One of the most important concepts in SEO is summed up by the expression “Content is King”. If your content isn’t good enough, your visitors will leave your website (if they even found it)…and they will definitely not become your customer or supporter. So ask yourself every time you publish something on your website: “am I making the best of it”?

Introduction to content marketingImage credit: content marketing infographic by SmartInsights

If the word “marketing” makes you shake your head and feel overwhelmed, don’t worry. To be honest, there are so many different types of marketing it makes my head spin. Lucky for you, they all have one thing in common: content. So, welcome to the world of content marketing.

Content Marketing definition

To give you an idea of how others define the term “Content Marketing”, here are 6 quotes from around the web:

“Traditional marketing and advertising is telling the world you’re a rock star. Content Marketing is showing the world that you are one.” Source: Robert Rose

“Content marketing is the creation of free content. This content is used to attract new visitors and customers to your website and can easily be shared. The content can take the form of video tutorials, how to documents, free reports, podcasts and more.” Source: StuffedWeb

“Your customers don’t care about you, your products, your services…they care about themselves, their wants and their needs. Content marketing is about creating interesting information your customers are passionate about so they actually pay attention to you.” Source: CMI – Content Marketing Institute

“Basically, content marketing is the art of communicating with your customers and prospects without selling. It is non-interruption marketing. Instead of pitching your products or services, you are delivering information that makes your buyer more intelligent. The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.” Source: CMI – Content Marketing Institute

“Content marketing differs from advertising in two fundamental ways. First, content resides on owned or earned media. If there’s a media buy involved, it’s advertising, not content marketing. Second, content marketing is a pull, rather than a push, strategy. Content doesn’t interrupt, it attracts.” Source: AdAge

“Content Marketing means creating and sharing valuable free content to attract and convert prospects into customers, and customers into repeat buyers. The type of content you share is closely related to what you sell; in other words, you’re educating people so that they know, like, and trust you enough to do business with you” Source: copyblogger

And to round it off, this is one of my favorite quotes about content and SEO:

“There are no shortcuts here. This stuff is hard work. It’s messy, maddening, and imprecise.
There is no universal blueprint or industry standard to follow that will provide you with all of the boxes you need to check off in your content to-do list.
But a benefit of this high barrier to entry is that most companies won’t put in the time and effort it takes to really take a hard look at their content. They’ll keep using the same easy tactics that they’ve used in the past.
That leaves the door open for you, dear reader, to take the reins of your site’s content strategy and make it the centerpiece of your online marketing efforts. Because at the end of the day, all the SEO in the world can’t make up for poor content.” Source: Andrew Kaufman

Content marketing from A to Z

Over the next few months you’ll learn about content marketing through a series of blog posts. I will use the term “content marketing” in a (very) broad sense, as the main goal is to help you understand how to work with your website content in an easy-to-do way.

These are just a few things you’ll read about in the Content Marketing from A to Z series:

Each blog post will be an overview of different topics within content marketing and SEO for your content. If you think of something I forgot to add to the list, or want me to write an in-depth blog post about a specific topic, please let me know in the comments or via email.