Any company should benefit from a content marketing strategy. When they fail, it’s not because the principles are flawed or the models are untested. It’s because the company was unable to execute the strategy, and that is always indicative of the company’s culture.
There are tremendous advantages to being your own publisher or studio, but there can be huge risks and massive costs if you don’t do it right from the beginning. To be a successful content marketer, you must develop a culture and budget that supports quality content production.
Traditional media outlets build business models around the value of their content. It’s what attracts that audience that your company covets so much. If you’re going to be a content marketer, your strategy also must be built around the value of your content.
The assumption that readers want one type of content instead of another causes content marketers to make bad strategic decisions. Once a content marketer thinks they know what an audience wants, it doesn’t matter to him whether that content is already available in other forms from other publishers or resources.
This post is for owners and CEOs of companies. If you think that marketing is a necessary evil, something you have to do rather than a real opportunity to grow your business, don’t expect anyone to feel sorry for you when business stagnates.
When content marketing fails, a post-mortem examination of why it failed should start with the content itself. One of the mistakes companies often make is producing content that has no value to its audience because the content is too generic to meet their needs.
The thing about strategy and positioning, especially in content marketing, is this: Nothing you offer is inherently good or bad. What you offer—products and services—is only good or bad in relation to other products and competitors. You might have an awesome newsletter, but your competitor’s might be even more awesome.
If your business depends mostly on local customers, then you might not think the internet is that important to your marketing. Many owners of restaurants, bars, hair salons, car dealerships, auto mechanics, real estate agencies and so on think that the internet is only for big companies that reach national audiences. Or they think that new business comes from word-of-mouth and foot traffic. That’s simply not true.
Marketers work in an environment that’s constantly changing. What worked yesterday to build awareness and generate leads may not work tomorrow. Unfortunately, many marketers are used to what they know, and they find it difficult or risky to try something new. That’s where a good content marketing consultant comes into play.
This post is for marketers and publishers who don’t believe there are any benefits to giving away free content. The truth is that giving away free content can be extremely effective, depending on your goals. Here are a few things that giving away free content can do.
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