Content, Relevance, Distribution…What about Strategy?

I have been reading alot lately about content marketing…in fact content marketing is the hot phrase today. Pair that up with the word relevance and you have the trifecta… relevant content marketing. And when it comes to content, relevance is pretty high on the list. But is relevance enough? We often get caught up in thinking if I put out relevant content, when my target market is searching, they will be interested because it’s relevant to them. And while that is generally true, it’s important to remember that there is masses of content competing for our targets attention. Not just our competitors content, but anything that is interesting to them, which  translates into what is engaging our target market when they are searching. Sure, they may set out on a search to find the best software for their needs, but how did they end up on ESPN checking out the football scores from the weekend? Something caught their eye when they WERE searching for software and it engaged them and ultimately distracted them from their original intent/search.

So while we may be pumping out content that is hopefully relevant and distributing it on our Website and social media channels, is that really enough? What about re-purposing that content into multiple formats, some that are thought-leadership and some that are entertaining? This is something that the B2C marketers have gotten for some time and it’s easy to see why. A company selling cosmetics or clothing can easily put together engaging and entertaining content on fashion and beauty.  But take a look at how some other brands are using entertaining content to get tell their product stories…

• Blendtec: Will it blend
• Duck brand Duct Tape
• IBM customer short films such as NYPD
• Kinaxis Supply Chain Show or their purely entertaining Supply Chain Video series: Kinexions

Emerging media enables us to put together a great mix of resources to tell our brand story and engage our target. And it all begins with content, yes relevant, interesting and might I suggest entertaining content. Understanding that our customers are not sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for our next marketing blurb and that even when we do send something relevant, it is competing with a huge universe of interesting and entertaining content is key to being successful with content marketing.

And don’t forget the strategy. Align a strategy for creating and distributing content to a set of objectives and find a way to measure them to some degree (this is a whole new topic).

1. Do research to understand where your customers get information and what pain points matter to them. Is there a community that they connect in?
2. Keep SEO top of mind using keywords and linking strategies for your content. Look for well-trafficked and highly ranked sites in your industry to post your content and drive visitors back to your Website or social media channels.
3. Integrate everything and distribute through a well-rounded mix of social media channels where your customers are at.
4. Re-purpose your content into multiple formats(blog posts, videos, podcasts, benchmarks, calculators, comparisons, thought-leadership reports, and sometimes just entertaining bits that poke fun at the issues in the industry).