4. Neither is it the ‘next big thing’, despite the
million or so blog posts that say otherwise!
The term ‘content marketing’ might be a
relatively recent one, but the concept has
been around for decades.
Sift Media has been running successful
campaigns for b2b brands since 1997 and
the most effective have always been built
around quality content (downloadable
guides, video, podcasts, blogs, webinars etc).
6. No, but what is new is the degree of reach
you can have with your content.
Social tools can and do provide reach to a
wider audience, and the ability for readers
to act as ambassadors by re-posting
content to their followers is a powerful
thing indeed.
Add to this the massive rise in mobile
access, and brands are enjoying better
quality engagement with higher volumes of
people across multiple devices at all times
of day and night.
Now that’s new and exciting!
9. You almost definitely already have the
content and you probably already have the
resources.
The chances are you’ve been working in
your industry for a while. You may have
forgotten how much industry knowledge
you have and be totally unaware of how
much you take it for granted.
10. So dig up that old content
(guides, presentations, project planning
documents, and even meeting notes). You’ll
soon get a glimpse of what you have at your
disposal and how you can quickly and easily
create something of value for your audience.
Of course, if you have the budget and you
want to outsource content creation and
production to external agencies then go for it.
It could be a valuable investment.
13. What do you talk about with your
customers? You must discuss something in
between introducing yourself and closing
the sale? Well that’s your content right
there.
What are their challenges? How is the
industry changing? What could they do to
gain more business or improve efficiency?
And so on.
Try and avoid it, but if you have to you can
even discuss your product or service – just
make it helpful and informative to the
reader rather than a bullish sales push.
14. 4: IT’S THE SOLUTION TO
ALL MARKETING OBJECTIVES
17. Content marketing may have the potential
to deliver results when it comes to lead
generation, brand exposure and other
campaign objectives, but the process of
producing a high-value piece of content is
just the start of the story.
Engaging new and existing prospects with
content may be highly effective, but
remember you have a lot of other balls to
juggle.
18. Content marketing is only one part of your
marketing mix. Your social platforms may
support your content marketing
campaign, but these tools need a completely
separate strategy (unless you plan on only
posting a tweet when you have new content
to promote – which you don’t do, right?).
You’ll also be wanting to keep your marketing
eye on relevant offline activity like events and
awards. Again, you may wish to integrate
content marketing into these channels, but
they are projects in their own right and need
to be treated as such.
19. So don’t be afraid of producing content for
your next campaign.
It may not be the new and exciting concept
that many suggest, but with exponential
growth in reach and engagement in recent
years it certainly has the potential to deliver
strong marketing ROI.
No bullsh*t!
