Focusing On Your Brand: Content Marketing

Welcome to our November issue!  As I continue to cover what I consider to be the essential guiding principles for those who want to market their businesses/organizations effectively, based upon a number of reputable resources intermingled with insights I’ve learned from 20+ years of experience with content marketing in my own business, we’ve just begun to explore content and how it supports your marketing strategy and branding efforts.

Why the emphasis on content, or the material that you’re creating and distributing through a variety of channels, being a critical component of a marketing campaign? Well, for starters, it has universal applications that make it useful for any type of business out there. According to the Content Marketing Institute, “Content marketing is being used by some of the greatest marketing organizations in the world, including P&G, Microsoft, Cisco Systems and John Deere. It’s also developed and executed by small businesses and one-person shops around the globe. Furthermore, according to the Institute’s annual Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends research, approximately 9 out of 10 marketers are using content marketing – regardless of company size or industry.”

So it’s clear that many businesses and organizations are recognizing the role content plays and its value in a campaign. While content marketing is certainly not a new concept, there’s a reason why it’s gained more traction lately. Consumers have become adept at avoiding your advertising. They can ultimately predict when it will appear; prime examples of this are recording shows on DVR to fast-forward through the commercials or ignoring banners and clicking out of pop-ups in order to get to what they are actually looking for online. So to get noticed, you need to give your audience a reason to want and choose to pay attention. By offering them valuable information they can use, you’re already contributing something to the relationship instead of demanding something from them (namely their time and attention) right off the bat.

Now it becomes important to focus on the fact that content can only be of value with the proper foundation, application and follow-through. First and foremost, the whole point of utilizing content is to deliver information that makes your buyer more intelligent and postures you as a resource in your area of expertise. So you’ll want to plan on avoiding overtly pitching your products and services, as your content will lead the prospect to you. This not only bodes well for a potential sale, but also for building a referral network through top-of-mind recognition. As summed up by the Content Marketing Institute, “The essence of this content strategy is the belief that if we, as businesses, deliver consistent, ongoing, valuable information to buyers, they ultimately reward us with their business and loyalty.”

Next, in the simplest terms, there are two essential elements to building a successful content marketing plan from ground zero. You should begin with an understanding of your goals and a mission statement (along with your unique selling proposition), and from there you’ll have a solid point of reference to assess whether your actual content lines up with what you hope to gain from it. These two elements will help you decide what content you should be creating, and likewise, they are great lenses through which you can look at the bigger picture and figure out if there’s something in particular that you shouldn’t be doing.

Content should never, ever be created just for the sake of creating content—there’s much more at work in order to produce the desired outcome(s). So first and foremost, put your goals down on paper and review your mission statement to see what will benefit both your business and your target audience most. Setting aside just a few minutes to do this is the first critical step forward, leading you into all that follow with purpose and clarity.