Do you know what this is?
This, my friend, is one of the greatest examples of content marketingof all time.
I bet that when you hear “content marketing,” you think about blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and viral YouTube videos.
But content marketing has been around far longer than the Internet.
Why?
Because content marketing is all about storytelling,and humans have told stories for as long as they could speak. Our attention will always go to those who tell great stories.
When Hasbro and Marvel cooperated to launch their comic book series “G.I. Joe – A Real American Hero!”in 1982, their marketing strategy was simple.
They wanted to create what Kenner Toy Company’s Star Wars action figures already had: A rich backstory for their action figures.
Within two months of releasing the first comic book, about 20% of their target audience, boys between the ages of five and twelve, had two or more G.I. Joe toys. And at that point, the comic book only had two stories.
Seven years later, the series was one of Marvel’s strongest titles, and two out of three boys in the same age category owned at least one G.I. Joe action figure.
How’s that for using content to market a product?
A lot has changed since then, and what worked back in the 80s won’t necessarily work today. However, with new marketing channels like social media popping up almost daily, opportunity is knocking.
So, let’s take a look at what content marketing means now in my content marketing guide. Feel free to skip ahead if one topic catches your eye:
- Definition
- Overview
- Strategy
- History
- Why content marketing?
- Content mapping based on the customer journey
- Awareness stage content
- Consideration stage content
- Decision stage content
- Additional forms of content marketing
- Social media
- Live video
- Paid advertising
- A few extra tips and tricks
- Offline
- Online
- Hybrids