketing...I had a thought. What if it was fear?

I admit, it has been a battle at times to get the We Know Words copywriter clients to be real, to tell stories. "But what we do is proprietary." "But we need to sound like everyone else." "But we need to tell people about our widgets and gadgets." "But we can't sound that different." Those are the kinds of excuses I heard when clients wanted their freelance copywriter to create what I call "me too" copy rather than anything compelling and unique.

(And there was the time the landscaping firm had paid the PR firm tens of thousands of dollars and by golly, that was the messaging  they were going to use, no matter how irrelevant it was to their target market!)

As We Know Words morphs from copywriting agency to content marketing agency (which, of course, includes copywriting as a core offering), I sense I will still run into the same kinds of "buts" as before. And this idea of fear makes it all make sense.

Ever since the publication of Seth Godin's "Purple Cow," we've been called upon to be different, to stand out. As Seth said in his book, the risk isn't in being different, it's in being the same. And yet, maybe 20% of We Know Words clients over the past 10 years have embraced that concept.

It's scary to be real! It's scary to be different! It's scary to stand out! Not just for me and you as individuals, but for companies too. What if you're wrong? What if you fail? What if no one likes you? 

That's why we all dress pretty much the same and wear our hear pretty much the same and all that. And that's what most companies and brands do as well.

So as we move into thinking of what we do as content marketing, and we are called about to create, coordinate and distribute content that is real and engaging, as we work to convince those clients who hire us for content marketing services that yes, they do need customers telling stories and employees blogging, I suspect we will run into that same fear factor and bunch of "buts" that I've come up against before.

My job as the woman offering the content marketing services? Be more convincing.

It's a good thing I know words...

Below is an email I sent to a seafood company looking to build a new B2C website as well as a Facebook presence. During my talk with the web designer, several things came up, so I emailed these thoughts to the client. They were so well received by him, I thought I'd share them here...

"They are for the most part what is now called Content Marketing, which means a more strategic use of the content you create or capture.

"And content is golden. Content is how you get found online by search engines. Content is what people share. Content is how you engage and build relationships. Content is a valuable commodity. The more good content you have, the better off you are.

"With a B2C company that is selling food—something consumers can really get into—you have some great opportunities to get your customers creating content for you. A possible scenario is this: You have a website, a blog, and a Facebook page, and maybe you’re doing email marketing too. Your blog content can come from anywhere. It’s not like you need some English major hidden away cranking out content about your seafood. Your blog content can be written by a freelancer or two, and/or by employees, and/or by customers. Every time you get a testimonial, that’s a blog post. A recipe is a blog post. A new product is a blog post. An employee talking about quality control and another talking about types of seafood and things to know…blog content. Talking about what’s going on elsewhere, like maybe on Chopped they had frozen shrimp as one of their ingredients…proper storing advice, party advice, side dish advice, busy family dinners advice… the possibilities for blog content are literally endless.

"Then it’s really easy to share blog posts with Facebook and Twitter. You simply click on a link and voila, it’s shared. So you’ve taken the same content, but made that many more people aware of it and given them a chance to comment on it, like it or share it.

"It goes the other way too. I just heard about a company that makes gluten-free baked goods posted a request for favorite gluten-free Thanksgiving recipes on their Facebook page and got over 200 recipes. If the company puts all those recipes into blog posts, guess what? That’s over 200 blog posts…that are naturally keyword rich. Plus they will be permanent content, unlike Facebook content that has a very short lifespan.

"Which is the other side of this: All online content has the potential for helping your search rankings. And organic search is still the way to go. Just this morning, I read eMarketer’s article on how organic search still trounces paid search. People trust the organic results. And if you can “organically” create that kind of keyword-rich content…and have people sharing it and spreading the word for you, you’ll get a lot more bang for your marketing buck. Or should I say Content Marketing buck?

"You can add in email marketing, with links to pages on your Facebook page…and those email messages can be repurposed as blog posts. You also can have recipe contests or even a food photo contest. If you wanted, you could pull together recipes and make an ebook…promote it by email, in the blog on Facebook…I hope I’m painting a picture here for you."

That was the bulk of the email I sent the client. I hope that gets your brain churning the way it did mine...and the client's! 

