what the hell is content marketing?

Great Joe Pulizzi post on distinguishing content marketing from what he deems “merely clever advertising.”

In refining the definition of content marketing, Pulizzi offers a number of defining criteria, but this one really jumped out:

Successful CM content is “not about our products and services; rather, it is focused on information that addresses the pain points of buyers.”

It’s not just finding more entertaining or cutesy ways to draw attention to ourselves. It’s not just about inserting the word “you” into otherwise narcissistic copy.

• For instance, why doesn’t Habitat for Humanity offer building tips from their master carpenters? That would be sticky.

• Why doesn’t World Wildlife Fund run a blog reviewing upcoming shows on Animal Planet? That would be sticky.

One of Alia’s and my favorite blogs on writing is Copyblogger. Incredibly useful, but somewhat unrelated  to the parent company’s business model, which is selling content management software. But they sure have our attention.

I hate the term ‘content marketing,’ but I love the idea. And whatever you call it, non-profits are still in the dark ages.