These days, it seems like everyone is talking about content marketing. But what is it really?

The marketing minute is a shorter version of the popular More than a Few Words podcast.  Instead of a conversation with a marketing professional, host Lorraine Ball shares a quick tip to start you on your day as a business owner.

Content marketing is a strategic marketing process of using content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience. It's focused on creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to ultimately drive customer action.

There are several  really important words in that definition.

Strategic:  With content marketing you don't just start writing blog posts and taking pictures willy nilly, you  create a plan which outlines your goals and what you're going to do with the content and what kind of content you want to deliver.

You start by figuring out who your audience is and  where are they going to be.  You also need to think about the action you want them to take  after they read your Facebook update or see a video. Do you want them to download, share,  sign up or to buy?

The action part of content marketing is as important as all of the other pieces