Content marketing is any marketing that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire and retain customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including news, video, white papers, e-books, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, question and answer articles, photos, etc. Content Marketing has been defined in multiple ways. The meaning of the term depends a lot on the purpose and context. One of the most used definition is "the technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire and engage a clearly defined target audience in order to drive profitable customer action" Content marketing creates interest in a product through educational, entertaining or informative material. Successful content marketing relies on providing "consistent, high-quality content that solves people's problems." Table of Contents: Preface 7 1 Introduction to Content Marketing 8 1.1 Old vs. New Rules of Marketing 9 1.2 Defining Content Marketing 10 1.3 Who Uses and Publishes Content 11 1.4 Where Content Marketing Is 12 1.5 The Benefits of Content Marketing 14 2 Content Marketing Strategy Development - How to Prepare and What to Use 15 2.1 What Does Content Do? 15 2.2 Preparing for a Content Marketing Strategy 16 2.3 Media Tools Available 18 2.4 Forms Used in Media Tools 20 2.5 A Final Word on Content 23 Content Marketing Search Engine Optimization in Content Marketing 24 3.1 Basics of SEO 24 3.2 What are Keywords? 25 3.3 Determining Keywords 26 3.4 Placing Keywords 28 4 Website and Profiles 31 4.1 Your Website 32 4.2 Social Media Profiles 33 4.3 Blogs 35 4.4 Email Content 36 5. External Sites 37 5.1 Benefits of Content Beyond the Organization 37 5.2 Common External Sites and Media Tools to Use 38 5.3 Article Directories 39 5.4 Open Source Content Sites 41 5.5 How-To Sites 42 5.6 Guest Posting (On Blogs, Newsletters, etc.) 45 5.7 Affiliate Programs 46 Content Marketing User-Generated Content 47 6.1 Where is User-Generated Content? 48 6.2 Creating a Space for User-Generated Content 48 6.3 Customer Reviews 49 6.4 Handling Negative User-Generated Content 49 6.5 The Pros and Cons of User-Generated Content 49 Resources 51 Executive