Content marketing: applying your linguistic creativity

The manual was prepared by the following team

Elena Zyryanova Science and International activities unit Chapters 11, 12, 13
author
specialist, invited lecturer,
A leader of the
School of Foreign Languages, project group on the
manual writing
HSE University

Nadezhda Nazarova Product Director of Splitmetrics, Chapters 1, 2, 4, 5,

8, 10 author
consultant on strategic marketing and
Chapter 3 co-author
product launch to new markets A leader of the
project group on the
manual writing

Maria Vilina Marketing manager, VK (social network) Chapter 6 author

Chapter 3 co-author
Responsible editor

Daria Andronova Content expert at Smartcat Chapter 7 author

Consultant

Mikhail Dashkov Leading analyst, marketing specialist, Chapter 9 author

Consultant
School of Foreign Languages,
HSE University

Yulia Grevtseva Science and International activities unit Editor, translator

specialist, invited lecturer,
School of Foreign Languages,
HSE University

Elena Sidorkina Tutor, Editor, translator

School of Foreign Languages,
HSE University

Maria Tsygunova Tutor, post-graduate student, Practical tasks

developer
School of Foreign Languages,
 HSE University

Anna Tsvetkova Assistant, School of Foreign Languages, Editor, translator

HSE University

Anfisa Anisimova Web-writing and content marketing course Chapter 5 co-author

student of School of Foreign Languages,
HSE University, at 2019
Digital marketing manager at
SoftwareONE.

Abstract

The manual provides basic content marketing recommendations, techniques, and concepts
that will assist and guide the reader with theory and practice in creating relevant content in
the field of his/her activities. The manual has a number of ways to work with the information
and can be used by a reader individually or by a teacher for individual or group work.
Contents

Introduction. The essence of the manual

Chapter 1. Content marketing basics
Chapter 2. Basic definitions of marketing
Chapter 3. Marketing funnel
Chapter 4. Content strategy
Chapter 5. Audience
Chapter 6. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Chapter 7. Copywriting Basics
Chapter 8. Graphic design Chapter 9. Community building
Chapter 10. Content formats
Chapter 11. Legal issues
Chapter 12. Touchy subjects
Chapter 13. Content marketing career paths
Introduction

The purpose

The manual integrates such broad areas as linguistics, marketing and content marketing. This
subject guide is a collaboration of a group of specialists with extended experience both in
Russia and abroad in the corresponding fields.

The peculiarity of content marketing is that the language and marketing components are
determined by each specific case of business goals, conditions, audience, etc. This means that
content marketing does not have a fixed pattern due to its heterogeneity, but it has basic
guidelines that can help you measure whether your content is successful.

Content marketing is a cross disciplinary domain. To be exact, it is the work accomplished

across teams of a variety of allied skills. This means that a content-marketing specialist is
supposed to be aware and have understanding of basic functioning of these interrelated
spheres. These spheres are marketing, audience research, strategic planning, content
optimisation, internet algorithms, graphic design, copywriting and linguistics.

To make this possible the present manual contains the corresponding information gradually
getting a reader acquainted with the functioning of content marketing and explaining to what
extent they need to plunge into each of the adjacent spheres. Having examined the adjacent
spheres a reader can also make a choice to which of them they want to relate to and act in
more.

Thus, the manual provides basic content marketing recommendations, techniques and
concepts which will assist and guide the reader with theory and practice in creating relevant
content in the field of his/her activities. The manual has a number of ways to work with the
information and can be used by a reader individually or by a teacher for individual or group
work or teaching (see the manual structure below).

This manual is for those who:

 ● have just decided to discover content marketing and immerse themselves into writing
and editing texts, mastering texts structuring, and achieving a more coherent and
logical presentation of ideas;
● are already writing content for the Internet environment and wants to study expert
opinions and recommendations for improving texts, as well as refresh and replenish
knowledge about current trends in the world of copywriters and web-marketers;
● plan to take up an occupation related to content and content strategies.

