I’ll admit it. I’ve gotten into several arguments about content marketing. Not fistfights or polite differences of opinion, but somewhere in between. But I promise that no curse words were used nor punches thrown. I’m assuming that I am one of the few people that can make this claim. And I can also assume that none of my regular readers are surprised to hear this.

Yes, I am passionate about content marketing. I think it is a fantastic way for freelance writers to increase their income. But most importantly, I think that great content marketing helps companies attract customers. And even more importantly, content helps the customers solve their problems. I love great content and get excited when I find examples of it. And I really dislike bad content marketing because I think it gives the industry a bad name. I know, I’m a content nerd.

Good Storytelling, No Product Mentions = Great Content Marketing

Several times in recent months, I have had writers tell me that they write for airline magazines and I responded that these clips are actually content marketing. I expected the writers to be happy that they had more content marketing writing experience than they thought, but they weren’t. Both told me that I was wrong that airline magazines were not content marketing and were a bit indignant that I made this statement.

So of course, I asked why and opened up a can of snakes (which is bigger than a can of worms, in case you are wondering about my word choice). The answer was that the work that they did for the airline magazines was journalistic in nature. They got a byline. The story required outside reporting. They interviewed real people. It had nothing to do with the airline, but instead they wrote interesting stories that travelers cared about. One writer summed up her thoughts by saying, “I wrote some great articles. It wasn’t fluffy or marketing at all.”

So of course, I couldn’t contain myself and shouted (well, not really, but I wanted to) with glee, “Yes, that’s exactly the definition of content marketing!” I possibly could have responded in a better way. But I am passionate about content marketing. And as I always tell my kids, the flip sides of our weaknesses are usually our strengths as well.

They did not take it kindly when I also told them that their work in Harvard’s alumni publication and the AARP magazine was also content marketing. Those conversations did not end well. I walked away frustrated that I could not explain to content marketing to them in a way that they understood. And they walked away insulted that I called their work marketing. And I was sad that they missed the fact that I was complimenting their fantastic content marketing work.

Content Marketing is not the Same as Advertising

I really wish that the phrase “content marketing” did not have the term marketing in it. But it does and that is the language people who hire us use, so we are stuck with it. Writers really hate this term and will do everything they can to avoid using it. I’m going to talk about why I think that we as a profession need to get comfortable with this term and not use other forms (such as “custom content”) in an upcoming post.

But my main point today is that I wanted to say that just because something written for a brand (or hospital or nonprofit or association) is a great story and looks like journalism doesn’t mean that it’s not content marketing. It just means that it is really good content marketing. Just because something is called content marketing doesn’t mean its promotional or salesy or all those other “bad” words that we associate with traditional advertising. In fact, if it looks, feels and smells like advertising, then it isn’t really content marketing, but thinly veiled advertising.

Yes, there are some differences between writing content and journalism. One is that you cannot use competitors as sources and the a brand would never publish anything that sheds the company in a bad light. The other big difference is that you must write in the brand voice instead of your own voice. But once you get past these differences, then I find very few differences.

Content marketing is supposed to tell a great story, which is what journalists have been doing for years.  Yes, there is an ultimately different purpose to the content. But honestly, the sales and marketing part has been decided by the marketing folks who handle the strategy. It’s in the content strategy stage when the decisions are made about which topics will appeal to the people the brand wants to market to and which keywords need to be included. And the sales stuff happens after customers trust the brand due to our amazing content.

Content marketing is supposed to ultimately help a company sell more airline tickets, association memberships, or to convince alumni to give more money.When we sit down to write content marketing, the goal is the same as if we were writing for a newspaper or consumer publication. Our job as writers is simply to write a great story.

Have your run into writers who didn’t understand content marketing? How do you think writing for content clients differs from journalism?