Maybe I should back up here and cite some official definitions for Content Marketing. If everyone's talking about it, then we need to be clear. Like with any buzz, it can mean different things to different people.

First, from Wikipedia: "Marketers may use content marketing as a means of achieving a variety of business goals, such as thought leadership, lead generation, increasing direct sales, improving retention and more."

Content marketing's agenda is to educate and inform customers and prospects. Content Marketing's slogan is – "Don't pitch. Don't sell. Don't interrupt. Educate, inform and provide value to customers and prospects. Your business will grow."

Content marketing must focus on what is valuable to the customer and must solve their informational needs.

Sometimes listing what not to do can really help make a concept clear.

Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent writes a great post Top Ten Reasons Why Your Content Marketing Strategy Fails.

She says, "The definition – content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action."

It's the opposite of interruption marketing, aka advertising.

Most importantly, Valeria says this: "It is better to fail after trying something new, than to fail because you're not even trying."

Start writing content and post it everywhere: your web pages, blog, article directories, comments on other people's blogs, Twitter updates. Write valuable, relevant information that genuinely focuses on the needs of others.

The contest is open again, the 2nd Content Marketing Review is now open for submissions here. Sign up and you may win a review of your website or blog content to see how well it works for marketing your professional services.

Heck, I'll make it easy for you to sign up right here:

Why am I doing this, giving away free consulting? No, this is not a big lead generator to upsell my services as a consultant. I'm not sure I'd want that gig, I've got plenty of other work with Content for Coaches and Consultants.

I'm simply gathering real-life examples of how professionals are using content online for marketing. I may use such examples in a special report or blog post, or I may just use it to increase my knowledge of how content marketing works on the Web. I'm not sure yet.

Review Criteria

Your online content will be reviewed for how well it:

Rest assured that if your name is selected I will get your permission before publishing anything about you or your content marketing efforts.

You've got nothing to lose. Sign up, put your name into the virtual hat, and on Friday at noon I'll announce the next winner of a free content marketing review. You could be the next big weenie.

A great post over on Brain Traffic by Elizabeth Saloka. Here is an excerpt of her good writing for the web tips:

1. Trim fat. Keep your content – sentences, paragraphs, etc. – short and sweet.
2. Stay focused. As you’re writing, stop and ask yourself: Is what I’m writing relevant?
3. Don’t exceed 60 words per paragraph. Better to break after one or two sentences.
4. Honor thy bulleted lists. Three items? You should bullet. Ten items? Definitely bullet. This will help your readers quickly assess, divide, and digest information. 
5. Avoid fluff and cutting-edge, innovative corporate-speak. Readers can smell it a mile away. 
6. Speak to the audience as ‘you.’ Make them feel special, like you’re speaking directly to them. Remember, conversational.
7. Talk like a human. Make sure you don’t sacrifice clarity for cleverness. Also, don’t get overly grammatical. Sometimes it’s better to break a few grammar rules than to sound stuffy.
8. Stay grounded. Don’t fall in love with your writing. You’ll lose perspective. And, you’ll probably be less open to constructive client feedback.

Want to dig deeper? Check out the Brain Traffic blog, more about content strategies, and Kristina Halvorsen’s book recommendations.