Content marketing has become a core element in nearly every company's digital marketing strategy. As consumers increasingly shift their time from television and print to online, marketers are competing for attention not only against other companies, but against blogs, funny cat videos, and live updates by friends and family.

While online advertising remains popular - in the form of banner advertising and sponsored micro-ads on social networks - this form of "disruptive advertising" has become more expensive and less effective than producing original content that is related to your company's mission and industry. Web "surfers" are more likely to notice and invest time in an interesting infographic, funny video, or insightful blog post than a banner advertisement.

Furthermore, with search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo integrated into web browsers, most web users begin their "sessions" by searching for content, rather than typing in your domain. As a result, "feeding google" has become a critical tactic to getting found online.

This combination of being less expensive than advertising, more effective at converting viewers into "shoppers", and increasing search engine rankings has made content marketing a critical piece of the modern marketers' role.

Understanding how to be effective at content marketing is a combination of art and science that is constantly evolving and shifting.

Hence the purpose of this "live" - constantly updating - guide.