The difference between Content Marketing and Custom Content

September 7th, 2011

I’m at the extremely well-attended Content Marketing World — the first conference of its kind here in Cleveland (from Junta42), and I’m picking at one of the four different macaroni and cheese combinations they are offering tonight at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (that seems like a lot to me, but what do I know).

I fall into a dinner conversation with a gentleman from a traditional B2B magazine publisher who is a speaker and sponsor at the event.

“We just launched our content marketing division last year,” he says confidently.

“Oh?” I say.  “You never did custom content before? I would have thought you would have.”

I spent a few years at B2B giant Reed Elsevier and like many publishers (especially in the B2B space), Reed had a custom content businesses which was typically run as a one-off—using most of the same resources and processes as the content business.

“Oh, no, we have done custom content for years.”

There is an obvious follow-up question here, but I don’t want to put him on the spot. But I can’t help myself, so as casually as possible, I ask, “So, then what do you see as the difference between content marketing and custom content?”

He pauses. A few folks stop their conversations and start listening—yup, I have put him on the spot. I actually had never considered the issue myself until just now.

“Well, nothing really I guess.  I think they just keep changing the name. It used to be Custom Publishing, then it was Custom Content, and now it is Content Marketing.”

He smiles weakly — and a little bit later he leaves to take a call.

Quite a few of the companies at Content Marketing World are here from traditional publishing world: PR Newswire, Wolters Kluwer, Penton, Cygnus.  For many of them, “Content Marketing” may indeed be just another word for “Custom Content”, a business run on the side for brands.  But I don’t think that is the whole story;  if it were this conference wouldn’t be nearly so well attended.

In my view, there is a simple and fundamental difference between Content Marketing and Custom Content. One is internal, one is external.

Custom Content, pioneered by  folks like Pohly & Pohly over fifty years ago with the airline magazine concept, was typically the creation of content meant to build an affinity with your existing audience. The content would reinforce the brand, communicate the value of its product, and create new opportunities. To define it: Custom Content is the creation of  “branded content” for a customer.  And  for the most part, custom content involved brands communicating with their existing customers.

There is some overlap, but Content Marketing for the most part is a different beast.  Content Marketing is predominantly outward facing — it is about creating content that will attract *new* customers for brands. It can be branded content, but it can also be simply “brand relevant” content that attracts an audience.  The Content Marketing trend started with online white papers, but has crossed over into consumer blogs and social media.  In fact, for some brands like P&G (soap operas were actually an early anomalous example of content marketing) content marketing is starting to look like a much more successful method of creating online engagement than advertising. Hence the popularity of the new Content Marketing World conference I am attending.

What does all of this mean? Brands or firms who are looking to be content marketers will have to overcome all of the same challenges as publishers.   They not only have to create great content, they also have to figure out how to attract and reach an audience. And guess what: they will likely be in direct competition with publishers over who is going to build a direct relationship with the  the audience.

I draw two conclusions: first, Content Marketing  is going to be a lot harder than Custom Content to do well. Brands who want to be content marketers will have to understand and use a much wider array of expertise and disciplines including, but not limited to, social media, search optimization, paid and earned media, distribution, and community building.  Secondly, there will be blood. Inevitably, content marketing creates a conflict  with publishers over who owns the audience, the writers, and the content. Brands may find that traditional publishers are going to be so keen on helping put themselves out of business.

But one thing is for sure: this is a very different business than custom content.

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