The manual kit

Mode of studying
Element of the kit Contents Purpose
options

Theoretical overview of content life with

13 chapters - Individually
practical and real examples.
- With a teacher

A number of practical - Individually

Practical application of all the theoretical
tasks after every - With a teacher
concepts.
chapter - Optionally

A section that will guide a reader in

The “Content
stage-by-stage creation of an independent basic
marketing” - Individually
“Starting your project” web-page. This will help a reader to apply and
manual - With a teacher
section trial all the techniques and concepts of the
- Optionally
manual in complex and see how the whole
mechanism of content marketing functions.

A list of terms and professional concepts at the

end of the manual. - Individually
Glossary Every chapter is equipped with tasks from the - With a teacher
“Glossary” section to master your sounding - Optionally
professional.

Completion options depending on various

- Individually
Answer keys and conditions and modes of studying the manual.
- With (or only
Teacher’s Book comments on tasks of Suggests group, team and project work and
by) a teacher
all the 13 chapters additional resources for adapting to student(s)
- Optionally
level within the topic awareness.

- Individually
Every chapter presents tasks that offer handouts
Photocopiable - With (or only
Handouts and materials for group and team activities. This
materials by) a teacher
document allows printing all of them out.
- Optionally
Chapter 1. Content marketing basics

Content marketing provides enormous opportunities for companies to grow their business,
boost their performance, build a community, improve their reputation, win the audience’s
hearts and, as a result, increase profit.

Unfortunately, many companies and specialists perceive content marketing as copywriting or

blogging. However, such a vision does not allow to uncover the true potential of content
marketing and its influence on development and efficiency of a business; as a result, such
companies do not see a reason to finance this sphere.

However, content marketing is so much more than that. It is a strategic approach that attracts,
engages, converts audiences into buyers and even brand advocates, thus, gaining benefits for
the company. Content marketing offers clear methods of creating and measuring content
efficiency and allows to realize ambitious plans.

In this chapter, you will:

● follow the evolution of content marketing
● learn about basic content marketing approaches
● examine the existing content types

Before we start
Every chapter will start with a mini task for you to plunge into the upcoming topic and make
some useful research to get prepared for the topic.
As this chapter is an introductory one, we ask you to contemplate on the possible constituent
parts of content marketing.
What is the role of content marketing within a company or business?
Content marketing is a strategy!
According to the Content Marketing Institute (CMI),

Content marketing is a strategic marketing approach focused on creating and

distributing valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a
clearly-defined audience—and, ultimately, to drive profitable customer action. [1]

Content marketing is about measuring the value and distributing it to the right audience at the
right time.

For example, you decided to learn what content marketing is. You chose a link in the search
and clicked on it, but found yourselves on a page advertising content marketing courses. Most
likely, you will leave the page because it has not turned out to be useful for you at the
moment: you do not know yet what content marketing is, and you are already being offered
to buy a course. The proposed content did not attract you, did not retain your interest, and,
moreover, did not strengthen your intention to perform a targeted action.

In other words, content marketing is a way for a company to communicate with the target
audience while having all the resources and information about the users’ values and needs, so
that it may finally induce some action from the user (usually buying) at a certain time, place,
and even mood. Such a target action can be buying, downloading material, registering on the
site or purchasing a demo version, switching to another page, etc.

To learn how to fit users’ values and get them to perform the necessary action, we need to
start from the very beginning and dive into the process of content marketing establishment
that we know it as and use today.

The evolution of content marketing

When hardly anything was known about content marketing

strategies, companies already understood that informing, sharing,
and telling audience members about what they did and fitting
people’s values may develop trustworthiness and loyalty to brands.

The first-in-kind piece of content marketing known as “Methods of

Antiseptic Wound Treatment” was published in 1888 by Johnson &
Johnson. This manual included tips for using Johnson & Johnson’s
sterile surgery products.

The manual was free, and 85,000 copies were distributed to doctors,
surgeons, and retail pharmacists across the United States within a
month. By 1891, the manual was translated into both Spanish and
French. Ultimately, 4.5 million copies were circulated worldwide.

