10 tips on content marketing: The what, why, and how

Marketers, every business is now a media company. New distribution platforms make it easy for you to speak directly to the right audiences. But is your content ready for prime time?

Content marketing, as defined by the Langley Center for New Media, is “a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience—with the objective of driving profitable customer action.”

Here are 10 of my own tips for companies that want to think and act like publishers.

1. Tell the story “out of order.” Start with why, not with background or with “how,” especially when telling a science or technology story. Even more specifically, show “why it matters” and “why now.”

2. Turn standard marketing collateral into a narrative. This post of mine is explicitly about PR people writing award submissions, but the advice fits other situations, too.