A few months ago we published a fairly popular blog post called, The 14 C’s of Content Marketing. While many inquired how we came up with so many C’s, we felt 14 wasn’t enough, resulting in the development of seven additional content marketing C’s. Now, armed with the 21 C’s of content marketing, you’ll be able to deploy more powerful and efficient campaigns that tell your brand’s story, solve consumers' problems and/or entertains them in a robust and profitable fashion.
- Currency – You can’t convert anyone on a website if there is no currency for the quid pro quo transaction behind a form. A website’s currency is either some type of tangible or intangible value proposition. Tangible assets reside on ecommerce websites while intangible value propositions come in the form of whitepapers, guides, cheat sheets, ebooks, case studies, and any other advanced content. A visitor’s currency is either their money or an email address.
- Component – Content marketing is a component or part of a larger and broader strategy known as inbound marketing. In fact, it is the foundation of inbound marketing that also includes social media marketing and search engine optimization. Inbound marketing is also known as pull marketing or earned media. Outbound marketing, also known as push marketing, includes tactics like online banner ads and media buys, pay per click advertising, direct mail, newspaper ads, TV commercials, billboards and call centers.
- Composition – It’s a misnomer that since content is being published online a laissez-faire writing style and approach is acceptable. Online content should follow all of the same composition rules followed by traditional media sources. These rules can be adopted using the AP Style Guide and/or existing company governance.
- Call to action (CTA) – Visitors to a website need to be told what to do next. CTAs are the most effective way to draw attention to advanced content, moral bribes or unique value propositions while telling visitors to download, sign up, watch or listen. They can be deployed using graphics, audio instruction in a video or lines of text in a blog post, whitepaper or download. CTAs allow content marketers to optimize profitable website action.
- Cannibalism – Since publishing frequency and consistency are so important for compounding positive online momentum over time, it’s important to create spacing through publication timing between similar content categories and topics. The content categories will be defined by the brand’s expertise. By publishing similar content on top of each other a cannibalization of conversions, leads and customers can occur.
- Coach – A championship team always has a coach. In the case of content marketing, a content coach should fill the role of controller, editor, manager, director and supervisor. They should foster competition and pride while leading the content producers in their marketing efforts.
- Correspondent – Developing a company culture that bestows the title of brand correspondent on all employees can be a powerful way to acquire quality, passion-filled content. If it’s not part of the culture, don’t expect high levels of quality contribution.
Using all of the 21 content marketing C’s will help your marketing team grow most of the positive metrics associated with online marketing and can serve as a guide and checklist for deployment. From search engine optimization and referral traffic to social media marketing and sentiment management, content marketing has proven to be a powerful way to harvest online marketing benefits. For tactical help using a blog for content marketing, download our Blog Post Optimization Playbook.
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