I’ve adapted this article from my book ‘Content Marketing in a Week’. The book has a brand and small business flavour, but much is equally relevant for solo professionals and creatives. It also looks at content in relation to marketing something that we usually think of as a commercial product or service, but the approach and many of the principles also apply in non-commercial settings and when working to spread ideas, share knowledge, and influence opinion and behaviours.
The key question for many is often a variation on the theme of ‘Could content marketing work for me?’, driven I think by the fact that any sort of serious, consistent, worthwhile content creation requires an investment of time and effort. Many people from all sorts of business and professional backgrounds now understand this.
Adopting a content marketing mindset
Depending on what you read, ‘content marketing’ is either heralded as the latest and only way to market anything or it’s a big fuss about nothing – because it’s actually been around for years and it’s just what most marketers do anyway, at least to some extent. And in recent years the term seems to have come in and out of vogue, depending on where you’re sitting.
Using content in marketing is of course not new. It could be said that the first direct response advertising that used long copy to set out the benefits of a product or service represents an early form of content marketing. But in those days there was little choice when it came to getting your message out there. There was print advertising and PR and then along came radio and television.
The marketing landscape only changed significantly when the internet arrived and enabled us to do all sorts of exciting things – including publish our own content, easily and cost effectively. How much new content is published online every day is open to debate, but suffice to say it’s a truly staggering amount. And it’s changed the way we all look for, find and buy things – whether for personal use or in business.
Enter the opportunity for content marketing – marketing through creating and sharing content that potential clients and customers find relevant, useful, and valuable in order to attract, engage, convert and retain them.
As such it’s much more than simply producing a brochure and a set of product sheets to be used primarily by your sales team. Or publishing the occasional newsletter or blog post.
It’s a strategy that requires careful thought, clear objectives and goals, and a deep understanding of your audience. It requires you to reach out to them with well-planned and well produced content – offline as well as online.
I’ve come to believe that it can be done and done well as long as:
- You are crystal clear about your strategic positioning, your overall purpose and your key differentiators; we so often over complicate things at this top level.
- You genuinely have enough ‘relevant, useful, and valuable’ content to share – content that is truly aligned with #1.
- And, ideally, there is a real opportunity within #2 to create an exceptional content item or initiative that is an ideal match for who you are, who you serve and what you have to offer. Not straightaway necessarily, but over time.
Although some businesses may be able to adopt a predominately content marketing approach, most integrate it with other marketing strategies that work well together and use content to enhance a range of other marketing activities.
On thing’s for sure, just trying to compete on the same basis as everyone else, with similar or popularist content, by producing more or saying it louder really doesn’t work.
Seven key principles of content marketing
In ‘Content Marketing in a Week’ I highlighted 7 principles of content marketing which shed more light on this approach.
1: Clearly understand the value you need to create for your audience
Your content is the means by which you will deliver value to your audience. Therefore you need to understand your prospects and customers in a deep and detailed way – to a far greater degree than you may currently be used to. You need to know all about your audience and what will make a real difference to their lives in relation to the products or services you are offering – in order to provide content that they will truly want and value.
2: Provide that value consistently, over the long term
Buying decisions are not usually made in an instant. Even a fairly low cost product can have a wrapper of decision making around it. When you are in the washing powder aisle of the supermarket, your choice of brand and product is influenced by several factors – all unique to you, your values and beliefs as well economic factors and aesthetic preferences. And our choices are governed by habit. If you are providing a new eco-friendly laundry alternative you may be appealing to an innate desire to be ‘green’ (knocking on an open door) or have to work harder to educate and persuade someone to buy or switch, keep on buying and recommend your brand. This may take time and the building of rapport and trust – hence why we talk about the need to build relationships over the long term. This is very different to most marketing campaigns. They tend to take place over months rather than years and have short term sales goals. Content marketing, by its very nature, is all about playing the long game.
3: Measure results and ROI over the long term
In turn, this means that you can have no expectation of short term financial pay back. This often presents difficulties in getting your business case for a content marketing approach or initiative adopted – unless your stakeholders and decision makers are all on board. The better news is that a lot of your content marketing efforts will be measurable – especially the part that takes place online as there is a wealth of web and social measurement tools available. The challenge however is to make sure you are setting up your content marketing so that a) you are able to measure it and b) that you are selecting relevant, useful metrics to track. You want feedback that will allow you to test and improve performance of the specific content and channels you are deploying.
4: Be crystal clear on strategy and apply joined up thinking
Content marketing is not the ad hoc execution of random content-based activities. It requires a strategy and plan that integrates with your overall marketing strategy and plan, and specific implementation plans for content creation, production, publishing, distribution, promotion and evaluation. Even when you have a simple strategy, these implementation plans are likely to be complex in the sheer number of schedules and activities to be integrated and mapped. So clear strategic thinking is crucial in order to provide direction and keep focused and on track – while being flexible and adaptable to marketplace changes.
5: Produce content regularly and consistently
Robert Rose, when Chief Strategy Officer at the Content Marketing Institute, referred to content as “a show that never closes”. It requires commitment and resources to keep it going and maintain standards. It also means that you have to think more like a publisher or broadcaster than a seller of goods and services – and organise your team and workflow accordingly.
This inevitably shifts content from being a collection of marketing collateral to being more of a brand asset. You could be building up a store of valuable intellectual property. It’s therefore important to consider where you host, publish and distribute your content and how you protect it. Make sure you own and are in control of the place where you keep and primarily display this asset (e.g. your own web domain) rather than relying on 3rd party hosts (e.g. social media platforms) that can disappear or withdraw services – along with your content and followers – at any time.
6: Understand that distributing and promoting your content is as important as producing it
You can only do so much to get your content found by organic search. Even when you’ve mastered principles 1 through 5, you still need to build your audience through appropriate and timely distribution and promotion. Just writing and producing great content is not enough, you have to get it out there and, yes, shared and ideally talked about, used and acted on. This means bringing various marketing channels, tools and activities to bear and weaving them seamlessly into your content marketing strategy and plan. Things like email marketing, social media, partnering and even paid advertising.
7: Never neglect your internal communications
In order to get and keep support for your content marketing you are going to have to run and manage your own internal communications and PR campaign. This may involve helping to educate and win over your Board, the management team, your boss, your marketing team and other creatives, your agencies, and those people who you are going to be relying on as subject matter specialists.
When it comes to your marketing people, it’s likely you’re going to have to ask them to work differently, acquire new skills and take on new responsibilities. You may find yourself having to bring in new people with different skill sets. The old order may get shaken up a little or a lot. Be aware of the challenges and, as your content marketing evolves, ensure you are communicating effectively and involving and managing others appropriately.
Worth reading
Epic Content Marketing, Second Edition (2023), Joe Pulizzi and Brian Piper
This is a totally rewritten edition of Joe’s original book that retains the core principles of content marketing and takes account of the changing landscape of the past 10 years or so. Good for those new to content marketing and more experienced practitioners alike, with lots of useful, well-organised chapters and practical examples.
