Here’s an important observation, though it might not seem like one at face value: Most organizations see content marketing as a marketing activity. Full stop. Not surprisingly, they therefore delegate responsibility for content marketing to their marketing departments. While this won’t immediately strike you as a unique or critical insight, let it percolate in your head for a minute. The important point is that this widely accepted view will soon get turned on its head.
Let us explain.
Most people view content marketing as revolving around blogs posts, videos, and infographics – in short, all the usual suspects in terms of marketing content. They rarely if ever consider all of the other types of content that companies create — technical manuals, product data sheets, and customer service FAQs to cite a few examples — and how all of it could align with and support their efforts.
Similarly, most marketing teams never engage their peers in other departments about their content marketing activities unless it’s to ask them to serve as subject matter experts for a particular project. Regardless of whether that’s due to a lack of time or interest, they also don’t go out of their way to understand what content other departments are creating, let alone try to corral those efforts or align them. As a result, it’s easy for silos to form and for other departments to create content without regard for corporate standards. And who can blame them? They have their own goals to meet and adhering to the marketing team’s guidelines is rarely one of them…
Why the Future of Content Marketing Isn’t Just Marketing Content
