A big part of The Content Marketing Academy blog and website is to share resources and showcase expert advice and content from all over the world.

In this article I’ve included three short videos from highly regarded content marketing experts – Marcus Sheridan, Ann Handley and Joe Pulizzi.

Please take 7-8 minutes to watch these videos and let me know what your thoughts are in the comments section below.

Marcus Sheridan – Building relationships with content marketing

Question: Why does content build relationships?

I think this is a great question, simply because I truly believe that the focus of content marketing is all about building relationships and trust through helping & teaching people. It’s not about looking intelligent or making people feel stupid.

Marcus’ answer is simple and to the point, watch Marcus Sheridan below.

58 second video – click here to watch on YouTube

Find out more about Marcus Sheridan over at TheSalesLion.com

Ann Handley – placing your customer at the heart of your story

Ann Handley teaches a very simple marketing fundamental in this video – placing your customer at the heart of everything you do & taking yourself (your brand or organisation) out of your story, and making your customer the hero of your story.

Ann talks about the term ‘brand agnostic’ and provides an example of how an organisation can change their content from talking about their products and services, to framing it around their customers.

Watch Ann Handley talking about a few great examples below.

2:39 minute video – click here to watch on YouTube

You can find out more about Ann Handley at AnnHandly.com

Click here to read an article from the CMI on agnatic content marketing

Joe Pulizzi – create your content strategy

How many things are we competing with when it comes to content marketing? I think you’ll agree that it’s very difficult to get attention today. So how do we create a different story?

Two main content marketing principles from Joe:

1. Your content cannot be about you, it has to be really focussed on your customers
2. Your content marketing has to be consistent. The main reason content marketing fails in business is because they stop!

Starting your content marketing strategy

The first thing you’ve got to do is build your strategy.

1. Come up with your content marketing mission statement – understanding why you are doing it in the first place. What is the ultimate goal with your content?
2. Make it about your customer – your customer wants to know how you can solve their problems. What are their pain points & what keeps them up at night? What impact are you trying to make with your customers?
3. Where can you be the leading informational expert for your customers?

Write down your strategy, get it out of your head and document it.

Get a feel for Joe’s passion for content marketing in the video below.

4.29 minute video – click here to watch on YouTube

Find out more about Joe Pulizzi at ContentMarketingInstitute.com

Your Turn

1. How can you use content marketing to educate your audience?
2. How will you place your customer at the heart of your content marketing programme?
3. Do you know what to do to get the right content, to the right people, at the right time?