Whenever a marketing tactic or strategy earns “mainstream” popularity, two things inevitably happen:
- The number of marketers and agencies using the tactic/strategy soars
- The number of marketers and agencies inappropriately using the tactic/strategy soars
Thus is the story of content marketing over the past few years. Although this isn’t a new marketing strategy by any means (content marketing has roots dating back to 1895 with John Deere’s magazine The Furrow), it has gained a significant amount of popularity recently with the ease of digital publishing and access to massive online audiences. Ambassadors such as Joe Pulizzi, who founded the Content Marketing Institute in 2010, helped make content marketing a popular offering from agencies and a go-to tactic among in-house marketers.
Just look at how much content is created, shared and accessed every minute of every day.
But with more focus on creating content comes more imitation content marketers — those “professionals” and agencies touting their content marketing expertise, but lacking a strategic, integrated marketing mindset and actual experience in the area. Bad marketers put a dark cloud over the heads of those of us doing real content marketing. As companies share their failed content marketing horror stories with each other, a growing disbelief in the strategy as a whole spreads.
How to Convince A Non-believer that Content Marketing Works
Have you run into these non-believers when pitching your content marketing services? Those executives or company owners who have heard one-too-many content marketing failures or horror stories from their colleagues?
Here are some example hesitations you may encounter when pitching your content marketing services, and how to combat them to prove the value of strategic content marketing.
“Our competitor tried content marketing, but it was a big waste of time and money with no results.”
Many factors can contribute to an unsuccessful campaign, but one of the biggest stumbling blocks in content marketing is a lack of strategy. Perhaps the competitor or their agency in this scenario jumped on the content marketing bandwagon without understanding the best practices behind it. Maybe they failed to integrate content marketing with other campaigns, such as marketing automation or search engine optimization. Without a focused strategy, content marketing will be nothing more than the tactic of the month.
“Content marketing? Aren’t we already doing that? We have a couple brochures.”
Lack of education is probably one of the first reasons the C-level will shoot down your proposal — and fast. Educate the C-level on what strategic content marketing is, what it isn’t, and what is involved. Explain that content must provide value, be non-promotional, and created for audiences at each stage of the sales funnel. Content should also convey your company’s unique voice and positioning. If you took your logo off of your content, could your audience still tell it belonged to you?
“We don’t need more content. Our resources section is full.”
Content creation is just one piece of the puzzle. Stopping at creation without ongoing distribution, syndication and outreach campaigns will stop your efforts dead in their tracks. Integration with other campaigns, teams, and departments is critical. You must bring in graphic designers to make your content attractive, digital marketers to help with distribution, public relations professionals for outreach, and recruit all departments to brainstorm ideas.
Curious About Content?
Contact Clarity Quest to learn more about implementing a content marketing strategy at your company. Reach us on the phone at 877-887-7611 or fill out our online contact form.
