Welcome to PRVibes, created by Calysto Communications to provide you with insight into the publications, thought leaders and events in the communications industry. Today, we visit with Joe Pulizzi of the Content Marketing Institute, an educational and training organization with a mission to advance the practice of content marketing.
Pulizzi is one of the world’s foremost content marketing evangelists. He began using the term “content marketing” back in 2001. He’s the founder of the Content Marketing Institute (CMI), which is responsible for publishing an influential content marketing blog, as well as the magazine’s Chief Content Officer. CMI also produces Content Marketing World, the largest content marketing event in the world.
In this interview, Pulizzi shares how content marketing has evolved and a prediction for its future. Enjoy!
How has the strategy behind content marketing evolved over the past few years? What has changed, and why?
Content marketing has been practiced for hundreds of years…but it has really picked up recently for a couple of reasons. First, consumers now have all the information they need at their disposals (they are in control). That means that marketers, who used to control a lot of the message through limited channels, have to seek attention through other means. Consumers can literally ignore anything they don’t want to be engaged in. Therefore, marketers must be interesting and create value outside of the product or service they offer.
At the same time, we’ve learned that (as marketers) we can’t be successful with search or social media marketing unless we know how to create and distribute valuable, compelling stories to a targeted audience. And here we are, seeing an explosion in the use of content marketing.
Why is it important for companies to establish content goals?
There’s no sense in creating content unless there’s a goal behind it. If someone says they want to get into content marketing, I always ask “why?”. No marketer should get involved with content marketing unless it’s done to solve some kind of problem.
In PR, we tell people that a “spray and pray” strategy never works. Is the same true for content marketing?
Absolutely. According to our latest research, there are two critical differentiators between the great content marketers and everyone else. The first is that great content marketers write down and document their content marketing strategy. The second is they refer to that strategy on a consistent basis.
How are content marketing and lead generation related? Is one more important than the other?
A content marketing approach can be used to solve a multitude of objectives. Sometimes those objectives are at the top of the funnel, driving leads or demand generation. Other times, the approach will be to create loyalty or retention. There is no one goal that is more important than another…it just depends on the objectives of the organization.
Why should businesses be gearing their content toward subscribers instead of overall visitors to their site?
Web traffic, by itself, is a meaningless metric. What does it tell you? Are people buying more? Are you saving money? Are customers retained longer? If web traffic is an indicator of any of these things, then I’m listening. If not, go back and find a reason why visitors to my site are important.
Opt-in subscribers to my content is one of the best metrics because once I have someone’s permission to distribute my content, then I can start to look at the differences between those who subscribe to my content and those that don’t. Very powerful.
What percent of their overall marketing budget should businesses be spending on content marketing?
It depends on the company. The average company spends about one in four dollars (not including staffing) on content creation and distribution. All that matters is if we are accomplishing our goals. From the research, the most effective content marketers spend 37% of budget, while the least effective spend 16%.
Do companies truly have to be on every social platform out there to promote their content, or is it OK to pick and choose?
They don’t have to be on any if they don’t want to. It’s not mandatory for success in content marketing to leverage social media. It helps, but it’s not mandatory. I would recommend focusing resources and investment on social platforms that help you accomplish your goals and don’t dabble a little in every social network.
What’s the best way to approach a content strategy for a company that serves several different audiences (CEO AND developers, for example) or vertical markets?
If you are targeting different audiences, you most likely will need a separate content marketing initiative for each audience. Think about a media company…most media companies in business-to-business have hundreds of different platforms targeting one audience for each platform. Marketers try to target as many audiences as they can with one platform. Marketers, in this case, have it wrong. I would start with one audience and be successful at that, and then branch out with a new initiative to a different audience.
Where does content marketing go from here?
In the future, the majority of content we will engage in as consumers will come from non-media companies. We also anticipate the non-media companies will start to purchase niche media companies to obtain audiences, as well as talent and processes, in particular niches.