Clever content marketing explained simply - with the 4 Ps of classic marketing

"Marketing" is usually defined as "a concept of holistic, market-oriented corporate management to satisfy the needs and expectations of customers and other interest groups". And this is precisely the task we have in communication. If we apply the term consistently, then we can define content marketing as "a concept of holistic, market-oriented communication management to satisfy the (information) needs and expectations of customers and other interest groups". Quite simple, isn't it?

Perceive offers as desirable

Alternatively, marketing is defined as "the corporate function whose task it is to market products and services, i.e. to offer them for sale in such a way that buyers perceive this offer as desirable". And here, too, the analogy suggests itself. Content marketing would therefore be "the corporate function whose task it is to market messages and information, i.e. to offer them for use in such a way that users perceive this offer as desirable". The solution to the problems we have today, both strategically and tactically, lies precisely in "perceiving it as desirable":

There is a market for content. Companies must develop content in line with the market.

Mirko Lange

TV viewers zap away. Internet users are installing ad blockers, Facebook is controlling the visibility of posts according to user acceptance and Google is restructuring its algorithm to measure whether users actually use the content they find - for example, whether they stay on the website for a long time and continue to browse or bounce back.

The analogy is obvious!

So how can we make use of the findings of classic marketing for our content marketing? Simply by applying them analogously! And it helps if we understand that there is also a "market" for content - and that this market is currently changing radically, also and above all through social media. Because there are the same mechanisms of supply and demand as in the "real markets". At the moment, we simply have a huge oversupply and demand has not increased or has only increased slightly. And what happens in such markets?

Content marketing means applying the methods of (product) marketing to content

Mirko Lange

Prices are falling! Publishers can tell you a thing or two about it. Nobody wants to pay for content anymore! You have to understand that as a content provider you are in an insane competition. And you are a "content provider"! Because "advertising" and "PR" are also content! What else are they? So you should think about how you can still be competitive in this market. Because if nobody notices your content anymore, you have a huge problem.

First P: "Product"

So why not try it out with the findings of classic marketing: you also need "product management" for your content. This is the "content strategy". So you need to think about what "products" (= content) the market wants and how the product (= content) needs to be designed. And just as you determine the shape, color, packaging, functions, range, etc. for a "product", you must also determine the formats, the story, the appeal, the staging and so on for content. These are all elements of a content strategy.

If companies managed their products like they manage their content, they would be out of business for a long time

Mirko Lange

And if you look at modern product management, products are increasingly being developed into a "solution". And this also applies to content: content is particularly good if it solves a problem. Of course, you can always write whatever comes to mind or what someone in some department wants you to write. Along the lines of: "My house, my yacht, my car". But that is not "market-oriented". Here you don't think about whether the users perceive the offer as "desirable". A company that would conduct its product marketing in such a way that it simply produces the products that come to mind would have no chance on the market today. So why should this work with content?

Second P: "Place"

And you also have a distribution policy in content marketing. So you need to think about which channels you want to use to distribute your product (= content). What is the main channel? What are supplementary channels? How do the distribution channels interact? How can you distribute the content directly ("owned media") and indirectly ("earned media")? And are there any channel conflicts? This should not be underestimated. If you now distribute your content yourself via social media, what do your "distribution partners" say about it - and here I mean the "press", even if they will cough at me if I call them that. But the problem is exactly the same. And distribution policy also includes the topic of "SEO", because search engines are a distribution channel. And it doesn't stop at "online" or even "social media". Because you distribute "content" via many channels - including print products and catalogs. In traditional marketing today, this is called "omni-channel". And this also applies to content. Your content must be accessible to interested parties at all times and, if possible, via all conceivable channels.

Third P: "Price"

And yes. There is also a "pricing policy". You have to consider what you get back for your product (= content). With content, this is rarely money (but it can be), but it is attention, and/or traffic and/or leads and/or reputation or even a "pay with a tweet" or a "fangate" etc. etc. The "revenue opportunities" of "content" are manifold. These are all questions of pricing policy. And depending on the revenue you receive, you must then also determine the "production price". So how much can and should you invest in content? In traditional marketing, it's usually the other way around, where you first look at how much it costs to produce the product and then set the sales price. But this is of course an interplay. If your product is so expensive to produce that you can't achieve the price on the market, then you need to think about how you can reduce your production costs.

Fourth P: "Promotion"

And of course you also need "product promotion" or "communication policy" in content marketing! That sounds absurd at first: content is communication, so why do I need communication! But that is precisely the new media reality. And the reason is the market! The reason is the enormous surplus of supply! You now have to communicate content just as you have to communicate a product. It is naive to believe that viral videos, for example, will spread all by themselves! They are almost always "seeded", i.e. the companies pay money for distribution.

Those who do not advertise their content will soon no longer be noticed

Mirko Lange

So you have to "advertise" the content: Facebook Page Post Promotions, Google Adwords, SEA, etc. etc. In the near future, companies will no longer be able to do anything on Facebook without advertising, because Facebook is constantly reducing the technical reach of posts. This can even go as far as print advertising in trade journals for your blog. No joke. This is exactly what we are planning for our client Thomas Krenn.

And then there are other P

For some years now, voices in traditional marketing have been saying that the "4 Ps" are not enough. And there are many different suggestions as to how they can be supplemented. Especially against the backdrop of the new media reality, these "new Ps" are becoming particularly relevant for content marketing.

• "People": This is the whole topic of "testimonials", "authenticity", "ambassadors" etc.
• "Participation": How can I let others participate in my content? This is the whole topic of "interactive content", e.g. that I don't write an article, but distribute the content via a hangout or a webinar where people can ask questions. But of course also comments on the blog etc. .
• "Purpose": What "meaning" do I create with my content?
• "Processes" - Well, and of course you also need to think about processes. Especially when it comes to (strategic) content marketing. Because content marketing is a long-distance run, not a sprint. You need topic planning, editorial planning and production planning and you need to coordinate a lot of people. You also need processes. But I'll write something about that in another blog post.

Facebook shows the way into the future...

Incidentally, it is the same with content as it is with products: the worse a product is, the more you have to invest in advertising. This is also what we are facing in communication. Facebook is showing the way forward. Facebook is not only reducing its reach because they want to earn money with it. There is a completely different reason for this! They have to limit the offer. Because the range is increasing rapidly. More and more companies are posting more and more information on Facebook. And Facebook has a very simple problem: all the content no longer fits into their users' timelines!

Either you produce really good content or you pay a lot more for people to see it

Mirko Lange

But here too, thanks to the Edge Rank, posts that are "perceived as desirable" by users will also make it into users' timelines without advertising, or at least with significantly less advertising. But if you have poor product management (first P), you will have to pay more (fourth P). You can think about where to invest more. By the way, the same applies to Google. You can decide whether you want to blow money every month on Google Adwords without any lasting effect or whether you want to invest in content and then appear organically at the top. Or both. That's probably the smartest thing to do. So have fun!