TOWARDS THE IMPLEMENTATION
OF THE
CONTENT MARKETING
CMEX PROJECT
HANDBOOK
AN INTRODUCTION
TO CONTENT
MARKETING
WHAT IS CONTENT MARKETING?
Basically, content marketing aims at creating and
sharing engaging and valuable content in a variety of
formats (videos, white papers, e-books, info-graphics,
case studies, how-to guides, etc.) to attract a specific
target audience.
This means that CM focuses on communicating with
customers, in order to make them more informed and
inspire their loyalty.
EARLY EXAMPLES IN THE USE OF
CONTENT MARKETING:
In 1895 John Deere launched The Furrow magazine.
Widely considered as the earliest example of content
marketing, it is now the largest circulated farming
magazine worldwide, published in 40 countries.
In 1900 Michelin developed the Michelin Guide,
including addresses of fueling stations, mechanics
and tyre dealers. 35,000 copies of the first edition
were distributed for free.
In
1904
Woodward's
Genesee
Pure
Food
Company
started
the
distribution of a cookbook
to promote Jell-O, the
gelatin dessert produced
by the company: sales rose
to over $1 million in a
couple of years.
In 1913, Burns and
McDonnell introduced
Benchmark Magazine,
focused on topics related
to engineering. The
magazine is still published
today both in printed and
digital version.
In 1922 Sears launched
World’s Largest Store
radio programme, keeping
farmers informed during
the deflation crisis. The
initiative increased the
company’s popularity
among farmers.
In 1982 Hasbro and
Marvel Comics created
G.I. Joe Comic Book. An
animated television
mini-series and video
games were then
developed, contributing
to the huge success of
the toys.
MODERN EVOLUTION OF CONTENT
MARKETING
For a long time, the most common
distribution method for content marketing
has been mail.
In the last decade eBooks, blogs, podcasts
and ultimately Social Media like Youtube,
Pinterest, Twitter, Facebook, etc. gained
adoption as new ways to produce and
distribute content.
Nowadays, many
international leading
companies are engaged in
some sort of content
marketing and make wide
use of the newest digital
technologies to reach a
huge range of customers
worldwide.
Content marketing is also
being used by small
businesses and not-forprofit organizations (92%
of them in North
America!) to better
promote themselves.
WHAT’S THE FUTURE OF CONTENT
MARKETING?
Brands will have to focus on:
• the overall quality of the content disseminated
(useful, entertaining, educational)
• a multiplatform approach based on the use of
modern and traditional, digital and printed resources.
IN A FEW WORDS, GOOD CONTENT
MARKETING WILL HAVE TO BE
FOCUSED ON THE READER AND ON THE
RIGHT CHANNELS TO INTERACT WITH
HIM.
USE OF INNOVATIVE MARKETING
TOOLS IN MALTA
According to MCA’s
“e-Commerce business
survey 2013”:
• 69% of the companies interviewed has their own
website (67% in 2012)
• 46% of them created a website to attract customers,
14% for promotion and advertisement purposes, 9%
to enhance the company’s image
• 36% of them uses traditional marketing only, 21%
uses both digital/online marketing and traditional
marketing, 17% uses digital/online marketing only
• The health/social field stands out as the most
keen on using new technologies for marketing
purposes
• Facebook is the most popular tool to promote
the company (85%)
• Companies choose digital/online marketing
because it guarantees a broader exposure, it is
a popular trend and it seems to be more costeffective than traditional marketing
HOW ARE MALTESE COMPANIES REACTING
TO THE DIGITAL REVOLUTION?
Digital marketing is growing up in popularity but some
issues in the use of modern technologies remain:
• most companies don’t know how to gauge ROI, i.e.
understand how the use of social media affects their
business
• other concerns are related to the choice of the contents
that might be posted on their website/accounts
• companies find it difficult to keep up with digital
platforms’ evolution (changes in their interface and
services offered)
• companies lack in-house qualified personnel
• outsourcing content marketing management to external
qualified professionals can be too expensive
CONCLUSION
• Maltese companies need to boost their
competitiveness and learn how to better engage
customers with exciting and useful content: to do
so, they will have to develop a new approach to
marketing and become familiar with modern
communication platforms which are powerful
means to interpret and guide consumers’
behaviour.
• The development of the Content Marketing
Handbook (CMH) will help interested stakeholders
in getting the thorough understanding of content
marketing’s potential that they currently lack.
Paragon Europe will be a key-partner for the
project’s implementation in Malta:
• ensuring a close consultation with national experts,
stakeholders and organizations
• providing training, research and in-depth
analyses related to the relevant topics
• guaranteeing the widest dissemination of the
information gathered, in order to enable the
transfer of knowledge, good practices and innovation.
THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION