Why Content Has to Be the Core

It's easy for us as marketers to get caught up in the latest tech (there's just so much to learn and try, right?) or in the endlessly-optimizable digital tactics. It’s tempting to think that’s what marketing is all about: sending emails, posting to social, optimizing ads, using workflows to automate campaigns.?

But what are you actually communicating? What’s the point of view that you’re sending out into the market? Promotional tactics help get your message in front of the right people. Martech automates the distribution and measures the results. But if you don’t have the right content to feed it all, then what are you really doing?

Why Your Content Matters

• Content defines (and delivers) your company story. The companies that commit to telling a story are the ones that win. The rest become the also-ran’s of their category, peddling me-too products that fail to take off. This is your chance to stake out a position in your industry. Be a voice that takes the lead and gets remembered.
• Content showcases your expertise. Your company was built on industry and technical experts with tons of experience in their field. The knowledge of your people is one of your strongest differentiators — something your competitors don’t have — and content marketing is the way you leverage that.
• Content builds trust. We’re all consumers, and we all know the old adage, “buyer beware”. There’s a reason marketers are viewed as no better than used car salesmen. But if your brand focuses on using its reach to share value and knowledge instead of to sell, your prospects will notice. They’ll start to trust you...and we all like to buy from someone we trust, don’t we?
• Content gives marketing a reason to exist. Have you ever tried to advertise nothing? It’s kinda hard to do. When you have amazing content that delivers actual value, people are going to want it. And that makes it so much easier (and more rewarding) to promote on all of your preferred digital channels.

Content needs to be the primary driver of your entire marketing strategy. Before you launch a tactic or invest in tech, ask yourself what content that effort is going to promote. If you don’t have content that’s new or valuable, stop what you’re doing and repurpose the money to generate some new assets.

You’ll want to create a balance across the three main types of content:

• Owned: This is self-published fare like blog posts (on your own blog), ebooks, white papers, videos, podcasts or virtual events and webinars that you create and host yourself.
• Earned: This content requires capturing the attention of someone in your space: press or industry trade coverage, social shares by influencers or customers, guest posts on industry blogs or guest speaker slots at events (or even other people’s podcasts) where you’ve been invited.
• Paid: This is your pay-to-play content, like analyst research that you’ve commissioned, industry events (including speaker slots) where you’re sponsoring and exhibiting, webinars or other lead gen activities through industry trade pubs, and advertorials and other types of advertising.

It’s Gonna Take a Village

Developing and executing a content strategy that delivers real ROI is a lot of work. At a minimum, you’ll need to think about:

• Defining your core message / company story / industry POV
• Developing a strategy for SEO and performing keyword research
• Building and managing a production plan and calendar
• Actually creating the content (writing, layout, proofing, etc.)
• Getting it all through compliance or legal review?
• Publishing, then optimizing and promoting it
• Measuring the results and adjusting course based on reality
• Keeping your PR firm aligned on the theme or message (while also helping to fuel their pitches)

You might be thinking about trying to manage this in-house, and I understand the desire. But you’re not going to find one person with all the skills needed to execute an entire program (think: someone who thinks strategically and writes well and designs well and manages operations and measures it all). This might lead you to a mix of in-house talent and freelancers (or perhaps, an entire pool of freelancers). But that leaves you to build the strategy, make sure it's being followed, measure the results and make adjustments on the fly.

The best approach is to offload the content strategy and execution to a single partner. Ideally, they create and manage both the work plan and the team that gets it done. They’ll have experience in creating strategies to fit different budgets, goals and industries. Any partner you consider must be willing to work with your in-house resources (SMEs, sales, ops, IT, legal, etc.), and your PR firm to make sure all communications are in sync.

What about you? You and your team stay focused on providing the key value that only you can deliver: industry expertise, product insights, technical knowledge, competitor differentiation. These are the things that no agency partner can ever replicate, and it’s where you really make a difference for your organization.