(This post previously appeared in the Bennis PR blog.)
Let’s face it, not every business has a compelling story to tell.
When markets started turning south in 2008, the president of our firm called a meeting and asked us to brainstorm ways that we could generate income outside of our typical revenue stream. Social media was just coming into popularity, so I suggested that we monetize our intelligence. As the market was falling and things began to move ever slower, I proposed that we share our intelligence with clients and prospects to establish ourselves as industry leaders during the downtime, so that when the recession passed, we would be top of mind when our clients and prospects needed our services.
But with no “news” or stories to share, how can companies become their own news outlet? The answer is easy: content marketing. Simply put, content marketing puts you in front of your current and potential clients.
Whether you offer a product or service, or are a B2B or B2C organization, your knowledge is your product. According to Tyler Bouldin, Senior Web Strategy Manager at WebpageFX, the benefits of sharing your knowledge are many:
- It establishes you and/or your company as a subject matter expert.
- It establishes you and/or your company as an industry leader.
- It engages readers and gains followers.
- It improves retention.
- It can turn leads into prospects.
- It fills potential gaps in the sales process.
But before you put pen to paper or fingers to keyboard to create your content, Bouldin notes that it’s important to identify who you want to reach. Is it existing clients? New prospects? Others? After you identify your audience, describe who they are by creating a persona. Are members of your audience men, women or both? How old are they? Where are they located? What is their education and income level? What are the pain points that you can address or resolve for them?
The last point is critical, as it is the foundation of your content. But let’s take a step back for a moment. Yes, content marketing is intended to ultimately bring in sales. But the purpose of your developing the content is to inform your audience and share valuable information. By educating your readers, you become a trusted source of information. Content marketing is not a one-way pushy sales pitch.
So what should you what should you write about? According to Bouldin, that question can be answered with another question: What do you know about that will interest your readers? Back to square one, right? Wrong. Consider what changes are taking place in your industry and how it impacts your audience–and most of all–how you can help. What do you do or offer that no one else does or that differentiates you from others? What are your clients’ most frequently asked questions?
After you’ve identified your topics, create a plan for sharing your content. Creating a content calendar is a helpful way to visualize what content is posted where, and to schedule topics accordingly around other related topics or events. Having a plan also offers a checklist of sorts to ensure that the work gets done.
So you’ve identified your audience and topics, written your content and created a plan to share it. Now get out there and promote it! Bouldin notes that if your company or organization doesn’t already have a blog, create one. This is an ideal venue for your content.
Be sure to share and promote your blog on social media. It’s important to keep your audience in mind when considering media platforms. You likely won’t attract many 55+ business professionals on Facebook, so make sure your message is appropriate for the platform and its audience.
You can also create an e-newsletter to get your content directly to your audience. Online tools such as MailChimp or Constant Contact are popular platforms that can help you track engagement so that you can see who is opening your newsletter and when, and allow you to adjust send times and content as appropriate. For extra mileage, share your expertise with industry trade publications and blogs.
If incoming calls and foot traffic don’t show the success of your content marketing efforts, get out your measuring tools. Google analytics can give a good overview of your content’s performance and allow you to drill down into pages, users, engagement and bounce rates.
Just like any other marketing tactic, content marketing is not a once-and-done deal. After creating and sharing your content, measure your message’s effectiveness and start again. Keeping your message in front of your audience will keep you and your organization ahead of your competition and establish you as a valued news source for your readers.
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