Content Marketing 101: What it is, why it is?

Ryan Holiday is my current mentor. I have been following him for a year now.

RYAN HOLIDAY is the bestselling author of Trust Me, I’m Lying; The Obstacle Is the Way; Ego Is the Enemy; Conspiracy and other books about marketing, culture, and the human condition.

At the age of 21, when he shared the idea of his first book with his mentor Robert Greene, he was advised against writing that book at that time. So he continued his life with whatever he was doing.

As he’s an avid reader, he has a habit of making notes. And at that time, he started sharing his reading notes online. He used to make a monthly book recommendation list and started sharing it via personal emails.

In this way, he started growing a personal email list.

After a few years, when he launched his first book, he shared with his trusted and loyal email subscribers, and it went on to become a bestseller instantly.

This is a classic example of modern-era permission and content marketing.

To understand what’s permission marketing, read this post – I won’t Spam you. I promise! (Permission Marketing)

So, what’s content marketing?

According to content marketing institute-

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action.

So, like any other domain of marketing, it’s a customer and profit-centric activity.

Content Marketing is Customer-centric

Unlike spamming and interruption marketing, Content Marketing is directed towards the customer benefit first, keeping in mind that a long term loyal customer will automatically generate better profits.

So, in terms of branding and marketing of small scale startups, most of the time, they overlook content marketing for the short term viewpoint.

Branding and Marketing

No matter if you’re building a corporate brand or a personal brand, as long as you are trying to engage and attract an audience, you need to leverage content marketing into your overall strategy.

Paid Advertising works well initially, but it is not going to attract the loyalty of your audience.

Content Marketing is Storytelling

Simon Sinek, in his most viewed TED Talk, has described –

People don’t buy things looking at “what” you’re selling. People don’t buy things looking at “how” you’re selling.

People buy things because of “why” you are selling whatever you are selling.

Cryptocurrency isn’t popular because it was another medium of currency. It’s popular because it is a revolution in itself to end the centralized and corrupt government system.

Facebook isn’t popular because it’s just another social media site. It’s popular because it connects people.

To speak clearly about “why” you are doing whatever you are doing, you need to tell your audience a story. And that’s where Content Marketing comes into the picture.

Storytelling is about being vulnerable

What’s the no. 1 way of being authentic? Answer- Be vulnerable.

People want true and authentic stories. And unless you become vulnerable and open up, you can’t build trust and honesty among others.

And this is how an actor like Kevin Spacey was giving the keynote speech at Content Marketing World.

Today’s Picture

In the era of internet and social media, the field of content marketing has become more vital. Now we know why so many websites focus on collecting emails.

A lot of marketers give away 99% of their knowledge for FREE online.

Talk about Loy Machedo, Nicholas Cole, DigitalPratik, DigitalDeepak … almost everyone who realizes the value of content marketing is giving away most of their stuff for FREE, so as to benefit their readers/viewers and turn them into their loyal following.

In the field of content marketing, who do you like the most?

I have given examples of the people I admire the most, let me know yours in the comments below 🙂

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