Are You Ready for Content Marketing?

There’s a great deal of information on the web about how to implement a content marketing plan. But applying that plan can often be difficult for businesses that view it as a cure-all for proving their knowledge.

There are several different levels to a content marketing plan and the first part is to ask yourself how much content do you already have, how much will you need to create, what are your goals and do you have enough to talk about? The best content marketing successes often grow from the successes you’ve already grown.

As in life, there’s no easy button. When I talk to businesses looking to expand their presence or sales, I often ask how many experts do they have? This is the first crucial step in building a plan. If you have teams of experts, advisors and partners, they’re your best resort for not only understanding what your business does well but where it excels (or doesn’t). The greater the volume of experts, the bigger the story your business will be able to tell.

And your best subject matter experts (SME) are those with their noses in the news, eyes on the competition and brain focused on growing the business – salespeople, engineers and others within your business. The role of a content marketer isn’t to recreate the wheel for your business, it’s to improve the wheel you already have and build a marketing vehicle for growth.

Yet, there can bumps in the road. Frequency and consistency are the two biggest factors in determining a successful content marketing plan. Many businesses struggle to find a balance between the two. First and foremost, set realistic goals for your plan. Don’t expect to have a new piece of content every single day. If your current content cadence is every once in a while, start with planning a monthly schedule. If you have a few random updates in a month, consider biweekly.

Content marketers can help create the content but can also offer differing levels of engagement from social media promotion, email marketing, blogs, infographics, ebooks, white papers and for some, even assisting with getting the interest of trade or industry publications that want to hear more about your business.

Finally, can you make content marketing a priority? While initial engagements with a content marketer or a digital marketing service provider will take time to set the goals and parameters for success, allocating time for those experts to speak to the content creators is a priority. The best organizations will create performance goals for these experts to ensure that they help the effort.

So are you ready? If you’re ready to pursue your content marketing plan, please contact us at: 703-362-1586