Most people have tried their hand at journaling somewhere along the way. Sometimes this happens in high school English class or later on in college.

Certain types of people enjoy journaling so much that they like to do it in public with the internet-enabled phenomenon known as “blogging.” Published on a website and promoted via email or social media, this exercise quickly becomes about creating and serving an audience of dedicated readers.

Motives for blogging vary widely, but professional bloggers, known as “influencers,” can monetize their audience by selling sponsorships or advertising around their content.

This article is about a particular type of blogging called “content marketing”. Content marketing can be performed directly by the marketing staff of a company but is often done by ad agencies or digital marketing agencies on behalf of a company or organization.

Content marketing pieces (articles) almost always take the form of real-world experiences or advice that provides value to a reader, but the end goal is the promotion of the sponsor's expertise, products or services.

Generally, content marketers will partner with media companies for the broadest possible distribution of their content.

Successful content marketing campaigns usually have the following characteristics

• content should be helpful to a significant portion of the audience

  

• content is about a specific, tangible, real problem

• content contains actual solutions with concrete, actionable steps

• content reflects positively on the sponsor

Hopefully, this will be helpful as you think about different ways to promote your business or organization.

Tim Choate is President/CEO of Bondware Web Solutions, a web-based software company in Murfreesboro, TN.