Content is where the wheels fall off the wagon. An organization is excited about the opportunities afforded by inbound marketing...leads, leads, leads. Yes, there are leads, but only with content. So, where does the content come from? Some marketers choose to farm it out. They hire an agency or freelancers to generate the content required to fuel the inbound marketing machine. Others choose to take it on themselves. And many of them fail. Why? Because it's freakin' hard, that's why. Generally most marketing managers are pretty busy as it is. Add 2-5 blog posts a week, several case studies, 2-3 white papers and quarterly webinars to the mix and you have a recipe for failure.
Here's the fix -- get buy-in from the very top.
You're gonna need money. You don't have the time to do it, so you'll need money to farm it out or money to hire staff to manage/create the content for you. Without senior-level support it all fails.
Next: plan, plan, plan.
OK, you received a content budget. Now it's time to plan how to use it. Planning is key to success. When planning, you need to evaluate audiences, topics, media (social networks) and timing. By reviewing all these areas, you can focus your efforts and reduce waste. Ultimately, your planning should result in an editorial calendar allowing your new staffers or 3rd party content providers to work productively.
Lastly, evaluate and adapt.
It's great that you're working from a plan. Nicely done. But don't forget to evaluate how things are going and adapt if need be. Website analytics and lead counts are wonderful tools to evaluate content types and popularity. Just because it's on paper, doesn't mean it's set in stone. If something isn't working, fix it or abandon it.
What do you think?
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