This piece of content had a significant impact on both the medicine and content marketing
industries. Within the field of medicine, it helped spread the word about wound care and
reduce the death rate. However, from a business perspective, it also helped J&J increase
brand awareness among potential buyers and sell their products.

This technique still works. Companies continue to use and create content to generate brand
awareness among potential consumers while bringing value to their audience.

Johnson&Jonson not only developed this technique but also created a plethora of content to
establish trust among different audiences. For example, let's consider young parents: plenty of
content about infant care can be found on the J&J website. J&J provides a great deal of free
educational content, thus explaining the necessity and value of their products, which
naturally, unobtrusively encourages people to buy a variety of products.

This works in the same way nowadays in the modern content marketing world: firstly,
establish trust, secondly, sell products.

Appearance and development of the Internet

The first version of the Internet is considered to be the closed computer network ARPANET
[3] (English Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), created in 1969 by order of the
US Department of Defense. The network was developed by specialists from four major US
universities: UCLA, Stanford, the University of Utah and the University of California at
Santa Barbara. In 1971, the first program for sending letters, the first newsgroups and bulletin
boards appeared. The ARPANET network was developing, but was used mainly by scientists
from various universities.

In 1984, the US National Science Foundation created the NSFNET network (National
Science Foundation Network) with free connection. By 1992, more than 7,500 computer
networks had connected to NSFNET, including 2,500 outside the United States.
In 1989, British scientist Tim Berners-Lee came up with the concept of the World Wide Web
(Eng.The World Wide Web (www), a distributed system that provides access to
interconnected documents located on various computers connected to the Internet. He also
became the developer of the key components of the World Wide Web - the HTTP protocol,
the HTML language and the URL identifier. In 1991, the World Wide Web became publicly
available.

The real breakthrough came later, only two years later, when the Mosaic web browser
appeared. The browser became an understandable access or entrance to the Internet for a
wide mass of users, that is, it became a kind of user interface to the new technology of the
Internet. By 1997, there were already about 10 million computers on the Internet, and more
than one million domain names were registered. The Internet had become a popular medium
for information exchange. According to the existing data by 2021, more than half (59.5%) of
the world's population have access to the Internet.

Search engines evolution

Every internet user always begins their internet research with this stage: they type the
keywords they believe are the most suitable for their question or demand. On the other side of
the screen, the website that has the answer to this question is out there, containing
information on the topic. Whether the user opens it or not depends on the mediator, the search
engine.

Search engines function based on algorithms that provide a user with the desired results on
information he or she is looking for. Search engines are essentially little robots that try to
match the demand, worded by a user, with a response from the texts on a multitude of web
pages. This process is a huge stumbling stone for all website creators who are constantly
fighting to find the best response to fit these consumer-generated searches.

The rise of Social Media

Social media is an online platform created to establish social relations between people
based on common interests, hobbies and offline connections.

The rise of social media channels also impacts this industry. Social media penetrates all
spheres of our lives and digs people into virtual communication. According to Statista
research [4], an average internet user spends up to 2.4 hours per day on social media.

What does that mean for a business? This means that they too must be present on social
media to meet and interact with the audience there. And since there are more and more social
networks, companies are forced to expand their presence and follow users within different
social media.

Every time a new channel appears, it causes a headache for marketing managers and business
owners. Companies have just learned how to work with one channel, when another appears.
You have just mastered presenting your product on one platform - creating beautiful pictures,
communicating with the audience and selling - when another platform appears, where users
use short videos instead of pictures. Companies have to acquire the skills of a new content
format creation.

Maintaining a constant presence on social networks forces brands to create all kinds of
content. While users, on the other hand, are becoming more demanding about the quality of
content. Competition between brands is growing on social media platforms as well. All this
has led to an increase in demand for content creation specialists and even the emergence of
new specializations.

Another consequence of the development of social media is the need for deeper analytics.
Now the business needs to understand where customers come from, how they interact with
the site (or application),
identify bottlenecks and
work on them.

Multichannel analytics is
being developed, which
leads to the creation of
content based on data.
Content marketers no
longer just guess, but can
tell exactly which content is
better to create for their
audience. Content
improvement is now based
on the analysis of large amounts of data.

