Chances are you’ve heard of content marketing and might know what it is. But you may not have an idea of how to get started. It’s not as difficult as you think! The key to content marketing is having a strong content ecosystem that’s interrelated and connected to everything else you do.
Here are four reasons you shouldn’t be scared of content marketing:
1.) You’re probably already doing it. If you’ve got already got a company blog, an existing podcast (woo hoo!), a newsletter, sales training materials, even customer support FAQs, these are all the starting points of a great content marketing program. Take your podcasts, and turn them into transcripts to release on your site (or vice versa). Modify those slightly, and they become white papers. Put those white papers behind a registration screen, and you’ve got another lead gen funnel. Do you answer questions on your Facebook page or through Twitter? Use these to create blog posts. The possibilities are nearly limitless and will eventually tie into everything else you’re doing from a content standpoint.
2.) You’re using what you have. If you aren’t quite ready to reimagine your content, start with recycling your existing content to use in other channels. If you’ve got a company blog, take some of your most interesting comments, and use them as newsletter topics. If you’ve got a sales staff that does product demos, work with them to create demo videos. Talk to your customer support staff, and take the top 10 most popular inquiries and turn these into helpful videos or a blog series.
3.) Videos aren’t as spooky as they seem. You don’t always need to have a predetermined script for your (though it certainly helps). Find the people who do the doing, who know their stuff, and just have them talk to you (and the camera). Let your sales guys tell you about the product; let your customer support rep talk about how to troubleshoot a problem; have an engineer talk about the next iteration of your product or one that will be released soon. A decent camera (or phone) and some free editing software will have you making decent quality videos in no time. People almost always like to see things rather than read things.
4.) Everything is interrelated. As you can see, all these areas are interrelated and overlap. You don’t need to have a huge budget or elaborate plans for content marketing. All you need to do is do one thing and, from that one thing, you’ll be able to generate several pieces of usable and interesting content. Each piece of created content can be used in a variety of channels with different goals in mind.
Ready to take your content marketing to the next level? Check out MarketingProfs University’s Content Marketing Crash Course running now through November 18, an 11-class course designed to make you a better content marketer in just two weeks.
Tags: Blogging, Content, Marketing, Strategy and Tactics
And I have to say, there is nothing I hate more than trying to determine if I want a product, but not be able to see it inside and out, and how it works. I want information giving me full details on the product and images, video, or 360 tours that give me a complete picture of it.
Matt, I completed the Content Marketing Course and have recommended it to others. I’m working to apply all that I learned and it’s definitely a journey!.
The course has influenced my perspective and given me a much stronger understanding of the ecosystem that drives inbound marketing.
The exposure to so many experts in the field is one of the best aspects of the course. Learning from successful practitioners is not only a practical approach, it is an inspiring one too.
Thanks for the great feedback, Suzanne. Glad you liked the course and that it’s helped shaped you view on inbound marketing!
The great thing about content marketing is that there’s always more to learn; someone’s always doing something new and unique and it offers you a great opportunity to cherry pick the best of the best and adapt those techniques to your needs.