I think most people understand the benefits of content marketing in today’s promotional landscape. Creating valuable content to engage customers and prospects gets you found, and demonstrates your expertise.
It’s not the same as press or public relations though. That’s about getting you noticed too, but in a more immediate, perhaps short-term, way.
Both have their place, but they’re not the same thing. Many businesses seem to think that sending out a ‘New Product Does Stuff’ press release somehow counts as content marketing. If we look at a definition, we can see it doesn’t do that job at all:
Content marketing is a form of marketing focused on creating, publishing, and distributing content for a targeted audience online. It attracts new customers by creating and sharing valuable free content. It helps companies create sustainable brand loyalty, provides valuable information to consumers, and creates a willingness to purchase products from the company in the future. (Wikipedia)
It’s clear that PR material doesn’t aim to do this. If you divide up your time or budget between different activities, PR and Content Marketing need to be separate items.