I have written a report on the phenomenon that is content marketing and made it available under a Creative Commons licence. The report (in PDF) is available for free download from my blog here: An Introduction to Content Marketing.
The report is free for both commercial and non-commercial use, but cannot be sold or included as part of a derivative work. Why not charge for it? Well, I want the report to be used by as many people as possible regardless of any commercial imperative. Organisations like:
- Not-for-profits
- Open source projects
- Start-ups
- Charity groups
- Educational institutions
Can all benefit from content marketing and should not be have any less of an opportunity to publish their stories than an organisation with a billion dollar marketing budget.
One of the benefits of good content is it democratises the reach of the brand: content produced by a start-up can be just as interesting as content produced by a multinational.
Content marketing has a definite ‘flavour of the month’ feel about it, but in my experience it’s nothing new and I have been producing it since my cadet journalist days. There is a definite land grab out there and a surprising number of businesses have popped up with ‘content’ in their name, however, I can only see the relevance of content marketing increasing for a few reasons:
- People are tired of hearing the same old marketing messages and brand messaging needs to become more creative and informative to remain relevant.
- Independent content production by non-media organisations has been around for a long time – it just wasn’t known as “content marketing”.
I will attempt to keep it updated at least quarterly. In fact, just looking at with fresh eyes, it could do with a design makeover so maybe that’s where I’ll next direct my attention.
