1. Trend
Assessment
II
MRKT
7546
Digital
Marketing
Dr.
Eric
Ty
Brey
Date:
10th
April
2012
Submitted
by:
Deepti
Dhiman

2.
Trend: Content Marketing
I. Introduction and factors shaping the trend
A trend that has gained considerable attention in recent years in online marketing is the focus on
creating exceptional and unique content that people want to read and share rather than creating
things like brochureware. Current content marketing may not directly relate to selling something,
but it helps with branding. There is a shift to “real content marketing” in which brands are truly
becoming publishers. “Brands are producing substantial volumes of content – a minimum of five
pieces a week – that are not about their own product, but about the interests of their customers”
(Creamer, 2012).
According to Content Marketing Institute (CMI), content marketing is the art of understanding
exactly what your customer need to know and delivering to them in a relevant and compelling
way to grow your business. Today, content marketing is more than offering product information,
but it extends into providing best practices, case studies, success stories, though leadership and
so on. By providing relevant content, a brand becomes a trusted resource and can easily build a
level of trust among their customers that makes it easy or customers to buy.
Even though content marketing is a hot topic, it is hardly a new concept. For years brands have
been telling stories to attract and retain customers. In 1900 Michelin, a tire manufacturer, started
producing the “Michelin Guide” to help drivers maintain their cars, find decent lodging, and eat
well whole touring France. John Deere’s The Furrow magazine, published in 1985, is being
considered as the first example of corporate storytelling. The purpose of the magazine The
Furrow was not to sell John Deere equipment, but to educate farmers on new technology and
how they could be more successful business owners. In 1990s, web pages were introduced, and
whitepaper became standards product-centric content for technology companies. In 1996,
PlaceWare, a spin-off from Xerox’s PARC Laboratory, started web conferences serves, which
made its way into marketing mix as webinars. By early 2000, email became one of the main
forms of marketing outreach by brands. By 2005, podcasts, e-books and blogging became
mainstream. In 2005, Youtube was launched and companies started using the new channel to
more easily promote their online video efforts. After 2006, came Twitter, Facebook, QR codes,
Augmented Reality and iPads have opened a new wave of content creation and distribution
(Aprix Solution E-Book, 2011).
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3. Content marketing is a growing trend because brands and B2B marketers are finally beginning to
recognize the power of content marketing and its effect on brand awareness, customer
acquisition, lead generation, customer retention, customer loyalty and engagement. The other
factor is the social media because it increases visibility and buzz of the content. Social media
such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube provides free and fast distribution channels to the content
that were not there before.
According to CMI survey conducted in 2011, nine out ten B2B marketers used content
marketing to grow their business, and on average, marketers used eight content marketing tactics
to achieve their marketing goals. The most popular tactics were articles posting (79%), social
media (excluding blogs) (74%), blogs (65%), eNewsletter(63%), case studies (58%), in-person
events (56%), videos (52%) and white paper (51%). Data visualization techniques such as
infographics are also an emerging trend that offers innovations to a variety of tactics. Every
social media channel is seeing increased adoption, often by 15-20%, with the highest increase in
YouTube (47% increase). Approximately, 40% of the responded stated that their largest
challenge is producing the right kind of content that engages prospects and customers (Pulizzi,
2011).
II. Case studies
Case Study 1 – Mint.com
Mint was launched as a personal finance startup company in 2006. In the beginning the company
did not do well as it faced a lot competition from other web startups like Wesabe and established
firms like Quicken. Three years later, the company became a market leader in online personal
finance and was sold to Intuit for $170 million (Snow, 2011). Mint’s success is attributed to its
aggressive intelligent content marketing strategy. Mint created a successful blog “MintLife “ and
dedicated significant resources to it blog including a full time editorial staff and several freelance
contributors. In addition, Mint invested time in social news sites like Reddit and Digg by posting
articles, and hence, developed trust with the readers in those communities. As a result those users
became Mint’s customers and even started advocating Mint in their personal networks. Mint also
used a combination of content types including news and tips posts, link roundups, slideshows,
videos and inforgraphics, and they all were held to a strict editorial standard. By following this
high quality and unique content marketing strategy, Mint became a smart resource center with
relevant interesting content, and which was easy accessible to the customers. Thus, they were
able to cover their readers into buyers of their products.
