Every day the world of content marketing is generating new headlines and statistics and reports. You might be forgiven for thinking that it’s a terribly complicated affair, but it really isn’t rocket science. At its heart is a very human way of marketing and doing business.
We reckon there are just five simple truths you need to know to make content marketing work . We witness these working together in every successful content marketing operation we’ve had contact with around the world – we see them working for our clients, in our own business, and when we interview our Valuable Content Award Winners too.
Learn from the best content marketers. Live by these five simple truths and content marketing will give you the results you need.
What it takes to succeed with content marketing
- The right story. Successful content marketing doesn’t start with the content. To differentiate your business this way craft a meaningful story – a golden thread that that runs through all your content and communications. Take time to work out what your business stands for. Without a grounding, compelling and authentic story – focusing on the ‘why’ not the what – your content runs the risk of being the same as everyone else’s. (Read the Hiut Denim story for example). Start here.
- The right content. To make content marketing work of course you need content! But a quantity of any old content won’t cut it. To get results that content has to be valuable to the people you are in business to serve (for more explanation see: Content Rules, But Any Old Content Won’t Do). Quality over quantity any day we say.
- The right systems. We don’t just mean automation. To get your marketing working place valuable content at the heart of your universe – the focus of a joined up marketing ecosystem. Today great content is the currency that makes the marketing world go round. Automation can really help but it’s not the whole answer. Get that content working first and then automation will give you a system to really make it fly (not the other way around).
- The right people. When you read about content marketing you’ll hear a lot about automation, big data, SEO. What is sometimes forgotten is the human factor – at the end of the day it’s people who make content marketing work. Wider than the marketing department, success comes when you get all your people – your leadership team, your experts too – onside. Give them the skills, the knowledge, the desire, the organisation to succeed and willingly create and share content that clients love. (This e-book might help).
- The right attitude: Unless you live by the valuable code your content efforts will fall short. Being helpful, generous, collaborative, and with a laser-like client focus – all these values the best content marketers share. The no. 1 business challenge today is TRUST. Clients want to do business with people that they trust and can see care about them. The right attitude underpins everything. You will succeed at content marketing if you really put your heart in it: that’s the simple truth.
Content marketing is seriously rewarding if you get it right – to your clients, to your business, to you too. Live by these simple truths and you’ll see what we mean.
Love to know your thoughts.
