A recent survey by Curata (formerly HiveFire), a content curation technology provider, reaffirmed what marketing experts have been advocating for the last few years – content is indeed king.
According to the survey, content marketing has greatly surpassed traditional tools for brand enhancement. A resounding 82% of the 400 marketing professionals surveyed said they now use content marketing in their programs, which makes it more popular than search marketing (70%) and over two times more popular than print, TV or radio advertising (32%).
We had the pleasure of chatting with content marketing guru, and founder of the Content Marketing Institute, Joe Pulizzi for his thoughts. Joe is one of biggest thought leaders in all things ‘content marketing’, speaking and blogging on its various topics and teaching marketers how to think and act more like publishers. Among other things, we got into his background, his popular book Get Content, Get Customers, the importance of editorial calendars and his thing for the color orange…
1. Tell us a little bit about your background. How did you become a content marketing expert?
Well, first of all, we are all still learning about content marketing. It is ever changing and getting more complex each day.
More than a decade ago I was selling and managing corporate content programs for medium and large brands. At that time, content marketing projects were just that, small projects that often were outside the entire marketing echosystem. Today, content marketing is an integral part of of marketing, and is now a true discipline and philosophy that brands are driving throughout their organizations.
About five years ago, we saw a huge needed around content marketing from an education and sourcing standpoint. Multiple ideas, books and businesses later, the Content Marketing Institute was born, along with Content Marketing World, our international event, and our magazine, Chief Content Officer.
2. You’re well-known for your book “Get Content, Get Customers” What inspired you to write it?
There was no book out at the time that was really about “content marketing”. There were a number of books that glossed over the concepts, but not one that helped brands realize that they needed to start thinking and acting like publishers. The goal was to put a stake in the ground and help marketers understand the importance of how content marketing can be the center of the business, and how we don’t “need” to use advertising to attract and retain customers any longer. But even if advertising is used, content marketing can make it that much better.
3. What trends are shaping the way marketing teams operate today? In the next three years?
Right now, we are really seeing the transformation of marketing departments into publishing departments. The challenge with this is that most brands are set up in silos, like marketing, pr, customer service, social media and more. Content marketing moves in and around all these departments. To combat this, more brands are hiring Chief Content Officers, content marketing managers and in-house journalists to uncover the stories that solve customers’ pain points and can help drive the business.
It’s hard to say what will happen even in the next six months let alone three years. As more resources are invested into owned media to drive earned media, more attention will be placed on organizational storytellers and how to drive more attention by being interesting, not by spending more on advertising.
4. What are common obstacles that prevent marketing teams from getting things done efficiently?
- Lack of a real content marketing strategy
- Lack of understanding where the stories are in the organization
- Lack of getting employees involved in the content creation process
- Lack of someone who owns the content marketing process
- Too many silos
- Talking too much about the products and services and not enough focused on stories that make impact with the customer
5. What’s your thing for the color orange?
That’s a really long story…all I would say is that orange is the color of content. I wear it so much that now people expect me in it all the time…and I try to deliver on that expectation whenever possible.
Watch for Part Two of the Joe Pulizzi interview later this week, as Joe shares his insights on the impact of technology on marketing work environments.
