In March, I exhibited at Leads Con Las Vegas with ANS. While there, I attended a breakout session on content marketing by Arnie Keunn, founder of Vertical Measures. He brought up some great points that I’d like to share.
“Content marketing” is a term many marketers loosely use. To ensure we are on the same page, Arnie defines it as “the art of providing relevant, useful content to your customers without selling or interrupting them.” Producing worthwhile content can be difficult and there tends to be a point where enthusiasm dies in the middle of a company’s content marketing journey. This normally is the product of not seeing the results hoped for. Arnie shared several reasons why content marketing may not be working and how to overcome those roadblocks, but I would like to highlight just a few.
The Team Isn’t Committed to Content Marketing
“Content marketing isn’t a campaign, tactic, or strategy. Content marketing is a culture.”
In order to make a content marketing culture work, the entire company needs to be on board. Educating the team on what content marketing is and why it works is vital to success. Make it easy for the team to assist in the company marketing efforts by sending an email letting them know a new social post just went out and invite them to like or share the post.
You’re Afraid to Publish the Right Content
When researching a new product or service, most potential buyers look for the following:
- Price
- Potential issues
- Comparison to a similar product
- Reviews
Address these topics on a company blog, website, and social media pages. Potential buyers are searching for these answers, so outline them clearly yourself! Creating content that answers buyer questions will increase company credibility and can increase searching rankings because the topic and keywords are in line with common searches.
Ask your customer service or sales team, “What questions do you get asked every day?” Take these questions to a keyword planner to find out what people are searching, related to those topics. Create your content around what your prospective customers are searching for! Data driven marketing is the best strategy, so use the data that is available!
Nurturing Leads is an Afterthought
For greater success, clearly document marketing strategies and plan follow up in the beginning! Quality content marketing will drive leads, so it’s best to know what to do with them from the beginning. Ideally, marketing and sales teams are working together in this process to ensure all bases are covered.
Content marketing is successful with clear understanding, thoughtful planning, and data-driven topics. I can’t stress enough the importance of catering to the needs of the customer! What strategies have you used for content marketing? I’d love to hear your stories in the comments below.
Looking for more help with your content marketing? ANS can do that! Send me an email and we’ll set up a time to discuss how to transform your marketing: lindseyl@a-names.com.