Like anything worth doing in life, successful content marketing doesn’t just happen—you’ve got to put in the effort. More than this, you’ve got to have a strategy. Good intentions alone will not bring attention to your business or organization.
As I pointed out last week, simply having a presence on the Web will not do much for your business if you do not actively market yourself online. It’s kind of like the difference between putting a business card on the billboard of a campus student center and setting up a table where you hand out information, incentives and attention grabbers (soft pretzels, anyone?). Sure, a few billboard browsers might lay eyes on your card, but not many. And of those, how many will actually care?
Good SEO Practice
This is why reaching out to audiences through social media, e-newsletters and good SEO practices is so important. You want people to find you when they are looking for what you offer, and stick with you once they do. Frequent posts on your website/social media and “push” marketing to subscribers and followers is central to this effort, and that usually means having a dedicated individual whose job it is to keep information fresh, send out updates and offer incentives.
No business or organization is too small, too narrowly focused or too “low tech” to dedicate resources to this effort. Just making a vague resolution to have people in your organization post, tweet or share content as needed will not cut it. Not only will the content marketing not consistently happen, it can lead to confusion and contradictions in messaging.
In a nutshell: make a plan, and anoint an individual or team leader to execute it. Done right, your content marketing will bring the eyes, hands and dollars you need to achieve success—with or without the soft pretzels.