If you work in the marketing industry, you're familiar with Content Marketing. Maybe you know it by another name, but the concept of providing customers, potential customers and other stakeholders with content of value rather than just jamming advertising down their throats is now accepted wisdom. Joe Pulizzi has been at the forefront of this movement for a while now. You may know his work through the Junta42 website, his blog, the new Chief Content Officer magazine or his many speaking engagements. Joe is also behind the upcoming Content Marketing World Conference happening this September in Cleveland, OH.
Joe was kind enough to answer some questions about the conference, and Content Marketing in general.
Rick Liebling: Tell me about Content Marketing World. What can people expect from this event?
Joe Pulizzi: Content Marketing World, September 6-8, 2011 in Cleveland, Ohio will be the largest gathering of marketing professionals, all focused on the art of storytelling for business. Content marketing is the concept that we can attract and retain customers by acting more like a publisher, telling them compelling stories to maintain or change behavior. We are bringing in over 50 of the world's leading marketing experts (including speakers like NYTimes David Pogue, leading author David Meerman Scott and Writer/Director Kevin Smith) around content in the areas of B2B, B2C, Small Business/Non-Profit, Content Marketing for Executives, Indepth Content Strategy and Online/Social Media.
Lets face it...most organizations struggle with this. We're not used to selling this way. But today we have to. Our customers have too many choices. How can we stay relevant to customers? We do that by giving them information that solves their problems. When we do that, they see us as the experts and want to do business with us. That's content marketing.
People who attend Content Marketing World will start to get answers. They will leave with real-world strategies that can be implemented immediately for any sized-organization. We'll also have a lot of fun in the process, including our opening reception at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
RL:Crowdsourcing. Gamification. Just two of the 'buzzwords' we've heard in recent years. Is Content Marketing just another buzzword?
JP: It's possible...I can't deny it. What's important about the term content marketing is the fact that businesses are starting to talk the same language. Before using content marketing, we used branded content, custom publishing, custom content, customer media, corporate content and on and on. Now we can actually communicate with our staffs what we are actually trying to do. It's important for the practice and for marketers in general. And, since we are just getting started, I do believe content marketing is going to be relevant for a very long time.
RL: Your operation has grown quite a bit from when we first met. Tell me about CCO magazine and the Content Marketing Institute.
JP: The Content Marketing Institute was created to teach marketers the "How-To" of content marketing. There were so many organizations talking about how we should all be doing it, but not many were actually giving us step-by-step instructions. So, every day, we give you a how-to post about content marketing at contentmarketinginstitute.com. We also send you the only international magazine dedicated to the practice of content marketing - Chief Content Officer (delivered in PRINT to over 20,000 and digitally in seven countries). CMI also provides indepth content strategy consulting and a variety of content services like small business blogging and vendor matching through Junta42.
RL: I think Social Media has reached a very precarious place. The combination of 'shiny new object' syndrome and practitioners in it for a quick buck have left many feeling that the ROI just isn't there. How can serious people who believe in Content Marketing convince bosses or clients to stick with it?
JP: Remember the days when we had typing rooms, like you see on the show Mad Men? There were people in the workplace that their sole responsibility was to type for other people. Obviously those people don't exist anymore. We all type. It's a skill we all have at an early age today.
Now think of that in relation to content marketing. We all now have the ability to create content. We have all these fancy tools. Some do it well, most not so well. Content creation will soon become as natural as typing is today. We'll all be very good at it and understand the tools. That's where this is going, but it's going to take some time. Typing rooms took decades to die out. The same will happen here until we all use social media without thinking and we all develop content to communicate with customers on a regular basis.
To sell this to CEOs, I usually just use a series of questions. It invokes fear and works for the most part.
- If someone typed in the terms of your industry into Google, would they find you?
- Are your customers sharing your content on a regular basis?
- If your prospects are asking questions on LinkedIn or Yahoo! Answers and you're not answering, who is? (your competitor most likely)
- Are you considered the place that your customers go where they have real problems that need fixed? (content can answer those questions)
- How much money are you spending on salespeople answering questions that content could be doing at a fraction of the cost?
- How are you keeping prospects involved in your brand and in a conversation until they are ready to buy?
RL: Back to CMW to wrap it up - if people are unable to attend Content Marketing World, how can they still benefit from the exchange of ideas that will happen there?
JP: Great question. They'll be able to follow all the sessions on Twitter at #cmworld. We'll also be doing live blogging updates in a variety of ways and are working out the details now. We are also considering packaging up an online version of the conference. That said, we'd rather have you just attend. You won't regret it.