Pic. 1.2. Preferable content

Content marketing today

The audience has become more independent.

In other words, because of a huge amount of advertising, the audience does not blindly
believe in advertising. People trust their friends’ opinions more than an advert. The impact of
influencers - the users with an extensive and loyal audience - is increasing. People want to
wear the same clothes as the influencers, and relax in the same places. They name children
and pets after them and closely monitor everything that happens in the public life of their
idols. For brands, this means that instead of launching direct advertising, they have to build
relationships with influencers, pay them to advertise their products.

Another aspect of the independence of the audience stems from the ability to independently
find and verify information. Is this really the best offer or is there a more attractive price in
another store? And this shampoo will definitely make my hair shiny or is it just an advertising
slogan? Users can find reviews of most products and services, leave their reviews of the
product and rate it. They can easily compare prices in several stores and even order the goods
they are interested in from other countries.

That means a business’s content marketing is supposed to be more creative and attentive to
everything that may happen to its audience around the clock to fit the buyers’ needs, interests,
and desires before a competitor does it.

There is lots of content out there.

You can try and ask Google any crazy thing, choose any topic, and there will be hundreds of
thousands of answers. ‘Dancing fox,’ for example, has 180,000,000 results.
Pic. 1.3. Google search on “dancing fox.”

180,000,000 pieces of content related to a dancing fox.

For both companies and writers, this means that the competition is cut-throat. Even if your
text is brilliant, you have to compete with all other pieces of content, of all shades of
brilliance, and let the audience find it via the internet.

Search algorithms are evolving.

There is an old joke:

- Where is the best place to hide a dead body?

 - On the third page of Google results, because no one will ever go there.

It is a sad truth. You only exist if you are in the top 10 results on the first page. In order to get
into these results, you have to care about whether your content matches the request of search
engine algorithms. This is also a content creator’s responsibility, which we will discuss later
in this book.

This content lives forever!

The good news is that if you do everything in the right way, content, once written, could
consistently bring you a new audience, money, likes, or whatever your goal is.

Unfortunately, the bad news is that to get all these benefits regularly, you have to care about
your content from time to time. This means you have to keep up-to-date. First, search engines
prefer fresh content. Secondly, you yourself do not want to disappoint a user who is looking
for fresh statistics, but finds data from a decade ago.

Most of the content is free.

This is also a challenge. The audience could find almost all knowledge for free, making it
hard to sell content-based products such as educational courses, for example.

You can find content in different formats.

Different people prefer to consume content in various formats. Some individuals like to
watch videos, and others listen to podcasts while they are driving a car. Part of your audience
still enjoys reading, while others prefer infographics and pictures.

Below you can see the most common content types that may appear in various formats and on
different stages of your business development. We will examine the principles of selecting
the content types later in this book for you to understand both how to produce various types
and the most important aspects of each of these types of content to consider.
Table 1.1. Most common content types

As we can see, content marketing has become vital for business. The need for it is growing
every day, and companies are ready to invest huge resources in the development of this area.
In the following chapters, we will help you master the art of content marketing and master its
basic techniques.

Starting the project

If you are reading this book, chances are you need to either develop content for some project
or gain an understanding of how content functions. In either case, practice is the only way to
progress. It is highly recommended that you apply everything you read in this book to your
real-life situation. One way to realize your goal is to come up with your own project, or at
least an idea, or topic in the context of which you could approach all the tips and advice from
this book. Thus, you will visualize how content marketing works with you, for you, and for
your context.

Your idea or topic may transform, change the direction, expand, or narrow, but this will
happen naturally with the application of content marketing techniques. That will be the most
efficient way to use this book.

References:

1. https://contentmarketinginstitute.com/what-is-content-marketing/
2. Kaitlin Ahern. The 1888 Johnson & Johnson Manual That Changed Surgery for the
Better, 2018. URL:
https://www.jnj.com/our-heritage/how-johnson-johnson-helped-change-the-history-of
-sterile-surgery
3. https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/#:~:te
xt=How%20much%20time%20do%20people,minutes%20in%20the%20previous%20
year