Content Marketing or Content Management? Yes.

Content is just one of those words. It can mean so many things to so many people. Almost everyone has a different mental image when they hear it.

Its meaning can be as generic as whatever fills a container, whether that container is a web page, a brochure or an email message (“This message contains no content” — sound familiar?). Or it can be something very specific, like the copy created for an editorial hole, such as an article in a publication.

And that’s just what content means in the marketing world.

The meaning of content can vary more in larger organizations. By contrast, in a small business setting, content can have a very specific meaning. This article is about what content can mean in larger organizations. So, if you’re running your own small business, you may want to jump off here and check out Kerin Foster’s article, Content Marketing for small business: the five Ws or Christina Warren’s 5 lightweight CMS alternatives for small business.

Okay, back to the big company folks. To be clear, this isn’t an argument in favor of either Content Management or Content Marketing — it’s an argument for both. And it’s also an attempt to differentiate between the two.

The practice of Content Management is all about tracking, capturing, synthesizing and distributing consistent messages. It’s been around for decades and its value lies in the consistency and efficiency it can deliver. These days, it’s usually accomplished systematically and these products are often called enterprise content management (or ECM) systems.

Content Marketing is more of a philosophical change in the way a brand thinks about creating, curating and delivering messages to a specific audience. It’s all about developing useful messages that help people solve the problems they’re facing and abandoning messages that talk about products or services — people simply don’t have to listen to these anymore. The usefulness of Content Marketing attracts people to a brand, rather than pushing messages at them the old interruptive-marketing way (I’m looking at you, advertising).

Of course, technology is at the heart of all of this. Relatively recent technological advances allow brands to create and deliver their own messages today without having to buy or rent time on traditional media, becoming media companies themselves in the process.

But, this same technology also allows consumers to construct nearly insurmountable barriers (through tools like DVRs, Netflix, etc.), making it virtually impossible to reach them effectively with the paid media of old. Need evidence? Just look at the $40 billion in ad revenue lost by newspapers since 2000 (Newspaper Association of America) or the 200 million fewer pieces of mail each year (Annual Report of the Postmaster General)

The change is well underway. All that’s left for us to do is decide how we will react to it.

My suggestion is to embrace both Content Management and Content Marketing by creating a content strategy that includes both. The strategy is the key, especially in larger organizations where literally thousands of people are disseminating messages for the same brand everyday.

For example, where I work, we estimate that at least 5,000 people are sending messages to customers or prospects on a daily basis. I think you can see where both the consistency of these messages (Content Management) and how the message is structured (Content Marketing) are hugely important. That’s why we’re creating a content strategy that ties them all together.

Though daunting, the idea of 5,000 people creating and sending messages becomes a little more palatable (if not exciting) when we’re all following the same plan.

Of course, communicating a content strategy is also very important in larger organizations. To be able to communicate it effectively, I’ve borrowed a model from the business strategy world, the strategy map.

While the actual content strategy is more detailed, I’ve found that a content strategy map (yes, I made that up) allows me to quickly explain where we can go — elevator-speech style — when we employ a content strategy. It also allows me to garner the support I need from some, while allaying the fears of others who may need reassurance.

Bottom line, please don’t feel like you have to decide whether to use Content Management or Content Marketing — create a content strategy (and a content strategy map) that includes how your organization should use both…and enjoy the ride!