Content Marketing Today

Pj Forrest  
(Graduate School of Business, Alcorn State University, USA)

Abstract: Content Marketing has become the industry standard. It has been found to be more effective than Traditional marketing. Content Marketing shifts Marketing away from persuasive advertising and selling approaches and instead provides information which creates value for the consumer. This information may be interesting, helpful, informative, problem solving or just entertaining, but the consumer must derive some benefit from it (Chordras 2018, Metrick 2018.) Market segmentation is extremely important to Content Marketing as each piece of content must be tailored to the particular target market the business is trying to reach (Chordras 2018.) Successful Content Marketers create benefits for themselves as well in the form of increased sales, reduced costs, and more loyal consumers (Content Marketing Institute 2017, Metrick 2018). As traditional marketing decreases in effectiveness Content Marketing effectiveness is increasing (Content Marketing Institute 2016, Patel, 2016). It has progressed from being a practice used to get a competitive edge on the competition to a must use. Companies who do not use Content Marketing get left behind in the industry. This paper is designed to provide a broad overview of Content Marketing to the marketing educator.  Existing textbooks have not had time to include substantial information on this fast-growing area, and most educators do not have time to fully research each new area of Marketing as it appears. A full understanding of Content Marketing can be very helpful in making sure our students graduate with knowledge of all current marketing practices.

Key words: content marketing; social media marketing; SEO; inbound marketing; segmentation; storytelling

JEL codes: M3