Now, it’s more than a thing. It’s no longer even a buzzword. Content marketing is a living, breathing force that we’re learning how to harness. And now’s the time to do it, as you’ll learn at the upcoming Content Marketing Conference May 2-4 at the Westin Boston Waterfront.
Before Content Marketing was a Thing
The term “content marketing” wasn’t introduced until 2001, around the time marketers were wrapping their heads around how to best engage with customers and drive action over the online channel. “Inbound marketing” was hot and digital marketers were getting more savvy with SEO, doing little more than chasing keywords around. “Weblogging” had been a cool activity for a while by this point, but Social Media, as we know and love it today, was in its infancy. (Facebook wasn’t even launched until 2004!)
The point here is not to take a walk down memory road, exactly, but to appreciate how far we’ve come. Back then, those of us doing content marketing were creating informational and educational pieces for our websites, maybe incorporating them into email campaigns. Many pieces were created for print and our designers happily “PDF’d” them for us. We looked at website analytics to get content topic ideas, and we really hoped a customer would leave a reply at the bottom of blog posts.
Needless to say, technology has catapulted content marketing into what it is today. And as we’ll explore at #CMC18, it has become a thing.
Proof that Content Marketing is a Thing
- It’s Art. There is an art to content marketing that the best of us (we’ll all be at the conference, BTW) are learning how to hone. As creators, writers, storytellers, social media posters, emailers, etc…we’re bringing some beautiful, thoughtful, well-crafted art into the world via our content, and it’s making an impact on our customers in increasingly profitable ways.
- It’s Science. We have access to highly sophisticated analytics tools, research tools, neuromarketing insights, and other such resources to help us deliver on-point content and measure our performance. Many of the CMC18 session speakers will geek-out over all of this science, and with good reason: it’s improving the way we connect with customers and challenging us to think about marketing and relationships and writing and design in new, exciting ways that are changing everything.
- It’s Comedy. To top it off, content marketing has caught the attention of the comedy community. Or maybe it’s that the comedy community has caught the attention of content marketers. Either way, humor—in which there lives plenty of art and science—is infusing our content with a fresh energy that’s literally cracking people up, all the way to the bank.
Once something is a “thing,” where does it go next? Find out at CMC18. Register today!