In this article Pulizzi contends that non-media brands must and are competing with traditional media for attention and retention in the marketplace, and that the only way to compete for this attention is through content marketing. Pulizzi defines content marketing as the creation of relevant and compelling content that is produced by the brand on a consistent basis for the sole purpose of generating a positive behavior from customers of the brand. To support this argument the author provides a brief history of content marketing, discusses the opportunities for all contenders, and outlines six strategies for turning good content into great content.
My department produces a blog which “leverages employees in content creation,” one of Pulizzi’s six strategies for producing relevant and compelling content. We produce the content for our online teaching faculty, but we do not reference the university or make light of our brand, another of Pulizzi’s strategies to “remove the brand from the story.” The area where our content suffers most is the lack of a “chief storyteller.” Someone who is dedicated to coordinating and fine tuning our content across distribution channels and confirming alignment between them and our primary content marketing strategy. I consider this to be our biggest content marketing weakness. In the current format our content editor does review all content for quality assurance but is not making these alignment connections. And all members of the team who contribute take it upon themselves to promote the work but are not entirely cognizant of the audience experience in their distributions. If I were to act in an advisory capacity to our communication team, I would recommend assigning these responsibilities to an individual with this sole task in mind to ensure messaging is aligned and consistent, beyond its scheduled regularity.
LO6: Create and deliver elegant messages appropriate to audience, purpose, and context.