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4. This case study is a very good example that shows the benefit of having a good content
marketing strategy. Mint dedicated resources to content, enforced high quality editorial
standards, shared their unique content through various social channels and listened to their
customers closely.
Case Study 2 – American Express Open Forum
Small business owners face multiple challenges to sustain and are always looking for their peers
for sharing needs, topics and solutions. American Express identified this demand and used it to
create a content marketing strategy for promoting their brand. Amex created Open Forum
website, an online community, that provides small businesses the knowledge, tools, and
networking resources to help them grow their business. The website has two main elements
including Idea hub and connectodex. The ideahub are blogs driven by user generated content.
The blogs include multi-format practical and actionable information in form of videos, audio,
articles, infographics, blog posts and expert opinion from business experts and business owners.
The content covers variety of topics including “how to” articles, small business marketing tips,
business forecasts, women in business, social media, events and so on. The user can sort the
blogs by most recent and most popular. The Connectodex is a private social network for Amex
user entrepreneurs. The Connectodex is a huge database of brands that business owners can use
to help each other and provide leads to each other. The Open Form webpage is also integrated
with social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Youtube and Tumbler and
links to the Open Forum newsletter subscription and a mobile application. The Open Forum
platform provides insightful and engaging content that is produced by publishers like Inc.,
Magazine and hosted on OpenForum.com, and by in-house Open Forum writers. In 2010, the site
has 1 million unique visitors and in 2011, they had over 200 contributors and are growing (Snow,
2011).
The case study is a great example that shows how good content marketing strategy can help
brands in building brand equity, acquiring new customers and building loyalty of existing
customers. Open Forum website has become a trusted educational and networking platform that
connects small businesses to their most essential resources including information, education and
each other. By developing a community of users around a topic rather than their brand, and by
creating trusted and unique content, Amex has been successful in attracting a lot of traffic to
their site that may turn into their customers in the future.
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5. Other Applications
The trend has application in every industry and business size. It can be a great marketing tool for
fashion industry especially targeting men. Using visual content, a brand can easily reach its
audience and get their inputs on clothing options before introducing them into the market.
Fashion brands can also create content that discusses different styles, recommendations for
clothing for different personalities, age and body figures.
The trend also has an application in men’s health industry. “A report from AYTM Market
Research found that an increasingly high percentage of men are interested in diet advice.
However, many are unsatisfied with the advice and content currently available to them, with 65
percent saying the plans they see advertised do not appeal to them. Men are increasingly looking
moving toward digital channels to do research and find information” (Brafton, 2012). A lot of
strong content marketing opportunity exists in this area. Businesses that focus on men’s health
can create content marketing strategy to target their audience. They can use blogs, articles, and
social media to listen to their customers, and then create relevant content that discusses best
practices and guide men in their health issues.
Section 3: Future of the Trend
Business Landscape Impacts and Potential Changes - According to Mr. Joe Pulizzi, the trend will
have an immense impact on business landscape. All businesses today are media
companies. First, the barriers to entry are gone. There were three barriers including content
acceptance, talent and technology that no longer exist today. For content acceptance, brands do
not have to be the Wall Street Journal to have their customer accept and engage in their content.
Talent is available easily in every industry to produce great content. Today, there are more jobs
available on the brand side rather than traditional media. Technology is available to everyone
and anyone can publish content on the web today for no investment (Pulizzi, 2012).
Second, in order to drive search engine, lead generation and social media goals, non-media
companies have to become adept at authentic storytelling (something they are not used to). That
means, in the long run, more businesses will be focusing on their owned media and less on paid
media. So, since all companies (media or not) are working to create valuable content to get
attention, the impact of this trend is huge.
Consumer Segments and Specific Industries Significantly Impacted - According to Joe, all of the
consumers segment and every type of industry will be impacted by this trend. Since most human
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6. beings use social media or search or mobile devices in some way, everyone will have to focus on
creating unique content to built social influence.
In addition, we will be seeing new startups with content-specific focus (Bullas 2012). For
example, Contently, a new startup firm founded in December 2010, brings writers and publishers
together from around the world. In the same line, Percolate.com, founded in 2011, turns brands
into curators and helps brands to create content at social scale. Pinterest and Instagram are
example of startups that are focused on sharing unique content and media.
