Content Marketing is Dead. Long Live Content Marketing!

Ever heard of Content Marketing? This question is, of course, meant with a wink; I simply couldn't resist. Of course, almost everyone has heard of it! While some companies are enthusiastically trying to implement this marketing approach, another part of my readers will be rolling their eyes in annoyance, claiming that this artificially created buzzword has always existed, just under a different name.

However, the proclaimed hype surrounding Content Marketing in Austria seems to exist only within a small part of the industry discourse, as the bare statistical data tells a completely different story. The Austrian advertising market is still committed to classical advertising with 51.7%, making it appear like a convinced "print country." So, is an approach being laid to rest here that has not even truly seen the light of day in Austria?

Before I present my personal view, I would like to illuminate the Content Marketing approach more closely for better understanding. What is Content Marketing really, and what is it certainly not? What distinguishes it from the neighbouring field of Inbound Marketing? Where does the greatest challenge lie, and where does the greatest potential emerge?

Hasn't Content Marketing Always Existed?

Let's put the cart before the horse! Let's start with the complaint that Content Marketing has always existed – just under a different name. Can this claim be true? Partially, yes.

If we look closely and are honest as content marketers, then this approach indeed existed a long time ago: The American agricultural machinery manufacturer John Deere was the first to publish a magazine ("The Furrow") to support its target audience with relevant and useful content and thus bind them to the company. That was in 1895, and both the company and the magazine still exist today.

It must therefore be stated that Content Marketing is not based on an absolutely new idea. However, it must also be stated that Content Marketing works. Nevertheless, from today's perspective, Content Marketing goes several steps further and is therefore only partially comparable to Deere's ingenious idea. Modern Content Marketing is an approach based on integrated corporate communication and is itself "only" a part of an overarching approach (more on this in a moment). It addresses the massive social and economic upheavals that have occurred since the almost ubiquitous spread of the internet and its development into the social web. Content Marketing has evolved from a purely analogue to an online based marketing approach. Ongoing developments and changes, the speed of the medium, constant customer proximity and continuous dialogue are just some of the characteristics that John Deere did not have to contend with at the time.

What is Content Marketing?

According to the definition of the Content Marketing Institute, Content Marketing refers to a strategic marketing approach focused on the ongoing creation and distribution of helpful and relevant content designed to attract and acquire a clearly defined target audience, ultimately aiming to trigger profitable target audience behaviour.

Content Marketing is therefore about providing high-quality online content for your target audience, specifically addressing their questions and providing solutions to their problems. For this purpose, various content formats are suitable, such as blog posts, audio and video files, images, infographics or even live broadcasts. The form of the content is only important insofar as it should be adapted to your target audience. When creating content, it is not your own preferences that count, but solely those of your customers.

One of the biggest challenges content marketers face today is the fact that this approach is not a campaign model, but must be part of a new corporate strategy. This is an ongoing process, a corporate reorientation, a digital transformation – if you ask me, a true paradigm shift.

Perhaps some may find my choice of words a little too theatrical at this point. However, it may also be that the full scope of this strategy has not yet been internalised. I hope that this situation will soon change and some of my enthusiasm will spill over. The potential that lies in Content and Inbound Marketing is indeed enormous, and both offer clear advantages compared to other approaches and neighbouring disciplines – both for the company itself and for the customers.

What is Inbound Marketing?

Since I mentioned both terms in the same breath and put them in an as yet undefined relationship to each other, it seems that both Content and Inbound Marketing must have a common starting point. Both have "something to do with marketing" and Inbound Marketing, in particular, is still relatively unknown in Austria.

Why do I claim this? In my research on both terms in Google Trends for the past 12 months, the search volume for Austria was so low that no graphics could be displayed at all. The situation is quite different in the United States or even France. Even in Germany, the term Inbound Marketing is still relatively unknown. Try it yourself, here's the link.

Inbound Marketing turns traditional marketing on its head: The initial contact with the target audience does not happen through advertising, but through high-quality online content that the interested user finds on their own initiative and from a personal need. This content answers questions, solves problems or is otherwise of interest to the website visitor. It is therefore about attracting and mobilising potential customers through useful content.

Doesn't that sound just like the definition of Content Marketing? So, where – assuming it exists – is the difference between these two approaches?

What Distinguishes Content Marketing from Inbound Marketing

Content and Inbound Marketing share an important core: relevant and helpful content that appeals to target audiences and binds them to the company. However, the difference becomes clear when we clarify the strategic goals of both approaches.

The corporate goals pursued by Content Marketing are mainly communication goals aimed at creating brand awareness, image, reputation, authority and thought leadership. Inbound Marketing, on the other hand, pursues classic sales goals. Here, the focus is on increasing sales, optimising the customer journey and accompanying the development of a customer towards becoming a true "fan." Ultimately, both approaches contribute to corporate goals, albeit from different angles.

Is Content Marketing Dead or Not?

I still owe you my personal assessment of whether Content Marketing is dead or not. If Content Marketing is understood as a cheap advertising gimmick, packaged in "nice" online content, then this concept is not viable. The discerning internet user will see through the intentions faster than you can say Content Marketing.

However, if Content Marketing is understood as that strategic corporate communication that takes the change in society and thus also in consumers seriously, works towards honest dialogue and keeps the needs of the target audiences in focus, then this approach is anything but dead. It is just emerging and brings with it growth potentials that we can still hardly fully assess today, but which certainly go beyond classic KPIs.