Happy New Year, Content Marketers! A new year marks a new set of resolutions– mainly getting fit… content marketing fit. The Marketeer Team spent 2012 learning and establishing content marketing best practices, refining our operation of the content marketing machine, generating content across a more expansive set of content types, measuring the performance of content beyond just page views, and sharing content marketing wisdom from leaders in the space. It was a pretty good year!
Here is a reflection of some of TCM’s 2012 Trainers whose advice will help guide our 2013 content marketing fitness regime:
Cisco’s Heather Meza
“This work happens at all kinds of different levels. It’s not an easy, fast process. Implementing a new strategy is like saying, ‘We’re going to be vegan. We are adopting this lifestyle and these principles.’ Help your team understand the ‘why’ so they fully embrace it and don’t miss key points. It becomes very easy to get out of touch, so everyone needs to understand at the philosophical level—until it’s in their bones.”
Lattice Engines’ Amanda Maksymiw (formerly of OpenView Venture Partners)
“My biggest piece of advice is to not jump on any bandwagons. There are a lot of trends and new technologies popping up out there. Every day. Before you dive in completely, it makes sense to do some research and testing to see if the new tool, network, tactic, etc. makes sense to help your brand achieve its goals. As an example, your target audience may not care aboutinfographics or Pinterest, so you wouldn’t want to allocate a lot of resources to them. But, smart marketers should always be willing to experiment. Otherwise you may miss out on an opportunity!”
UCB Pharma’s Trish Nettleship (formerly of AT&T)
On coaching experts to become writers: “We didn’t help them create a voice; we coached them to express that voice…Writing gets better with time. Your first blog post, for example, will not be the most successful post. However, with time and encouragement from your mentors, friends, fellow writers, and support team, you will improve. I’ve seen many non-writers become my top bloggers with the right dose of enthusiasm and persistence.”
Campbell Ewald’s Chris Moritz
“Attention is a gift and must be treated accordingly. Producing content because you want my business is not a good enough reason. There’s not enough time in the day for what I’m personally into…I’ve enjoyed a great deal of success in delivering concepts in graphic form. Delivering an idea verbally is one thing: It’s easy enough to impress someone in a stand-up presentation; much more meaningful to provide a simple, clear visualization that the audience can use to re-create that presentation moment days and weeks later.”
SAS’s Alison Bolen
“Take the time to come up with a promotion and distribution plan for each piece of your content.”
Eloqua’s Jesse Noyes
“Think bigger than the next sales cycle. I always say that our content, at least at the ‘top of the funnel,’ should deliver value to the readers, viewers, and listeners, whether they ever become a customer or not. It’s about building a reputation today that will help you prosper many quarters from now. Besides having sound ethical principles, content is your best means to establishing this reputation. To do this, think beyond standard marketing hires and consider bringing in people who know how to deliver value to an audience and are not purely focused on promoting products. They know how to talk to people, not just ‘buyers.'”
Monetate’s Rob Yoegel
“Don’t think that just hiring an unemployed journalist to create content is a content marketing program. There are so many other variables, including buy-in throughout the company and a sound knowledge of search, social, analytics, and the specific market/industry you are trying to serve.”