A quick look at graphs produced by Google Trends shows that there has been a growing interest in “content marketing” as evidenced by the number of searches occurring over the past couple years, while searches for just “marketing” alone have declined or remained stagnant. Despite its growing popularity, there has been much ado about content marketing as of late, so what’s all the content marketing hype?

A Velocity blog outlines a few of the complaints lodged against content marketing, and reveals that when the layers of the onion are peeled away, it isn’t content marketing per se that the critics have a problem with – it’s all the content marketing hype.

First, let’s look at what content marketing isn’t. Content marketing is not a fad. Fads come and go with the wind, but content marketing in its truest form has been around for over a century. Certainly no one in the field is claiming that the practice is anything new – what is new, however, is the name and its application to the Internet and social media.

Next, content marketers are not trying to hide the fact that they aim to connect the intended audience to the source. We’re all selling something, aren’t we? What makes content marketing unique is the approach – instead of the old, features and benefits beating, content marketing actually puts the sales pitch to the side for a second to offer readers something of value.

Contrary to what those furthering the content marketing hype would like us to believe, content marketing and marketing are not synonymous. Content marketing is only one slice of the marketing pie, but its acceptance has caused it to overshadow less effective methods.

As Velocity points out, while “blind hype, crappy names, bad content marketing and ignorance of marketing history” may be reasons to be a little more critical of the wave of content that’s flooding the market, don’t throw the baby out with the bath water. At the core of the content marketing hype, there does still exist pure copywriting that continues to live on for one reason – it works.