Content marketing is content that a company uses to get exposure and build their brand and fan base without directly advertising a product or service. The company hopes that the reader or viewer will eventually become a customer, but doesn’t try to push them into making a purchase right away. Instead, they provide useful information that helps enrich their target audience’s lives in some way.

For example, a baby food company might publish a parenting magazine aimed at new parents and distribute it free of charge to pregnant women by distributing it to doctor’s offices. This is content marketing. There may be ads in for the company’s baby food in the magazine, but the magazine also provides a service—helping parents learn how to care for their new bundle of joy. Parents read the magazine for the parenting advice and are inadvertently exposed to the baby food company’s ads and branding as they read.

On the web, content marketing can take the form of articles, videos, quizzes, infographics and more. If you can publish it online, it can be used for content marketing. Just remember that the content needs to provide useful information that will help your prospective customers improve their lives in some way. If they find your information valuable, they’ll follow you, and when they need the product or service you’re selling, you’ll be the first company they think of.