Potential Future Changes in the Trend - According to Joe, marketing departments in brands will
start to look a lot more like publishing departments. Brands will look for marketing staff with
more and varied skills. Brands will hire journalists, people with skills in writing editorial, blogs,
white paper, and people who can conceptualize and edit videos. Since it is very important for
content creators to understand their audience, brands will also be looking for subject matter
experts that relate to their business and experts who match their customer’s demographics.
In addition, brand will increase their investment in content marketing. According to the CMI,
B2B marketers invested on average 25% of their budget in content marketing in 2011 and 60%
of B2B marketers are planning to spend more on content marketing in 2012 (Pulizzi, 2012).
Needed to Maintain a Competitive Advantage – According to Joe, non-media companies will
need to clearly understand the informational needs of their target audiences and start to create
and distribute content through multiple (mostly online) channels. Those that develop out their
media channels with remarkable content will have a better opportunity to attract and retain
customers.
Brands will have to create a content marketing strategy for their brand. Before doing anything,
brands needs to answer the why questions and to define their goals first. The goals can be to
make profit, to generate leads, to grow an email list, to increase brand awareness and so on. This
will help brands to identify measurement tools to measure success down the road.
References:
Aprix Solutions. “A Brief History of Content Marketing”. 2011. E-Book by Aprix Solutions, Inc.
Available at: http://blog.aprixsolutions.com/2011/06/20/a-brief-history-of-content-marketing/
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7. Brafton News. “Men’s health industry ripe with content marketing opportunities”. 03/29/2012.
Brafton News. Available at: http://www.brafton.com/news/mens-health-industry-ripe-with-
content-marketing-opportunities
Bullas, Jeff. “Is Content Marketing the Hot New Trend? – Infographics”. 02/10/2012. Blog on
Jeffbullas.com. Available at: http://www.jeffbullas.com/2012/02/10/is-content-marketing-the-
hot-new-trend-infographic/
Creamer, Matt. “Content: Marketing's Best Hope, or More Hype?”. 02/28/2012. AdAge Digital.
Available at: http://adage.com/article/digital/content-marketing-s-hope-hype/232927/
Lieb, Rebecca. “What is Content Marketing?”. 02/28/2012. AdAge Digital. Available at:
http://adage.com/article/digital/content-marketing/232990/
Perry, Chris. “Is Creativity Missing In Content Marketing?”. 02/13/2012. Forbes Magazine.
Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chrisperry/2012/02/13/is-creativity-missing-in-
content-marketing/
Pulizzi, Joe. “The History of Content Marketing – How Brands Have Become Storytellers”.
02/14/2012. Content Marketing Institute. Available at: http://blog.junta42.com/2012/02/history-
content-marketing-storytelling/
Pulizzi, Joe. “2012 B2B Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets, and Trends”. 12/05/2011.
Content Marketing Institute. Available at:
http://www.contentmarketinginstitute.com/2011/12/2012-b2b-content-marketing-research/
Snow, Shane. “How 3 Companies Took Content Marketing to the Next Level”. 05/01/2011.
Mashable.com. Available at: http://mashable.com/2011/05/01/content-marketing-tips/
Biography: Joe Pullizi, Founder of Content Marketing Institute, Cleveland, Ohio
Joe Pullizi is one of the leading thought leaders behind the content marketing and social media
movement. He an author, speaker and strategist for content marketing. He founded the Content
Marketing Institute, which includes the premier international content marketing event Content
Marketing World and Chief Content Officer magazine. Joe is also CEO of SocialTract, the
leading blogging service for service professionals and co-author of the Get Content Get
Customers called “The Handbook for Content Marketing” by McGraw-Hill, and Managing
Content Marketing: The Real-World Guide for Creating to Create Passionate Subscriber to Your
Brand. He has been featured in most of the leading marketing publications and blogs in the
world. In addition, he also writes one of the most popular content marketing blogs in the world
and loves color orange. He was awarded the “Custom Media Innovator of the Year” award by
American Business Media, Voted Who’s Who in Media Business by BtoB Magazine, Folio: 40
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8. and recognized as the Most Influential Content Strategist Via Lavacon. He is a passionate
speaker and travels around the world to talk to marketers and business owners about marketing,
publishing, social media, new journalism and personal branding.
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