The latest buzzword going around associations is content marketing. It's taking over their old marketing techniques. But what the heck is it?

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) defines it as "a marketing technique of creating and distributing valuable, relevant and consistent content to attract and acquire a clearly defined audience — with the objective of driving profitable customer action."

It's more than just churning out articles, though. Associations need to create demand for their events, advocacy and news. Content marketing can be a way to provide numerous opportunities for associations and be a key part of building relationships with their members.

Already having information about current members and having relationships with them are keys in the process. The easiest way to start the new marketing initiative is to put both — information and relationships — together to create content that has value to members.

To get started with content marketing, spend time planning out what you want your initiative to look like and achieve. These guides can help you along the way.

Know the reason why. Without having reasoning as to why a content marketing initiative should begin, it won't succeed. Joe Pulizzi, author of "Epic Content Marketing," states that "before you start any initiative or look at your current initiatives, you've got to ask yourself why you're doing it, and develop a strategy for how you're going to accomplish that goal."

Determine what to discuss. The content that associations create need to be interesting and useful to their audience. Note that it is OK to gauge different audiences; whether it be members, new member prospects, legislators, community leaders or any other group affiliated with your particular association.

In short, the content produced needs to engage the readers, convince them to continue reading and maybe even take some action in regard to it. Associations want to be able to tell a story to their target audience. Explain how you got where you are and how you're helping others to get to the same destination.

Name your ultimate goal. Gaining and keeping a member is the ultimate goal of content marketing, and you do so by creating value. For example, instead of targeting an audience for new membership inquiries, show them how a lasting relationship will be developed and that members can trust the organization. Include as many members into your content as possible. The use of real-world examples will allow more relevant, which will be more useful to them.

Know the keywords relevant to members. Associations already have numerous sources of relaying content to their members, so using specific keywords is essential to getting their voice out there and gaining the right traffic to the association. To gain better knowledge of what keywords to use, associations should ask their members — the best asset in your research.

Measure tactics. With a new initiative in place, associations will reap the benefits. Whether it be new member inquires, retention rates increasing or even nondues revenue coming in from websites, the benefits of the hard work will be shown. Not all of the benefits will be tangible, though. Remember to pay attention to the voices of your members, as they will let you know whether the content is valuable.

Once the plan is put together, your association will be on its way to reaping the benefits. A survey conducted by CMI showed "marketers with a documented content marketing strategy are more effective than those who don't have a written strategy. Yet, only 27 percent of B2C and 48 percent of B2B marketers have developed a plan."