What is (the problem with) content?

Content strategy, content marketing, content management: it’s content all over. But there does not seem to exist a common definition of what content is, and how it relates to concepts as ‘information’ and ‘data’.

A distinction that technical people make is between data as structured information, and content as unstructured information. ‘Content’, such as an article in a Word file, is unstructured and becomes structured when its components (its headline, lead, subheads, body parts) are entered into separate fields of a database or a content management system.
This usually is not what people in marketing and communication have in mind when they talk about content. In their parlance, ‘content’ designates what it is about as opposed to what it looks like (the presentation of content). For marketers, content refers to meaningful information in a particular context. It is the type of information that can be rich and layered: a brand story, a testimonial, an interactive application, or a viral game. It is the stuff that you need to create brand experience and trigger engagement.

A tale of two cultures
The difference between the two definitions of content is really a tale of two cultures. When technologists think of structuring content, they think of controlling it by pulling it apart into pieces that can be stored into internal systems. They are used to looking at content from the inside. When marketers think of structuring content, they think of pulling things together on a web page or a printed page, to make it appealing to external audiences in real world contexts. They are used to looking at content from the outside.

The two perspectives are equally important, and complementary. To manage multiple content channels efficiently, your company needs the automation, quality checks, and analytics that the systems of the technologists offer. But to deliver audience-centric content in the real world, to improve brand experience, and to encourage engagement, your company also needs the insights of marketers and business analysts. They know best what, how, where and when to present content to customers.

If your company wants to be successful in content marketing, it should bring the two perspectives together.