In the process of building our Content Marketing Technology Platform we have done a lot of research. We have had to read, listen and question lots of people in order to get a real understanding of what content marketing entails. Whilst we aren’t in the game of giving away awards, we are going to share our thoughts on who we think it is worth keeping an eye on.

In these days of information overload there is a lot of material being written and shared on the web on a daily basis. Whilst everyone has a right to their opinion and has a right to express that opinion there are few people who are able to consistently develop their message and who are capable of reaching out to all levels from newbies up to gurus.

Content Marketing Joe

We think one of those capable people is Joe Pulizzi at the Content Marketing Institute. This is a good place to start your journey if you are just about to dip a toe in the water.

Content Marketing Book

If you are already on the path then possibly you are ready to look at Joe’s latest book Managing Content Marketing. This is not just a tome on theory, it is possibly the first book that takes you through the process of adopting content marketing as a core marketing strategy. It is written in a way that you can tell the advice given has been tested and not just once! It starts with suggestions as to how you can build a business case for adopting content marketing and how you can assess your progress. Definitely worth a read. Especially at the price of the ebook version! Oh, for the sake of clarity, let’s be clear – we don’t have a commission deal!

Content Marketing VC

Next, we want to talk about a totally different group of people who have adopted content marketing successfully. For them it is a question of brand building – not something you immediately associate with a venture capital company.

Open View Venture Partners has a relatively small, niche target market – growth-stage technology companies. By ‘growth-stage’ we are talking about companies wanting to raise more than $5m that expect to be significant players in the USA. So, not exactly a ‘deal a day’ business. However, Open View is grade-A exponent of content marketing best practice. They create content, not masses of it, but sufficient to give put across the message they want to get out to the world. Although they might not take on too many clients in a year, their newsletter attracts more than 10,000 subscribers because the content they write is insightful and valuable. It also enables them to get to know and track people and companies that they might want to do business with someday.

To illustrate how switched on this company is Joe Pulizzi is now a Senior Advisor with Open View and consults their portfolio companies on content marketing strategy. And lastly a disclosure – Ultra Knowledge is not a portfolio company of Open View and we have never sought funding from them – we just recognise good practitioners when we see them!

Content Marketing Agency

Now off in another direction – marketing agencies. If you think content marketing is a thing of the future then take a look at Velocity Partners. Real advocates of content marketing who produce some well written content (Blogs, eBooks, etc) that talk very plainly about content marketing. Good stuff for checking that you are maintaining your focus as you get wrapped up in your strategies.

Content Marketing in the Fast Lane

Lastly, we have to mention a couple of small companies who have some interesting things to say. Take a look at these two videos www.youtube.com/watch?v=LerdMmWjU_E and www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwIq-8GWA8. Get an insight to ‘Coca Cola Content 2020’ – one of the world’s biggest brands moves into content marketing.

Then take a look at www.zeromomentoftruth.com/ and see how the world’s largest ‘search engine’(?) is spending a lot of effort researching the changing face of marketing. Download their free 47 page eBook (available in most formats)!

Conclusion

If you are interested in content marketing then you are lucky because anyone out there who understands the subject also knows that they have to spread their knowledge if they are going to be successful practitioners. That means the only problem you have is finding the ‘nuggets’ of information as opposed to the misinformation that surrounds it.  More on that in future posts!