It’s easy to define what content marketing* is: Using original content to acquire and retain customers. The steps a business owner needs to take to put a content marketing plan in place are also easy to describe: Know your audience, create your content, promote your content and build natural links.

But how does a business owner translate these “marketing speak” definitions into things he or she can actually do on a day-to-day basis? Our INFOGRAPHIC: The Content Lifecycle, A Real Life Example, attempts to demonstrate exactly that.

An important feature of content marketing is that each piece of content can be reused or repurposed, thus extending its lifecycle. How long a particular piece can “live” depends on several things, including the quality and timeliness of the original piece and how well it resonates with your audience.

*Wikipedia defines content marketing as: any marketing format that involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content in order to acquire customers. Content Marketing’s basic premise is to “provide some valuable information or entertainment – ‘content’ – that stops short of a direct sales pitch or call to action, but which seeks to positively influence a customer in some way.” This information can be presented in a variety of media, including news, video, white papers, ebooks, infographics, case studies, how-to’s, Q&A’s, photos, etc.

– Audrey Trieschman