There are so many pieces & parts to content marketing, it’s often difficult to keep up — or to know where to start if you’re considering launching a content marketing program for your business.

Since content marketing is really all about education, we thought it fitting to put together answers to some of the questions we get asked all the time.

What exactly is content marketing?
For many businesses, it’s how they’ve always approached the marketing process — educating prospects with informative materials that position their company as a thought leader rather than a pushy sales machine. Picture a white paper that helps a reader understand a situation, tip sheets or blogs that walk them through a process, or a how-to video that demonstrates a product or task — that’s content.

Content can also be more visual, like memes or social tiles you share to boost your visibility on Facebook, LinkedIn or Instagram.

What’s the difference between content and copy?
Content (as in content marketing) is a relatively new term. Originally, it was used to refer to more word-heavy marketing pieces such as in-depth white papers or research reports.

Today, some marketers make the distinction between copy (just the words) and content (the final, laid-out artwork including the copy). At Fahoury Ink, we consider the terms pretty interchangeable.

What’s a content audit?
Businesses new to content marketing are often pleasantly surprised at the amount of content they already have in one form or another. For example, think of presentations you’ve given. Between the visuals you used (think PowerPoint slides) and the narrative you delivered, that could be turned into all types of shareable content rather than staying trapped in your head.

So a content audit means looking through all your existing marketing and sales materials (both traditional and digital) to determine what can be put to work in various formats to keep you in front of your audience.

Why would a business need a copywriter?
This answer definitely isn’t one-size-fits-all. If you’re a small business or solopreneur, your marketing content often is the most significant and visible aspect of your brand positioning — what you do, and how you do it better/faster/more reliably than the competition.  So it needs to be done well. And chances are, you don’t have the time to become a content marketing expert, so you turn to a professional copywriter.

For larger firms, content creation is more about a) objectivity and b) bandwidth. Insiders often get so immersed in an organization’s positioning & brand messaging, they can’t take a step back and assess what needs to be refreshed or updated. In addition, internal resources are often too overwhelmed with the sheer amount of content to be produced, so outsourcing copywriting can provide a solution for both issues.

Next time...choosing the right copywriter for the project.