Confused about Content Strategy and Content Marketing? These 5 Must-Read Posts Fill You In.

I hate solutions. You know what I’m talking about: market-speak that describes products as “solutions”—everything from software to kitty litter (your “cat odor solution”).

But language is imperfect. So I guess you have to cut some slack for people who torture it trying to simplify complex concepts and processes. Like me, you probably dislike jargon and buzzwords. But also like me, you probably use those words sometimes. At your work, for instance: Among tribes of professionals, linguistic shorthand often makes communication easier.

But sometimes not.

Right now a group of content professionals are arguing about discussing the terms “content marketing” and “content strategy.” Some use the terms almost interchangeably and others don’t.

Check out these 5 great discussions

If you’re a strategic-minded copywriter or content marketer you may want to listen in—or even add your two cents—to the conversation. The following discussions are among the best:

1. Content Marketing and Content Strategy are merging. Is that a good thing? Blogger Ian Alexander believes content strategy is a practice and content marketing is a tactic. A mashup of the two terms worries him. His post kicked off debate at…
2. Google Groups Content Strategy forum. Lots of articulate people—heavily weighted on the Content Strategy end, naturally—hold forth in the forum’s threaded comments.
3. Horizontal and vertical content strategy. Lise Janody envisions two types of content strategy: Horizontal—a practice that’s web- and User Experience (UX)-focused, and vertical—across multiple channels and platforms for business purposes. Read more about her distinctions in this post.
4. Content strategy, content marketing and the name game. Laura Creekmore sees content strategy less as deliverables—content audits, inventories, taxonomies, style guides—and more as a mindset. In this thoughtful post, she explains why she puts “content second, because the business goal comes first.”
5. The Web Is Not A Farm! It’s Time To Tear Down The Silos. Back in the day, web workers were generalists. Today not so much. While specialization fuels innovation, it also leads to professional silos—and isolation. Maybe we should move forward by going back to being generalists, posits Kristina Mausser in this post.

Can we all just get along?

For some context on the content contest, think about this: Twenty years ago, “content strategy” and “content marketing” didn’t exist. Back then, content creators were “copywriters,” “graphic artists” and “filmmakers.” UX designers and information architects (IA) were “tech people.”

And guess what? Most C level executives—the ones who okay budgets—still think of us as “copywriters” and “tech people.”

But debate is healthy. Behind defensiveness—and its implication that “my work is more important than yours”—you’ll find a group of people who care deeply about content and about assuring its usefulness. And that includes copywriters, content marketers, content strategists, IAs, UX folk, SEOs and everyone else who creates (cough) content solutions.

Tagged as: Are content marketing and content strategy the same thing?, Content Marketing, Content strategy