Experts have been saying for some time that people tend to disregard paid search results because they are much more trusting of the organic search results. Yesterday's eMarketer article on search behavior tells us this is still true. I quote: "research indicates that most search users overlook search ads almost entirely."

And you know what marketers overlook almost entirely? How easy it is to compete for organic search results.

Yesterday at MarketMix in Seattle, I moderated a panel on Content Marketing with two highly respected experts as my brainy and bold panelists: Chris Baggott of Compendium and Russell Sparkman of FusionSpark Media. If you were to attend that panel and read the eMarketer article, a lightbulb should go off in your head: content can be easy to create, it will be effective when used effectively, and it can be used to get you found in search engines...which is a better way to get found than by search ads...if you want to get noticed.

And you win searches by having more content to be found by the search engines. If it's quality, relevant content, it's going to have the kinds of long tail keywords people are searching on, so you won't have to spend time plugging in keywords.

Using content marketing for SEO is not hard, it's easy. Here are three examples of ways to do it that are easy, easy, easy: 

1) Publish an email newsletter monthly, archive each issue on your website, and then summarize it in your blog and link to the archive. SEO benefit? More organic content to be crawled and indexed. You've gone from one email to two pieces of web content.

2) Write a whitepaper or tip sheet or something else relevant and useful to your audience. Summarize it online. Write an article about it in your email newsletter. And wash, rinse, repeat...or in other words, do the steps in number 1 above again.

3) Get your employees blogging. They will write about what they care about, and they will naturally use keywords relevant to the searcher.

Organic search is going to continue to be the preferred way to find results if you're a consumer searching online. Content marketing can help you be there on those first search results pages.

And maybe you'll save enough time and money doing your online content marketing that you'll have time and money left over for paid search! :-)

If you need or want some help coming up with simple content marketing strategy, email info@weknowwords.com.

As the marketing world moves forward into Content Marketing, finally giving content its due, I guess not everyone is following suit.

In 2011, we can have our customers talking about us and marketing for us like never before. We can be more real, more authentic. We can let our brands have personality and engage with our audiences in completely new ways.

Or we can just throw more money at marketing the old-school way. That's apparently what Kraft is going to do.

Kraft is going to going the old route of more money, more ads. Some agencies are going to make a lot of money.

But will TV commercials build brand in the age of social media? Not the way content marketing would, says this freelance copywriter.

I like the Miracle Whip commercial, I confess. I think it's bold to have people saying they don't like your product. But I'd rather see Kraft spend their money on hearing from real people, not celebrities. Let's see money go towards viral social media campaigns, not expensive TV ads.

Oh well, what do I know. I'm just a freelance copywriter on cloud 9 because the popularity of content marketing is finally making people aware of principles I've been advocating for 10 years. (Be engaging. Be real. Be authentic. Have a personality. Repurpose content. Use indirect marketing.)

It seems like Kraft doesn't even know content marketing exists...

Good thing I don't like Miracle Whip! I suspect the price will go up so Kraft can afford the high cost of old-school marketing!

Reading David Baker's email marketing blog, I just had an "ah ha" copywriter moment.

He makes the point that we spend so much time, effort and money on creative, and maybe we should spend less on creative and more on content: 

Is this music to the ears of a freelance copywriter? You bet it is, but not new music, rather classical. Good content, engaging content, customer-centric content...this is what We Know Words copywriters have been crafting for 10 years. That is what content marketing is all about.

And we have often as the freelance copywriter taken a back seat to the creative. Many times we've been called in as the website copywriter only to find the design and navigation are set...and aren't appropriate to the message.

Many times have we as the freelance copywriter been tasked with writing brochure copy or other sales collateral with very specific word counts...we couldn't write the right amount to get the message across, rather we had to write long or short enough to fit the already determined space...because the creative was foremost.

Now that we've entered the age of content marketing, and more and more emails are read on smartphones, words will matter more than ever. Content has always been king...but a bit of a tepid ruler, hidden behind a mighty council of designers.

But you know what? The right color doesn't get you found in Google. The right words do. The right logo doesn't get someone to click on your call to action in your email marketing. The right words do. And the design of your whitepaper is irrelevant if you haven't hired a whitepaper copywriter who builds a compelling case for your product...with words.

Thank you, David! I know this wasn't the direction you meant for your comment to go, but I appreciated taking it there just the same. :-)