“Content Marketing” is confusing. What should it be called instead?
As I’ve mentioned, I am writing my second book, and the working title is “Content Marketing for Nonprofits: The So What, Who Cares Guide to Creating Memorable Messaging that Educates, Motivates, and Raises Money.” What a mouthful.
As I’ve been talking to people about the book, I’ve had to explain over and over what the heck “content marketing” is. Even marketing people aren’t sure. Then yesterday, I met with my friend and fundraiser extraordinaire Gail Perry, who said, “Kivi, ‘marketing’ is too big and confusing as it is for fundraisers, and we really don’t know what you mean by ‘content’ either.”
She strongly encouraged me to rename and rebrand what the heck it is I am writing this book about — and she’s right.
So, here is the definition I am using:
” ____________________ ” is creating and sharing relevant and valuable content that attracts, educates, motivates, and inspires your participants and supporters so that they can help you achieve your mission.
The “content” is all the stuff you put in your newsletters, on your website, in social media, etc. And what makes this different from how we’ve all done it in the past is bringing in the key marketing concepts of target audiences and their wants, needs, and interests, and letting that help drive what you create and share with the world. It’s creating and publishing all that stuff with real purpose and goals behind it, not just to fill up the communications buckets put in front of you.
So what do we call this particular approach?
All ideas welcome!
