We last wrote about content marketing in the July 2013 issue of this newsletter. Since then, the idea of marketing products and services by sharing the accumulated knowledge and expertise of a business has taken hold at many B2B companies, and the landscape of ways to share that information has expanded greatly. Marketers are getting on board with sharing their knowledge in order to grow, but many still struggle with selecting the most suitable avenues for their content and how to produce top quality material. While blogs, videos and e-newsletters remain popular ways to share an organization’s expertise, putting content out in the form of webinars, white papers and articles is working well for many marketers. A study by Regalix of 2014 marketing results indicated that while website content dominated the list of effective content assets, webinars, case studies and white papers round out the top four. And any of the four are great ways to position a company as the experts to know. Custom webinars put an organization’s expertise in the spotlight and help to personally connect with attendees interested in its products. A Photonics Media custom webinar sponsorship lets marketers choose the topic, while our experts gather the audience and help companies produce successful presentations. White papers can be powerful tools to educate customers and prospects, giving them information they can’t find anywhere else. Photonics Media can both host and push a white paper to our qualified audience. Photonics.com records more than 4,000 white paper downloads annually. As part of a white paper program, marketers benefit from instant lead generation via email, and leads are archived for easy download and future reference. This newsletter is filled with ideas for getting started in content marketing and expanding current efforts. Your regional account representative can discuss the best options for your message, and can discuss options available for producing custom content to meet your goals. • 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. — Content Marketing Institute