Standard Definitions Improve Content Delivery and Communications

Ahava Leibtag, founder and owner, Aha Media Group

“The terms ‘content marketing’ and ‘content strategy’ get slung around like so many shiny, whole tunas at Pike’s Place Market in Seattle,” says Ahava Leibtag of Aha Media Group. “As content production in healthcare has increased, the need for tools and documentation to keep teams aligned and efficient has also risen.”

Here’s an excerpt from her new article:

Both the internal teams and the vendors and agencies who work together lack a clear understanding of these similar-sounding terms. And the confusion that ensues can lead to a messier situation than the one at that world-famous fish market.

Let’s see if we can clarify the differences between content, content marketing, and content strategy.

Let’s say a healthcare organization gains a new specialist in pediatric epilepsy. The business challenge is to acquire patients for this new doctor.

• Information: We have a new pediatric epileptologist.
• Formats: Copy, video, graphics, pictures, audio.
• Distribution: Website articles, blogs, social media channels, direct mail, email, podcast channels, etc.

This mental model avoids the confusion of thinking about information trapped in a certain format. For example, you may want to write an article (copy) about the new doctor. To gather the relevant information, you interview the new doctor. The article you produce from that interview is a piece of copy you can repurpose into a new format, like a video (video) or a podcast (audio). Using that interview as a base for the information you want to talk about, you can create different formats for content that can be combined and distributed in numerous ways.

Read the full article now: Slippery Fish: Defining Content, Content Strategy, and Content Marketing

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President